Lucas Hendrickson: Hey, it's Lucas, and we just wanted to take a second to thank you. We are off to a great start with Around the Barrel and we've got a steady stream of great stories to tell you coming down the path. But as with anything that lives on the internet, we're only as good as the people we can reach. So please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and don't be afraid to share us with your friends as well. The ones over the age of 21 please, that's our intended audience. We also encourage you to follow Jack Daniel's on all the usual social media suspects: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like, they will keep you updated. not only about what we're doing here on Around the Barrel, but also with goings-on within the universe of Jack Daniels' brands, and they are myriad. All that said, thanks again, and on with the show. 

 

Chris Fletcher: We have to look back at a hundred and fifty plus years of success in growing, you know, Old Number 7 and we do have a lot to live up to, and I think that in a lot of ways we are held to a higher standard. 

 

Lucas: Institutional knowledge is a powerful force. So is family history. When they combine in a world famous brand that attracts visitors from around the globe. It can be tough to find a place in the narrative and make it your own.  On this episode of Around the Barrel we introduce you to Chris Fletcher, whose work at the Jack Daniel Distillery allows him to follow his family's footsteps, yet keeps his gaze pointed toward the future.  Chris's skills and talents earned him his unique spot within the company, A role you could say he spent a lifetime training for, even if that training was just about hanging out with a frog.  Welcome back to Around the Barrel, the official podcast from the makers of Jack Daniel's. I'm your host, Lucas Hendrickson. It's not a stretch to say working at the Jack Daniel Distillery is a family's tradition. Families, very definitely plural. Multiple generations of Lynchburg, Tennessee residents have spent their careers making that tiny towns primary export, and those family bonds tightly weave together the pride for Old Number 7 Tennessee Whiskey today. Chris Fletcher comes from one of those long time Lynchburg families. His grandfather Frank "Frog" Bobo (more on that nickname in a minute) was formerly a master distiller for Jack, though growing up, Chris recognized Frank's role primarily as the guy who got the calls to go fix something at the distillery in the middle of the night. But as Chris grew he came to understand the special places grandfather worked at and as his own interest in science, chemistry, and the spirits world emerged he embraced his family's business life and set out to carve his own path within it. 

 

Chris: Hi, my name is Chris Fletcher. I'm from Lynchburg, Tennessee, and I'm the Assistant Master Distiller at the Jack Daniel Distillery. 

 

Lucas: Chris Fletcher. Welcome to Around the Barrel. 

 

Chris: Thank you. 

 

Lucas: Think back. When do you remember owning your first piece of Jack Daniel's clothing? 

 

Chris: Oh my goodness. I wasn't expecting that question. 

 

Lucas:  I like to start off with a softball.

 

Chris:  I think maybe the first time I've ever gotten that question. I'm sure I had a t-shirt, you know as a fairly young person, you know, it's not uncommon that you know Lynchburg and the families of Lynchburg are so connected with the distillery. So, you know having a Jack Daniel's t-shirt, there was actually a set of t-shirts. I remember, to be very specific about the answer, that was focused on wildlife and it was a Jack Daniel's t-shirt, but it wasn't really branded as Jack Daniel's, look at more of a wildlife series and it had a really cool maybe a wolf on the back or a bear, you know something, so I remember, I think that was probably my first t-shirt but my grandmother, there used to be a candy shop on the Square called the Pepper Patch and so my grandmother before she retired her last role was to manage that candy shop, and it was a Jack Daniel's shop, you know selling Jack Daniel's candies and cakes and things and so I would walk down the hill from the elementary school, past the one stoplight, you had the Lynchburg Hardware and general store that I had an aunt that was the manager in and then right next door was the Pepper Patch where my grandmother managed so there were you know, I was certainly around the town square and the t-shirt shops and the souvenirs from a young age and I can also remember my favorite thing to do was to get a Coke for I think a dime, you get a bag of popcorn for a nickel. So when you're when you're in elementary school, that's a pretty good deal. 

 

Lucas: Absolutely. Absolutely.  Well and again our discussions probably gonna focus very heavily on your family. Your grandfather was a master distiller here at the the Jack Daniel Distillery, Frank "Frog" Bobo.  Where did "Frog" come from? 

 

Chris: Well as I understand it, and of course that nickname came along way before I came along or even my mother came along but as the story goes, my grandfather grew up here in Lynchburg, working in the grocery store here in town. So if you can imagine Lynchburg, extremely small town, even smaller back then, so everybody from town would pretty much be shopping in their store. It was Bobo and Son's grocery store. And one of the gentlemen in town when my grandfather was a young boy. His name was Frank Thomas, and that happens to be my grandfather's first and middle names, Frank Thomas Bobo. Well, Mr. Thomas, apparently he had very large eyes. I guess, "protruding," I don't know, I've never met Mr. Thomas, but his nickname was Frogeye, like he had eyes like a frog. And Mr. Thomas when I guess he discovered that my grandfather as a young boy, his name was Frank Thomas Bobo, he just started calling my grandfather "Frogeye," he just kind of passed that nickname down. And so I guess you know a lot of the a lot of the old-timers still call my grandfather "Frogeye," not just Frog, but it's been pretty much shortened now to just the "Frog." 

