Day 03 - Jack Daniels Distillery Day, Huntsville, AL

We woke at 6:30am Monday to have enough time to eat breakfast, suit up and get the bike uncovered to leave around 8am. Our distillery tour reservation was at 10am. 

 

They required a 9:30am check in, so we had plenty of buffer time on the hour ride back up to Tennessee. The hour drive along US431, US64, and CR50 was quiet with hardly any traffic. 

Rob noticed the aroma just a mile or so from seeing the first rick houses where the barrels are stored.

Michele predicted that on a Monday morning in late March we'd be the only people on the tour. Rob said no way, there would definitely be other people. Rob was correct! The distillery grounds were really well kept and scenic, and dedicated motorcycle parking was right in front. We shed our bike gear for sensible walking shoes. Inside the visitor center, we checked in and the lady said we could catch the 9:30am tour since we were early, so we didn't have to wait at all. Our tour guide, Brandi, loaded our group of 11 onto a little shuttle to drive us over to the distillery operations section. In our group were people from Nebraska, Michigan, and Florida. On the bus she told us a little about Jack. He did not get along with his stepmother so he left home at six years old! He worked in the distilling business from that age onward, ultimately creating his own distillery. She also told us right away that the property is in the only dry county in the state! They have special permission to operate the distillery and sell alcohol, thanks to a later owner that got elected into local legislature to make that happen.

Off the bus Brandi discovered a spy in our midst. We laughed that the turkey was at the wrong distillery. 

We learned about the charcoal operation. Tennessee whisky is different from bourbon in that it gets processed through ten feet of charcoal. They make their own charcoal on site, burning slats of sugar maple wood bought from furniture makers. Two men are in charge of that and have been for the past 20 years. They basically set the wood on fire, then put it out with the right amount of water at the right time to get the charcoal. 

Next we visited the spring where the water is sourced. Brandi said it goes back a mile into the cave. The location in front of the cave used to be the exact site of the early days distillery. 

Jack was just 5 feet 2 inches tall even though his statue is 5 feet 10 inches tall. 

She took us into several buildings out of order from the operation: the original office, distilling, then the fermentation tanks that were bubbling from evaporating off the CO2 from the yeast. We were not allowed to take photos here due to "cameras and phones could cause a spark from the vapors." We didn't fall for that excuse but got a good chuckle from it.

We saw the bottling plant where a bunch of workers were bottling up the huge 3 liter bottles that are illegal to sell in the US. They ship them overseas. Brandi also told us early on that the distillery has 650 employees, and her sons and 20 cousins work there! Each lucky employee receives one bottle the first Friday of every month (called Good Friday). Nice employee perk!

After bottling she took us over to a rick house. It smelled really good in there from the barrels and whisky. We went into the tasting room and had six samples in front of us: Gentleman Jack, Old No. 7, Rye, Tennessee Honey, Tennessee Fire, and Tennessee Apple. She told us about them one by one and we got our tiny sips of each. Once done, the tour ended. One lady looked at Michele and said, "I'd like to just stay here and keep sampling!"

Rob said upon seeing this wall of bottles, that if you can make a wall out of this many bottles, you have a little drinking problem.

By then it was 11am so we walked into the town of Lynchburg, which is really tiny, just a block or so around a town square. Michele wanted to go to Barrel House BBQ that she read about in Yelp or somewhere. She made a new friend. 

It is wild inside decor-wise. The walls are covered floor to ceiling with people's names handwritten on every inch, so we added ours to booth #1. We shared the grilled cheese and smoked pork (called Grilled Cheese on Crack) that Michele read about in a review, potato salad and sweet potato casserole. Holy moly it was so amazing. We then walked around town a bit and popped into a few of the shops. If we had not been so full we might have tried the whisky ice cream or whisky fudge. We went back to the bike and suited up to head out. A nice couple in their car stopped to ask where we are from and ask if we paid $30k for the bike (no!). He said he is 89 and "a bit too young to ride motorcycles" but was super nice and wished us a safe drive. 

On our way back we stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few items. The Publix on highway 431is really nice, according to Michele. A man asked Rob in the parking lot about the trailer since he was considering getting one for his bike. After that, we fueled up and headed back to our house. 

We met our house owners before dinner. They have two standard poodles, Yogi and Lucy. Lucy was very taken by Michele and put its paws up on her shoulders! For dinner we walked into town and ate at Melt, different from the burger place by our house at home of the same name. The food was really good and service was quick. On the way back we admired this clever wall painting.

Tomorrow is a day of scenic riding.