Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/581407
122 / the tasting panel / october 2015 DEPARTMENT HEADER The Innovation Starts at Home With labs dedicated to exploring new distillation techniques in micro batches and flavor scien- tists constantly working to tweak formulas on upcoming releases, the Brown-Forman offices are ground zero for brand development across the portfolio. In a series of "flavor labs" that look like they belong in a medical research lab, any Brown-Forman employee, no matter their technical department, has the opportunity to sign up to taste, in both a fine-tuning and new product development capacity. On-premise mini pot stills and specialty barrels allow distilling and flavor teams the opportunity to experiment easily and frequently. B.Y.O.B. (Build Your Own Barrel) An unassuming industrial corridor is an unexpected place for a spirit-ual awaken- ing, but anyone who takes their tipples seriously has to be impressed by the Brown-Forman cooperage, where 2,000 American white oak barrels roll off a production line every day. The only spirit company in the world to make 100 percent of its barrels, the Brown-Forman cooper- age was founded in 1945, and today, hundreds of employees rely on a combina- tion of state-of-the-art technology and traditional barrel-raising techniques to craft barrels that age Jack Daniel's, Woodford Reserve, Old Forester, Early Times and Canadian Mist whiskies, as well as El Jimador and Herradura tequilas. A cacophony of sound, steam, steel and sweat greets you at the door, and as Chad Ruch, Cooperage Production Manager, leads the way, you have to watch for barrels rolling across the floor in front of you, and you can actually feel the heat radiating off a batch of freshly charred wood , blasted with flames at computer- precise rates and destined to hold a very specific spirit. Workers select staves to build the per- fect barrel, relying on nothing more than experience and sight to know where to place these various-sized slats of wood. With staves ranging in width from five to one-and-a-half inches, the average barrel uses 33 to 37 staves. These barrels, des- tined to house Jack Daniel's, are precisely charred with com- puter precision.