I just wanted to pass along some information that might shed some light on whether or not Jack Daniels technically qualifies as Bourbon. It does not! Jack Daniels IS NOT AND NEVER HAS BEEN Bourbon! Jack Daniels is Tennessee Sour Mash. There are a lot of similarities between the two, but they are not the same.
Back when Lem Motlow was the proprietor (the first proprietor, as a matter of fact) of the Jack Daniels Distillery, the only way a whiskey could legally be called Bourbon was if it was Distilled in Bourbon County Kentucky (supposedly because of the pristine conditions of the water source being used). Later on, the law was amended so that being distilled in Bourbon County was no longer a requirement. The reasoning behind this change was the water source(s) that ran through Bourbon County also ran through neighboring counties, and so the whiskey being distilled in other counties of Kentucky was the same quality as that being distilled in Bourbon County. That being said, the law was changed so that as long as the whiskey was distilled ANYWHERE in Kentucky, it could legally be called Bourbon and taxed accordingly. The people who operated distilleries in Tennessee did not want to pay Higher taxes just to call their product Bourbon, so that is why Jack Daniels ( and other whiskies distilled in Tennessee were referred to as Tennessee Sour Mash and not bourbon. My Grandfather was a one-time business associate of Lem Motlow, and that is how he explained to me when I was a very young boy.

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I just wanted to pass along some information that might shed some light on whether or not Jack Daniels technically qualifies as Bourbon. It does not! Jack Daniels IS NOT AND NEVER HAS BEEN Bourbon! Jack Daniels is Tennessee Sour Mash. There are a lot of similarities between the two, but they are not the same.
Back when Lem Motlow was the proprietor (the first proprietor, as a matter of fact) of the Jack Daniels Distillery, the only way a whiskey could legally be called Bourbon was if it was Distilled in Bourbon County Kentucky (supposedly because of the pristine conditions of the water source being used). Later on, the law was amended so that being distilled in Bourbon County was no longer a requirement. The reasoning behind this change was the water source(s) that ran through Bourbon County also ran through neighboring counties, and so the whiskey being distilled in other counties of Kentucky was the same quality as that being distilled in Bourbon County. That being said, the law was changed so that as long as the whiskey was distilled ANYWHERE in Kentucky, it could legally be called Bourbon and taxed accordingly. The people who operated distilleries in Tennessee did not want to pay Higher taxes just to call their product Bourbon, so that is why Jack Daniels ( and other whiskies distilled in Tennessee were referred to as Tennessee Sour Mash and not bourbon. My Grandfather was a one-time business associate of Lem Motlow, and that is how he explained to me when I was a very young boy.

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I'm glad I'm not the only person that gets pissed off when people call Jack Daniels a bourbon.

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Except that a liquor that's being considered in this thread for "Most American Liquor" is owner by the Japs.

I'd say that changes things.

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Then you'd better be really careful about any American alcohol you buy this weekend. Because LOTS of them are owned by foreign parent companies.

All of the Jim Beam and Makers Mark products, along with all the Knob Creeks, Bakers, Bookers, Basil Haydens, Old Crow, Old Grand Dad, Kessler, and Old Overholt are owned by Suntory.

All of the Bulleit and George Dickel labels are owned by London-Based Diageo.

All of the Four Roses labels are owned by Kirin, another Japanese distilling company.

All labels produced by Wild Turkey, including the Russels Reserve line, Rare Breed, Kentucky Spirit, and American Honey, are owned by Campari, an Italian company.

So basically the only all-american bourbon distilleries in Kentucky are Woodford Reserve (owned by parent company Brown Foreman of Louisville, KY), Buffalo Trace (owned by Sazerac Co. in Metarie, Louisiana), and Heaven Hill which is the only major bourbon producer that doesn't answer to a parent company.

As for american beers, all Miller Products are owned by London-based SABMiller. All Anheuser-Busch products are owned by Anheuser-Busch-Inbev, which is headquartered in both Belgium and Brazil. And all Coors products are owned by Molson-Coors, which is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec.

It's an international economy man. At some point you have to accept that companies get bought and sold all over the world. That doesn't mean the products aren't still made in America, by Americans, for an American market.

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That's what happens when your tax code punishes businesses for being here.

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That's what happens when your tax code punishes businesses for being here.

