100 Fun Facts About Jack Daniel's

Jack Daniel's adverts long quoted Lynchburg's 1960s population as what figure?

The consolidated city-county has since grown past 6,000 people, but the tiny number is too good for the marketing to give up.

Which company has owned Jack Daniel's since 1956?

The Louisville firm also owns Old Forester, Woodford Reserve and Herradura tequila.

What was Jack Daniel's real first name?

Jasper Newton Daniel was the youngest of ten children; his birth date is disputed between 1846, 1849 and 1850.

Who taught the young Jack Daniel to distil, and later became the distillery's first master distiller?

Green was enslaved when he taught Daniel and is the first African-American master distiller on record in the United States.

Dan Call, who took in the teenage Jack Daniel and owned the still he learned on, was also what?

Call eventually quit the whiskey business for religious reasons, leaving Daniel to take over.

The Jack Daniel's label says the distillery was established and registered in which year?

His biographer Peter Krass argues the registration documents show the business actually dates from 1875.

According to Jack Daniel's biographer, where did the "Old No. 7" name come from?

When the federal district was redrawn he became No. 16, but kept the old number because the brand was already known.

In which year did Jack Daniel begin using the square bottle?

The shape was meant to convey fairness and integrity, and it remains the brand's signature.

Jack Daniel's popularity surged after winning a gold medal for the finest whiskey at which 1904 event?

The glow did not last locally, as the temperance movement was gathering strength in Tennessee.

According to the oft-told tale, how did Jack Daniel get the injury that supposedly led to his death?

He could never remember the combination; his modern biographer says the story is not true and he died of unrelated gangrene.

In what year did Jack Daniel die?

He died of blood poisoning in Lynchburg on October 9, having handed the distillery to his nephews four years earlier.

Jack Daniel never married. To whom did he give the distillery in 1907?

Lem Motlow soon bought out the other nephew and ran the business, on and off, for about forty years.

In which year did Tennessee's statewide prohibition stop legal distilling of Jack Daniel's?

That was a full decade before national Prohibition; Motlow challenged it and lost at the Tennessee Supreme Court.

During Tennessee prohibition the company moved distilling to Birmingham, Alabama, and which other city?

None of the whiskey made in either city was ever sold, because of quality problems.

With whiskey banned in Tennessee, what did Lem Motlow sell instead in Lynchburg's mule market?

He also ran for the state legislature specifically to cut the power of the county court that kept him shut.

In which year did the Lynchburg distillery reopen, five years after national Prohibition ended?

State prohibition laws outlived the 21st Amendment; Motlow, by then a state senator, led the repeal effort.

In 1924 Lem Motlow was tried and acquitted for what?

He shot and killed Clarence Pullis on an L&N train while trying to shoot a Black porter who had asked for his ticket; an all-white St. Louis jury acquitted him.

Why did the Jack Daniel's distillery cease operations from 1942 to 1946?

Motlow restarted in 1947 once good-quality corn was available again, and died the same year.

What folksy name does the company give to dripping its whiskey through 10-foot stacks of sugar-maple charcoal?

The step is formally the Lincoln County Process, and the distillery grinds its own charcoal before use.

Jack Daniel's mash bill is 12% rye, 8% malted barley and what percentage corn?

Bourbon only requires 51% corn; the higher share makes for a sweeter spirit before the charcoal takes the corn taste out.

What does the term "sour mash" on the label mean?

It keeps fermentation consistent and is standard practice; all straight bourbon is made this way too.

Where has Jack Daniel's made its own barrels since 2014?

Before that the barrels came from Brown-Forman's cooperage in Louisville; new charred oak gives the whiskey its colour and most of its flavour.

Why is the water from the distillery's cave spring considered ideal for whiskey?

Iron-heavy water gives whiskey a bad taste; the spring flows from a cave at the base of a limestone cliff.

Roughly how many barrels of whiskey are ageing in the Jack Daniel's barrelhouses around Lynchburg?

Some barrelhouses sit on the hilltops and are visible from all over town.

Moore County, home of the distillery, is what kind of county under Tennessee law?

It is legal to distil the whiskey there but illegal to buy it, apart from one commemorative product at a time.

Which proof was Jack Daniel's black label historically bottled at until 1987?

