The Birth of a Jack Daniels Barrel

Jack Daniel’s whiskey is filtered through sugar maple charcoal and aged in a barrel made at the Brown-Forman Cooperage in Louisville, Kentucky for four years before it ends up in a bottle and in your drinks. In an age of large-scale mechanized factory food, it is refreshing to see the guys at Brown-Forman building barrels by hand, knocking hoops onto barrel staves with their hammers. They do, however, leave the charring of the barrels via a huge blast of flame to the machines. Wise move. Also cool, after being used to age Jack Daniel’s whiskey some of the barrels are sold McIlhenny Company of Avery Island, Louisiana, for production of Tabasco sauce.