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Exactly. Tax inversions are all the rage these days. And for good reason.

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I just wanted to pass along some information that might shed some light on whether or not Jack Daniels technically qualifies as Bourbon. It does not! Jack Daniels IS NOT AND NEVER HAS BEEN Bourbon! Jack Daniels is Tennessee Sour Mash. There are a lot of similarities between the two, but they are not the same.
Back when Lem Motlow was the proprietor (the first proprietor, as a matter of fact) of the Jack Daniels Distillery, the only way a whiskey could legally be called Bourbon was if it was Distilled in Bourbon County Kentucky (supposedly because of the pristine conditions of the water source being used). Later on, the law was amended so that being distilled in Bourbon County was no longer a requirement. The reasoning behind this change was the water source(s) that ran through Bourbon County also ran through neighboring counties, and so the whiskey being distilled in other counties of Kentucky was the same quality as that being distilled in Bourbon County. That being said, the law was changed so that as long as the whiskey was distilled ANYWHERE in Kentucky, it could legally be called Bourbon and taxed accordingly. The people who operated distilleries in Tennessee did not want to pay Higher taxes just to call their product Bourbon, so that is why Jack Daniels ( and other whiskies distilled in Tennessee were referred to as Tennessee Sour Mash and not bourbon. My Grandfather was a one-time business associate of Lem Motlow, and that is how he explained to me when I was a very young boy.

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You're right that Jack Daniels is marketed as a Tennessee Sour Mash rather than a bourbon. And that Brown Foreman wants to market Jack Daniels as Tennessee Sour Mash rather than bourbon. But you are a bit off target with a couple other points.

First, there were never any laws about bourbon being made in bourbon county Kentucky. Second, bourbon does not have to be made in Kentucky, anywhere in the US is fair game for bourbon production. Third, as for the whiskey being made in Bourbon County Kentucky, when the the spirit was in infancy as early as the late 1780's, there were only 3 counties in what we would call present day Kentucky as illustrated below:


As you can see, there is no Bourbon County in Kentucky, which at that time was still part of Virginia. The first distilleries to set up shop are in region labeled here as Jefferson County, VA, which is the area in which the naturally chilled, limestone filtered water flows easily enough to allow for the profitable production of whiskey. And the region where more than 90% of the world's bourbon is still produced to this day.

A bourbon county does not appear until 1792, when Kentucky spun off from Virginia as its own state:


As you can see, Bourbon county is far to the east of the prime whiskey producing locations, which are in Jefferson, Mercer, Nelson and far western Woodford Counties. The area known as Bourbon County does not have the access to limestone filtered waters, nor to the vital shipping lanes of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, which run along the northern and western borders of the new state. What remains of Bourbon County today is a small county directly to the northeast of Fayette County, away from the bourbon trail, and with absolutely no whiskey production to this day (aside from some particularly talented small time moonshiners, but that's another story). Current bourbon distilleries map:



Rather the name "Bourbon Whiskey" actually comes from Bourbon Street in New Orleans. At the time there was, of course, a large French population in New Orleans, which was connected by the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to the port city of Louisville. The whiskey producers in Kentucky figured that aging their whiskey in charred oak barrels would yield a similar product to the aged brandies and cognacs that the French people in New Orleans craved, at a far cheaper price than the real thing could be shipped from France. So they began aging their corn whiskey in charred oak barrels before shipping it downriver to New Orleans.

The whiskey became popular as "that whiskey you get on Bourbon Street", which ultimately got shortened to simply "bourbon whiskey".

As for whether Jack Daniels is bourbon, it meets all the criteria except maybe one, that one being the prohibition of flavor additives. The question of whether or not sugar maple filtration prior to oak aging is a sufficient enough flavor additive to disqualify Jack Daniels from being labeled as bourbon is unanswered to this day. Primarily because the makers of Jack Daniels don't want their product to be labeled or marketed as bourbon, and therefor have never bothered to try to have that question answered. It will be interesting to watch what happens if Brown Foreman ever tries to market Jack as bourbon. Especially now with bourbon like Angels Envy on the market, which is finished aging in port wine casks, and still considered to be bourbon.

A little Kentucky, and bourbon history for y'all, courtesy of my insomnia.

Go get 'em Zep.