It dropped to 86 and then, in 2002, quietly to 80 proof, prompting a 13,000-signature petition from Modern Drunkard magazine.

How does Gentleman Jack differ from standard Old No. 7?

Both are 80 proof; the second pass through charcoal comes after ageing.

Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey is technically not a whiskey but what?

Tennessee Fire, Tennessee Apple and Tennessee Blackberry follow the same 70-proof formula.

Which famous singer was buried with a bottle of Jack Daniel's in 1998?

The brand later released Sinatra Select at 90 proof and Sinatra Century for his 100th birthday.

In 2016 a magazine renamed the Jack and Coke 'The Lemmy' after which band's frontman?

Lemmy reportedly drank a whole bottle every day for 38 years.

Which country singer wrote a song called "Jack Daniels" and later got his own Single Barrel Select?

The song appeared on his 2011 album Chief.

Which Formula 1 team signed a 2022 partnership deal with Jack Daniel's?

A special Jack Daniel's livery ran at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, and a limited-edition Old No. 7 honoured Jack Daniel and Bruce McLaren.

Jack Daniel's sponsored a Richard Childress Racing NASCAR entry from 2005 to 2009. What number did the car carry?

The number was a nod to Old No. 7; Clint Bowyer drove it for most of the deal.

In the 2023 Supreme Court case Jack Daniel's won, what was the parody product at issue?

The label read "Old No. 2 on your Tennessee carpet"; the Court held the toy used the parody as its own trademark.

What does membership of the Tennessee Squire Association, formed in 1956, give you?

You can only join on the recommendation of an existing Squire, and you become an honorary citizen of Moore County.

Which Tennessee governor signed the 2013 law requiring the Lincoln County Process for Tennessee whiskey?

House Bill 1084 enshrined Jack Daniel's own standards into law, with a carve-out for Benjamin Prichard's, which does not use the process.

Besides Jack Daniel's, which is the other major producer of Tennessee whiskey?

Dickel is made in Cascade Hollow near Tullahoma and is owned by Diageo.

The Lincoln County Process is named for Lincoln County, Tennessee, because of what?

County lines moved; today the only major distillery left in Lincoln County, Benjamin Prichard's, does not use the process at all.

Which Jack Daniel's, triple sec, sour mix and lemon-lime soda cocktail was created in Alabama in 1980?

Tony Mason later sued the distillery for taking his recipe; the court sided with him but awarded no money, and a retrial went the company's way.

How many generations of the first master distiller's descendants have worked at Jack Daniel's?

Two of his sons were hired the year the distillery opened, and three direct descendants still worked there in 2017.

Which earlier Jack Daniel's master distiller was Chris Fletcher's grandfather?

Bobo held the job from 1966 to 1992; Fletcher had been assistant master distiller for six years.

When was the Jack Daniel's Distillery listed on the National Register of Historic Places?

By the 2010s the distillery was drawing more than a quarter of a million visitors a year.

Jack Daniel's grandfather Joseph "Job" Daniel emigrated to America from which country?

His grandmother was Scottish, and a Welshman claimed in 2012 to have found the original recipe in an 1853 family book.

How many nine-litre cases of Jack Daniel's Black Label were sold in 2017?

Add the flavoured lines and ready-to-drink cans and the family of brands topped 16 million cases.

Under NAFTA and Canadian law, Tennessee whiskey like Jack Daniel's had to be what?

That is awkward for a brand whose whole pitch is that the charcoal mellowing makes it something other than bourbon.

By 1947, how many whiskey distilleries were operating in Tennessee?

Tennessee was still a dry state; George Dickel was not licensed until 1958.

In which year did Jack Daniel's introduce its 94-proof Single Barrel expression?

A year earlier a special bicentennial bottling had briefly been the highest proof the distillery had ever released.

Which master distiller stepped down in 2020 and went on to open Company Distilling near the Smokies?

He had held the job since 2008 and fought a 2014 bill that would have allowed reused barrels for Tennessee whiskey.

By how much did Jack Daniel's exports to Canada fall in the second quarter of 2025 during the trade war?

Canadian provinces pulled American spirits from shelves in response to tariffs imposed by Donald Trump.

Which metal band's 1997 live album Official Live: 101 Proof borrows its cover from the Jack Daniel's label?

Mötley Crüe's memoir The Dirt and Mel McDaniel's I'm Countryfied also riff on the famous black label.

