Lynchburg, TN

Our friends, Vern and Julie, recommended Lynchburg, TN, but warned us about the dry county law. If you don't know already, the ironic part is that Lynchburg is home to the Jack Daniel's distillery. The law does however allow the distillery to sell small, commemorative bottles of whiskey to tourists (as long as it's not Sunday). As our tour guide told us, "All we can do here is breathe deeply." And breathe deeply we did.

In 2008, Jeff Arnett became the seventh Master Distiller of Jack Daniel's.
Jack Daniel himself of course being the first (photo above).

By the way, our tour guide was hysterical! If you are ever near Lynchburg, we highly recommend taking the FREE tour. You won't regret it!

So how is Jack Daniel's whiskey made?

Well it all starts with mixing corn, rye, and barley malt. Then water from the natural Cave Spring that runs through the distillery is added to the mixture to create "mash."


The mash then ferments and is distilled in copper stills. At this point the whiskey is perfectly clear and is 140 proof.

This next step is what separates a whiskey from a bourbon. The mixture is filtered through 10 feet of sugar maple charcoal, which takes about 12 days and brings the alcohol content down to 110 proof.


The next step is aging. Determined to maintain the highest possible quality, they make their own wooden barrels from American White Oak. The insides of the barrels are burned in order to carmelize the natural sugars in the wood. The whiskey then ages in a barrel in one of the 75 wood and tin barrel houses. As the seasons pass, the oak barrel pores open (in summer) and close (in winter), drawing the whiskey in and out of the wood. It's this process that gives Jack Daniel's whiskey that distinctive dark amber color.



If you have the cash, you can buy your very own barrel of whiskey (which is actually hand-bottled for you). The price tag: $9,000 to $12,000. Each barrel yields about 240 bottles. Each decanter is labeled with the barrel number, the "Rick" from its location in the barrelhouse, and the date it was bottled. A medallion is placed around the neck of the bottle stating it was selected and bottled just for you. Oh yeah - you get the barrel, too.


One question we did have during the tour concerned the origin of the "proof" system of alcohol. Unfortunately our tour guide didn't know, so afterwards we looked it up. During the 18th century, a common form of payment for British sailors was rum. To insure that the rum was not watered down, it would be doused with gunpowder and if it ignited then it was "proofed." It was later found that 100 proof alcohol was about 57.15% alcohol by volume.