Corn, barley, rye, yeast and fresh spring water. Those are the ingredients in every bottle of Jack Daniels Whiskey. That’s it. Five ingredients. Of course, there are other ingredients in the flavored whiskey like the Tennessee Apple and Honey.
Furthermore, you can buy your very own barrel of whiskey at the Jack Daniels Distillery, which equals about 250 bottles, but you’ll need about $10,000-$15,000 to buy that American white oak barrel of liquid gold.
I was intrigued by these details and the stories behind the label during a recent visit to the tourist attraction that draws about 300,000 people each year.
What’s even more fascinating is seeing how Jack Daniels makes its whiskey in the small Tennessee town of Lynchburg. I recently visited the tourist attraction and toured the 2,500-acre facility where you can see and smell first-hand how whiskey is concocted. You can also taste it straight from the barrel or bottle if you sign up for a tasting tour. Although Jack Daniels is located in a dry county, tasting and purchasing are allowed only at the distillery.
The logistics of how the whiskey is made is incredibly interesting. Each warehouse holds 20,00 barrels with each hand rolled into the buildings. Each barrel will make about 250 bottles of whiskey. There are 92 warehouses. You do the math. Although Jack Daniels ships whiskey all over the world, the only place it is manufactured is in Lynchburg.
Each barrel is handmade from American White Oak and workers build more than 3,000 barrels a day. After the whiskey is bottled, Jack Daniels sells the used barrels all across the world for other uses. The barrels are shipped to Ireland for Irish Whiskey, Jamaica for rum, Mexico for tequila and other countries for winemaking. They also make furniture from chairs and benches to tables and liquor cabinets.
They use hard sugar maple wood to make the charcoal that processes the whiskey as one of the final steps. Every drop of whiskey makes its way thru the charcoal in large vats. They also use their own whiskey to start the fires to char the inside of the oak barrels.
Remember at the beginning of this blog I mentioned one of the five ingredients is fresh spring water? Well, they have their own natural spring at the distillery. They pull the water from a cave that remains about 56 degrees year-round. After a short walk in the heat during the tour, the cave and spring were welcome respites to cool down.
After seeing the spring, we went inside Jack Daniels’ home and office. It’s a small, quaint wooden building that proved deadly for Daniels. Our tour guide was amazing and provided the history behind Daniels’ death. The story goes that the whiskey entrepreneur got so angry that he couldn’t open his safe that one day he kicked it and broke his toe. Medical care being what is was in those pioneer days sure didn’t help. The doctors didn’t know what to do for a broken toe, so they amputated it. Then infection set in and he had to have his foot removed. Years later his leg was amputated and he died from ongoing infection. Imagine that—kicking a safe took his life. Since he didn’t have children, he left the distillery to his nephew Lem Motlow. There is so much fascinating history at Jack Daniels and we had a fabulous tour guide.
After we saw the office, we went behind the scenes to see the enormous vats where the mash is made. Once we stepped inside the building with vats the smell was overwhelmingly strong and sweet. We saw the liquid being sifted thru charcoal which was the final processing. We were allowed to open a vat and smell the final product. Wow! It took my breath away. Between the heat of the equipment and building at 100 degrees or more, and the smell of 140 proof whisky visitors are in for quite the sensory experience. Photos are not allowed in these buildings. Most tours end here, but if you signed up for one of the tasting tours there are treats awaiting at the next building.
Since our group signed up for the bottle tasting tour, we were off to the tasting room for our final stop. I noticed that our group picked up their pace as we headed for our samples. Hmmm. We sampled six different flavors. If you sign up for the Angel Tour you get to sample straight out of the barrel. Anyway, we sampled Jack Daniels old No. 7, Gentleman Jack, Rye, Tennessee Honey, Tennessee Fire and Tennessee Apple. My favorites were the Rye and Honey. Both tasted sweet. Our tasting was from the bottles, but If you sign up for the Angel Tour you get to sample straight out of the barrels. Maybe I’ll sign up for that tour next time.
Even if you’re not a fan of whiskey, it’s still an interesting place to visit and Lynchburg has small town charm that anyone visiting will surely enjoy. You can get pricing, discounts and book tours on the the Jack Daniels website.
Everyday Edith 
Great story!
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