Who legally adopted the young Jack Daniel after his father died in the Civil War?

The boy did not get along with his stepmother, and the adoption did not last long: a local farmer and distiller soon took him in instead.

In the 1880s, which Moore County distillery out-produced Jack Daniel's?

Fifteen registered distilleries were running in the county by then, and their leftover corn slop went to feed local hogs and cattle.

In which year did Jack Daniel buy the hollow where the distillery stands today?

The spring in that hollow flows from a cave at the foot of a limestone cliff, which is what made the site worth owning.

What did a two-bottle Jack Daniel's gift pack released in 2008 commemorate?

Tennessee stayed dry for five years after the 21st Amendment, so the 75th and 70th anniversaries happened to fall in the same year.

How many children inherited the distillery when Lem Motlow died in 1947?

Robert, Reagor, Dan, Conner and Mary took over, and the firm was later incorporated as Jack Daniel Distillery, Lem Motlow, Prop., Inc. so his name could stay in the marketing.

Who decides whether a batch is sold as premium black label or standard green label?

Both labels come from identical ingredients; the green label is simply whichever batches the panel judges lighter.

The 100-proof Silver Select Single Barrel is sold only where?

It was once the brand's highest-proof bottling; today's Single Barrel Barrel Proof editions run well past it.

Where did Jack Daniel's rank in the IWSR's 2013 World Class Brands list?

Four years later the same researcher put it 16th on its Real 100 list, while Intangible Business ranked it fourth on its Power 100 in 2014 and 2015.

Jack Daniel's backed Perkins Engineering and Kelly Racing from 2006 to 2015 in which series?

The Australian touring-car deal overlapped with the brand's NASCAR years with Richard Childress Racing.

Which country group's tours does Jack Daniel's sponsor?

Music has long been part of the marketing, from album covers that copy the label to artist-branded single barrels.

Who served as Jack Daniel's master distiller from 1911 to 1941?

He took over the year the founder died and held the job through both state and national Prohibition, when there was nothing to distil.

A 2011 proposal would have surtaxed the distillery how much per barrel?

Backers said the company had cashed in on Lynchburg's bucolic image; the local council voted the tax down 10-5.

The 74-proof Jack Daniel's expression called "1907" is sold in which market?

The name recalls the year an ailing Jack handed over the distillery; at 37% ABV it is weaker than anything sold in the US.

Jack Daniel's Bottled-in-Bond was originally sold only where?

A domestic version later appeared simply as Bonded, joined by Bonded Rye and Triple Mash Bonded, all at 100 proof.

Triple Mash Bonded blends Tennessee whiskey with which two other whiskeys?

Like the rest of the Bonded range it is bottled at 100 proof.

Winter Jack, the seasonal release, is bottled at what proof?

It is a blend of spiced apple cider, far lighter than the 70-proof Honey, Fire and Apple bottlings.

The distillery occupies a small valley known by what name?

It is also called Jack Daniel's Hollow; the spring inside it flows from a cave at the base of a limestone cliff.

The distillery's cave spring ultimately drains into which river's watershed?

The spring feeds East Fork Mulberry Creek first, the same creek that carved the valley Lynchburg sits in.

How much was the distillery expansion announced in February 2016 worth?

The plan included a bigger visitor center and two more barrelhouses for the hillsides around Lynchburg.

Which singer became the first Black woman to partner with the brand, in 2025?

The R&B-turned-country singer's single arrived the same year tariffs sent the brand's Canadian sales tumbling.

A cease-and-desist letter went to Patrick Wensink over the cover of which 2012 book?

The company said the change could wait for the next reprint and offered to compensate the author if he switched covers sooner.

Bottles of Jack Daniel's appear on the cover of which 1974 Charlie Daniels album?

It is one of several sleeves that borrow the brand, a list that also includes the cover of Mötley Crüe's memoir The Dirt.

In which church was Jack Daniel raised?

His mentor Dan Call eventually left the whiskey business for religious reasons.

What is the title of Peter Krass's 2004 biography of Jack Daniel?

Krass used land and deed records to argue the business began nine years later than the date printed on every label.

What share of the mash in Jack Daniel's Tennessee Rye is rye?

Because rye dominates the mash it cannot be labelled Tennessee whiskey; an unaged first release was sold as "Spirits Distilled from Grain".

