Time With Reverend Jack
Here we go to the 16th Annual Jack Daniel's Invitational BBQ in Lynchburg, TN. This is one of the 20 top events in the Southeast with thousands attending. Most that we talked to had heard about it on the Food Network. 63 teams are competing for the championship and several are international. The people watching at an event like this is outstanding!
First things first, so we get in line for our full slab of ribs. We skipped the slaw, beans, corn, biscuits and focused on the good greasy fingerlickin' pork. We chose this BBQ team because they had the longest line. Then we found out that most people in line did the same thing! We all made a good choice.
We considered dessert but I just couldn't see eating stuff from a washing machine, even though it was a Maytag wringer washer!
We took a walking tour of the Distillery, the oldest registered one in the U.S. Jack Daniel's started brewing when he was 16. Jim got a good whiff of the corn and barley mixture fermenting! After this we went to the Mellowing Room where the clear alcohol is filtered down through 10' of chrushed charcoal. Because the whiskey is charcoal filtered it earns the name of Tennessee Sippin' Whiskey.
It was a pretty good tour, including the wall of JD Single Barrel. Anyone can buy a whole barrel of brew, bottled, and get the 200 plus bottles and the barrel for a mere $9000.
Scattered over 1000 acres of countryside are the Barrel Rooms containing 72 million gallons of Jack Daniel's...that's a lot of sippin'! The whiskey ages for four years in charred oak barrels in buildings that are open to the air. As they heat up the whiskey soaks into the oak barrel to attain that beautiful amber color. Then it cools and the brew is forced back into the barrel. This is the first Barrel room built.
The gray building on the hill is one of the newer Barrel buildings. We're headed down 55 now, back to our home on the road. All in all, a great day!
