Visiting the Brown-Forman Cooperage

Recently I had the great privilege to visit the Brown-Forman Cooperage in Louisville, Kentucky. If you are a Whiskey fan, like me, this is a trip worth making. Luckily, the cooperage has recently been opened for public tours. The tours are very limited as this is a working cooperage after all. The tours can be booked exclusively through Mint Julep Tours (see link below) so please don’t contact Brown-Forman directly.

The Brown-Forman Cooperage was founded in 1945 as the Bluegrass Cooperage. They are one of just two major coopers creating white oak barrels for the Spirits industry. American white oak is a great tight-grained wood that is ideal for making Spirits barrel and the wood prescribed by law for the maturation of the American Spirit, Bourbon. Brown-Forman boasts being the only Spirits Company that makes its own new barrels.

The sights and smells of cut and charred oak are incredible to witness. The visitor is struck by the great paradox of the size and technology at play along side the great skill of the human artisans. Barrel making has not greatly changed since being introduced by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago. Modern tools and machinery allow the Brown-Forman Cooperage to create about 2,200 barrels per day or roughly half a million barrels per year.

It is also interesting to consider that most of these barrels will have at least two lives. Primarily these barrels are destined to hold and age either Jack Daniels or one of Brown-Forman’s Bourbons. Once the spirit has been retrieved from the barrel it cannot be used for either Tennessee Whiskey or Bourbon Whiskey. Brown-Forman will use some of these barrels again for their other Whiskies and some will be sent to Mexico to Casa Herradura, their Tequila brand. Still other barrels will be sold to Scotch Whisky distillers.

Here is a really fun clip of barrels being charred.

A Side Note:
Another purpose of my recent visit was to join in the launch of Brown-Forman’s Early Times 354. This old traditional brand has been absent from the market since 1983. Look for the BevX review coming soon.

Mint Julep Tours