Jack Daniels Business History
Old No. 7
Nestled in a quiet mountain glen just outside of Lynchburg Tennessee you’ll find the Jack Daniel’s distillery. Started in 1866 by a man named Jasper Newton Daniel, he started distilling a sour mash whiskey now known as Jack Daniel’s. “Using spring water free of iron traces, he added the finest white corn, the best rye, and barley malt, both fresh and ripe yeast to make a "sour" mash, different from most bourbons.”(sippin’ whiskey)
He let it ferment 24 hours longer than ordinary bourbons, then leached it through vats of sugar-maple charcoal to purify it, and finally aged it four to six years in new, charred white oak barrels. This process helps give Jack Daniels its unique smoky taste combined with a smooth richness that makes it, to such famed connoisseurs as Lucius Beebe, Novelist William Faulkner and onetime Vice President John Nance Garner, “the best sippin ' whisky of all.”(sippin’ whiskey)
One morning in 1911, Jasper Newton Daniel showed up to work early. He tried to open the safe in his office but had forgotten the combination. Out of frustration he gave the safe a good solid kick. The blow broke his toe and would lead to a blood infection which took his life a couple of weeks later. Jasper never married and had no children but had grown very close to his nephew Lem Motlow, whom he deeded the distillery to. One of Lem’s accomplishments was getting the company incorporated before his death in 1947. Jack Daniels Distillery has overcome several obstacles over the years. In the early 1900’s it was forced to shut down its distillery in Lynchburg and move to St. Louis due to the county becoming dry. Then when prohibition came, Jack Daniels was forced out of business for over 20 years. Five years after prohibition was lifted Lem Motlow reopened the doors in Lynchburg after lobbying to pass a bill to allow the beverage to be produced in the dry county.
Jack Daniels had never tried to crash “mass” markets, and never sold more than 300,000 cases a
Nestled in a quiet mountain glen just outside of Lynchburg Tennessee you’ll find the Jack Daniel’s distillery. Started in 1866 by a man named Jasper Newton Daniel, he started distilling a sour mash whiskey now known as Jack Daniel’s. “Using spring water free of iron traces, he added the finest white corn, the best rye, and barley malt, both fresh and ripe yeast to make a "sour" mash, different from most bourbons.”(sippin’ whiskey)
He let it ferment 24 hours longer than ordinary bourbons, then leached it through vats of sugar-maple charcoal to purify it, and finally aged it four to six years in new, charred white oak barrels. This process helps give Jack Daniels its unique smoky taste combined with a smooth richness that makes it, to such famed connoisseurs as Lucius Beebe, Novelist William Faulkner and onetime Vice President John Nance Garner, “the best sippin ' whisky of all.”(sippin’ whiskey)
One morning in 1911, Jasper Newton Daniel showed up to work early. He tried to open the safe in his office but had forgotten the combination. Out of frustration he gave the safe a good solid kick. The blow broke his toe and would lead to a blood infection which took his life a couple of weeks later. Jasper never married and had no children but had grown very close to his nephew Lem Motlow, whom he deeded the distillery to. One of Lem’s accomplishments was getting the company incorporated before his death in 1947. Jack Daniels Distillery has overcome several obstacles over the years. In the early 1900’s it was forced to shut down its distillery in Lynchburg and move to St. Louis due to the county becoming dry. Then when prohibition came, Jack Daniels was forced out of business for over 20 years. Five years after prohibition was lifted Lem Motlow reopened the doors in Lynchburg after lobbying to pass a bill to allow the beverage to be produced in the dry county.
Jack Daniels had never tried to crash “mass” markets, and never sold more than 300,000 cases a
Cited: “A sippin’ whiskey” 1956 Time Magazine Sept. 10, 1956 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808612-1,00.html Brown-Forman website April 15, 2008 www.brown-forman.com “Jack Daniels” April 15, 2008 Wikipedia online encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Daniel%27s “BF-A technical analysis” April 15, 2008 Yahoo Finance http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ta?s=BF-A Jack Daniels website April 15, 2008 http://www.jackdaniels.com/ “form 10k” April 30, 2007 Security Exchange Commission Edgar Filings