Jack Daniel’s

Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey 

Parent Company: Brown-Forman Co, Lousiville, Kentucky

Distillery Location: Lynchburg, Tennessee (about 75 miles (120 km) south of Nashville)

Established: 1866

Master Distiller: Chris Fletcher

Fun Fact: The Jack Daniel’s Volunteer Fire Brigade employees 34 full-time state-certified firefighters to help mitigate the risk of fire. The distillery is also the largest holder of fire suppression foam east of the Mississippi River.

In 1941, the internal revenue service issued a ruling that officially recognized Tennessee whiskey as distinct from Bourbon.

History

Jasper Newton "Jack" Daniels was born in 1850, as the youngest of 13 children. In 1864, Jack left his home and was taken in by Rev. Dan Call, where he learns the art of making whiskey from Rev. Call and a slave named Nathan "Nearest" Green. Jack would later hire Nearest and place him in charge of the distilling process. In 1866, Jack registered Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg, TN, eventually moving the distillery up the road to the present-day site to be next to the Cave Spring Hollow. In 1904, Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey won the gold medal at the St. Louis World's fair for best whiskey. In 1906, Jack kicked his safe out of frustration and broke his toe, an injury that would eventually cost him his life in 1911. Without a wife or children, he left this land and distillery to his nephew, Lem Motlow. Lem handled the business, and his younger brother Jess dealt with the whiskey, becoming the distillery's first Master Distiller. During prohibition, the distillery legally couldn't sell whiskey, and it would be several years until Jess began producing quality whiskey since supplies were in short supply. 

The distillery finally reopened in 1938, and Jack's grand-nephew Lem Tolly took over the distillery in 1941 and commissioned the statue of Jack outside the Cave Spring Hollow. Jess Gamble took over the distillery in 1964, becoming the distillery's first Master Distiller from outside the Jack family. The next Master Distiller was Frank Bob in 1966, and he solidified the brand's relationship with the music industry and grew the brand to international recognition. Jimmy Bedford came next and introduced the distillery's first line extension, Gentleman Jack,® in 1988. The first bottle of Jack Daniel's Single Barrel® was drawn in 1997, hand-selected by Jimmy himself. Jeff Arnett became the Master Distiller in 2008, and since then, he has contributed the most significant expansion to the family of brands in over 150 years.  

Master Distillers

• Jack Daniels (1866 - 1911)

• Jess Mollow (1911 - 1941)

• Lem Tolley (1941 - 1964)

• Jess Gamble (1964 - 1966)

• Frank Bobo (1966 - 1988)

• Jimmy Bedford (1988 - 2008)

• Jeff Arnett (2008 to 2020)

• Chris Fletcher (2020 - Present)

Grain Recipe

80% Corn, 8% Rye, and 12% Malted Barley

Water

Jack Daniel’s distillery draws all their water from the Cave Spring Hollow, which is a natural water resource located right next to the distillery. The spring brings 800 gallons of water a minute from two miles below the Earth’s surface, which naturally keeps a constant 56-degree Fahrenheit. The layers of limestone found in the cave deliver a variety of minerals to the water, which helps add to the character of the whiskey, but most importantly, the limestone removes all iron from the water.

Yeast & Fermentation

The distillery uses a proprietary yeast strain, which can officially be traced back to 1938, and is maintained by a full-time Microbiologist. The fermentation process lasts between 4-6 days and uses between 0-30% sour mash.

Distillation Process

Jack Daniel’s® is 2x distilled in a 100 ft copper column still. The copper is essential because it will react with its environment and flush out sulfur. In total, there are six stills, and they must replace the copper trays inside the column still every 3 to 4 years. They must also replace an entire still every ten years, and each still is custom made by a company in Louisville, Kentucky, costing around $1 million.

Charcoal Mellowing

The new make whiskey is 140 proof and gravity feed through 10ft of charcoal made from sugar maple wood. This process is called “charcoal mellowing,” or The Lincoln County Process. This process gives Jack Daniel’s its legal distinction of Tennessee Whiskey and not merely a bourbon. There are 84 charcoal mellowing vats on-site at the distillery. Each day is 10ft high and 5-6ft wide. The charcoal used is all produced on-site and usually, last about six months before being replaced with fresh charcoal.

Maturation

After charcoal mellowing the whiskey is non-chilled filtered, lowered to 125 proof, and placed into handcrafted new charred white oak barrels, each containing 33 separate wood staves. All barrels used for aging Jack Daniel’s® whiskey are produced in Brown Forman’s second cooperage in Decatur, Alabama. The distillery receives about 2,000 barrels a day to keep up with the massive demand for Jack. At the cooperage, approximately 100 hands will touch each barrel, before it is filled with a single drop of whiskey. At the cooperage, the Jack barrels used a patented toasting and charring process. In the rack houses, the aging process usually takes between 4-8 years, although no age statement is assigned to Jack Daniel’s.® During the first year of maturation, around 11-12% is lost due to evaporation or the “Angel’s Share.” After the first year, then roughly 4-5% is lost. Finally, the Master Distiller will taste the whiskey to determine when a barrel has sufficiently aged. For Jack Daniel’s® Old No. 7, around 175-200 barrels of whiskey are mingled together to create the consistent flavor profile bottle after bottle. Jack Daniel’s is never blended, like a Canadian whiskey, but rather mix, married, or mingled together. Each barrel ages differently depending on its location in the rack house. Jack Daniel’s® has around 2 million barrels of whiskey aging in 90 rack house on 3,000 acres in Lynchburg.

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