For Labor Day weekend, Tim and I drove down to Huntsville, Alabama to visit our friends Dani, Mike and their daughter Kyleigh. On the way there Friday night, Tim saw the sign for the Jack Daniels distillery and insisted we stop on our way home. So, we left Monday morning and headed straight to the distillery, which I must say was pretty darn neat.
Mike and Tim leaning on the charcoal tanks.
These are the oak barrels they char and then put the whiskey in to soak up the oak flavor. The whiskey actually gets it's color from the oak and char in the barrels.
A really neat display of single barrel Jack Daniels. You can actually purchase a whole barrel of single barrel whiskey from the distillery for a small fortune, but you get 420 bottles of the whiskey all from the same barrel, in addition, you get to keep the barrel.
Mikey in heaven...also known as being next to all the barrels loaded full of Jack Daniels.
Tim and I in front of the distillery.
This is the cave where the spring water that is used in Jack Daniels comes from. Apparently they only use water out of this spring because it is the best quality for the whiskey. Interesting fact to know is that the county where the distillery is located happens to be a dry county, however, they have managed to make it legal to make whiskey, you just can't buy it there.
Tim and I with the statue of Jack Daniels. He was only 5'2"...the same height as me.
Fermentation tanks.
The mash inside of the fermentation tanks. I really wanted to stick my hand in there to feel what it felt like, but I controlled myself.
This is the charcoal tanks. After fermentation, all the whiskey goes through the charcoal. Each time the whiskey runs through this, it is called mellowing. For those of you Jack Daniels fans, Gentleman Jack differs from the old No. 7 in that it is double mellowed.