In which month does the company customarily celebrate Jack Daniel's birthday?

Nobody knows the real date: his tombstone says 1850, the state library says 1846, and his biographer argues for January 1849.

Which firm owned Uncle Nearest and likely hired him out to Dan Call for a fee?

Green stayed on with Call after emancipation, and Call introduced him to the 8-year-old Jack as "the best whiskey maker that I know of".

How many children did Uncle Nearest and his wife Harriet Green have?

Nine of them were sons, and at least three of those, George, Edde and Eli, went on to work at the distillery.

What was Uncle Nearest's given first name?

An 1880 census clerk wrote his nickname down as "Nearis", a misspelling that stuck for more than a century.

Which instrument was Uncle Nearest known for playing?

Descendants say the showman streak passed down to his son Jesse.

Uncle Nearest opened its first distillery in 2019 in which Tennessee town?

The 270-acre ranch is a short drive from Lynchburg; founder Fawn Weaver had come to Tennessee in 2016 to write a book about Green.

Uncle Nearest master blender Victoria Eady Butler is what relation to the brand's namesake?

She spent 31 years at the Justice Department before blending whiskey, and was named Master Blender of the Year in 2021 and 2022.

The community college built on land donated by the Motlow family opened in which year?

Reagor Motlow, Lem's eldest son and a state senator, gave 187 acres in the north of the county; the campus now hosts a distilling school named for Jack's mentor.

Alfred Eaton was long credited with inventing the charcoal-filtering step in which year?

A rival family claims William "Billy" Pearson sold Eaton the recipe that year, and since 2016 some have credited Jack's enslaved mentor instead.

Before being lit, the sugar-maple ricks at the distillery are doused with what?

They burn under hoods to catch sparks and are hosed down once charred so they do not burn to ash.

After the charcoal step, the spirit is cut with water to what proof for barrelling?

It enters the vats at 140 proof, the same strength used to prime the charcoal ricks.

The ground charcoal packed into the filtering vats is about as big as what?

Grinding the charcoal first is a Jack Daniel's quirk; the rival distillery near Tullahoma instead chills its whisky to 40 °F and fills deeper 13-foot vats.

Some producers trace the Tennessee whiskey-bourbon split to a 1941 ruling by which agency?

The ruling was issued at the distillery's own request; federal spirits regulations still contain no definition of Tennessee whiskey.

Until 2009, Tennessee law allowed spirits distilling in only how many of its 95 counties?

Lincoln, Moore and Coffee were the lucky ones; the 2009 change opened 41 more counties to distilleries.

Jack Daniel's marketing boasts that Lynchburg has only one of what?

Settlers first arrived around 1801, and the creek-side mills of early Lynchburg stood where the distillery is now.

Which frontiersman lived in what is now Lynchburg from 1811 to 1813?

Other notable residents have included Little Richard and the football-coaching Majors family.

The distillery's home county honours which early settler and long-time state legislator?

Lincoln County sued to claw back some of the new county's land, shrinking it to today's 130 square miles.

Which is the only Tennessee county smaller in area than Moore?

Moore covers just 130 square miles and, with about 6,500 people, is also the state's third-least-populous county.

Lem Motlow was a noted breeder of which animal?

His horses competed in the breed's National Celebration, and he owned thousands of acres across Moore and Coffee counties.

Who wrote the Supreme Court's unanimous 2023 opinion in the Jack Daniel's dog-toy case?

The ruling came down on June 8, 2023, after oral argument in March.

Which appeals court sided with the dog-toy maker before the Supreme Court reversed it?

An Arizona district judge had first ruled for the distillery and barred sales of the toy.

The parody whiskey-bottle dog toy belonged to which product line?

The range spoofs well-known drinks with dog puns; the toy even carried a disclaimer that it had nothing to do with the distillery.

Which First Amendment doctrine did the Court say a parody used as a trademark cannot invoke?

The Court left the test itself intact for other expressive works.

During Prohibition, the distillery's future owner held one of six US licences to make what?

The licence, granted in 1920, helped the Louisville firm prosper through the dry years while hundreds of distilleries vanished.

In 2022, Jack Daniel's announced a canned ready-to-drink cocktail with which partner?

A canned "Jack Daniel's and Cola" had already been sold in the South Pacific around 1996.