 

Lucas: Yeah, you'd think with a nickname you'd want to have that be a differentiator from those two people but they combined it all together into one. So that's that's pretty fascinating. So you have this family history obviously directly tied with the distillery. What's your earliest memory of being here at the distillery? 

 

Chris: I can remember a lot of times on Sundays when my grandfather would come to work, you know, the role of Master Distiller now is a little different than historically it was, in fact, I mean to be honest, my grandfather was never called a Master Distiller probably in his career. Head Distiller maybe, you know Distillery Manager or you know, the person in charge of literally distilling the whiskey, that's what a distiller does, historically.  And of course now it's a little more of an encompassing role, a little more of a quality control, all-encompassing type of role that myself and Jeff of course do, but I remember on Sunday nights my grandfather would have to come in to the distillery sometimes and I guess get things started for the next workweek. And on Sundays you didn't have a lot of grain trucks running and it was kind of a slow time and I could come with him. He would say, "You want to come with me?" and so we jumped in his truck and he lives like a mile and a half away, maybe, and we would just ride up and I can remember, you know, being there and driving past the employee entrance and there's a security guard shack and he would just kind of wave and have a little you know, two or three finger wave and we saw, well that's interesting, you know, it's not too difficult to get past security here, you just wave and it's all good. And then from there, you know, my favorite things to do, you know when the grain trucks come in, we have a little pond there were the Cave Spring accumulates a little water and we always have ducks there. So I always wanted to feed the ducks. And so I used to catch some of the grain, the corn it would spill down on the road, and try to feed the ducks. They were never very receptive of me. But those are some of my favorite memories, of course, you know, I remember the smells and the sounds and the heat and the steam, you know, I had no idea what whiskey was at that time. You know, I was probably around 4 or 5 years old, and so I was just with Papa, you know, having fun and you know kind of running around and spending time with him. 

 

Lucas: So at what point did you decide that you wanted to be a part of this business? And then how did that inform the way you prepared from an educational level and and what you chose to do kind of moving through your young adulthood? 

 

Chris: Yeah, you know oddly enough a lot of people think you know, since I was around this place as a kid, I must have known, you know when I was five years old that I wanted to do this, you know and obviously at 5 I didn't even know what whiskey was, really and so I had no forethought of being a distiller at all. And in fact, and I think most people would tell you Lynchburg even today is only about 600 people. And so, you know, if you go back to your 18, 19 year-old self and you're going away to college and moving back to a town of 600 is probably not the most appealing thing, and I was no different.  You know in school, I always enjoyed science, you know, chemistry specifically interested me. You know, I always kind of felt like you learned something and if you paid attention you walked away with something in that hour lecture. So I went to college and was studying chemistry, but was still very undecided on what I wanted to do and then it was after my second year. I was a sophomore and I came home. And I was going to spend probably most of the summer back here in Lynchburg. Anyway, and my roommate for one reason or the other he wanted to come down here and take the tour, and I said well "Yeah, of course" and you know, he wanted to see Jack Daniel's and how they made whiskey and so we're walking through on the tour and I of course obviously growing up here, I knew my tour guide very well and he was actually not that much older than me and I always kind of thought, you know, the tour guides had to be, you know, older people that you know had the old stories and the historical knowledge and but I got to thinking on that tour, "Man if he can do this, I can do this." And I thought, you know, I need a summer job. I need to make some money then, you know, you face a summer of mowing grass every day or just walking around and talking, and so I went and talked to the manager here at the distillery and sure enough, you know, the summers they have more tourism. They hire part-time tour guides. And so I started working here when I was 19 years old, I started as a tour guide.  So of course, I have my grandfather at home and that's when I really started to develop an interest and think and learn about all the chemistry and the science and the agriculture that goes into this product. And of course, you know having him as a resource at home even today he is 80, he'll be 89 in June and he's still you know, I can ask him a question about a still or a temperature or a setting and he remembers it. It's amazing but of course I had a lot of the historical knowledge with him and also the technical piece of distilling because I learned very quickly as a tour guide that was younger than most, you're going to be tested. 

 

Lucas: Right, they're going to see if you know your stuff. 

 

Chris: That's right. So that's when I really, really dove in and of course learning the history of the brand and Jack and you know making whiskey and of course also all the technical pieces and it just kind of all kind of came together somewhere where you know going back to school and chemistry and I started thinking like, well, you know, this would really be something I could be interested in. 

 

Lucas: Yeah, so then how long did you work as a tour guide here? And do you have a favorite memory from that time frame? 

 

Chris: Yeah. I have a lot of great memories being a here as a tour guide. You know, I did that for the two summers, after my sophomore and junior years, I can remember you know the tour guide during the day and then of course we have the Barbecue Hill that's overlooks the town of Lynchburg and we would have private events and things up there. So I would go up there a lot of times and you know haul away the trash or you know, whatever needed to be done. So those were some long days. I do remember one time, we organized a party for, I don't remember the name of the restaurant chain, but it was a large, internationally known restaurant chain and they brought a bunch of their management team down and so they wanted to organize, like I guess it was like a corporate outing. So they came and they did the distillery tour and then they said "Oh, we'd like to do like games and activities and you know, keep score and then the winning group will win a bottle of whiskey or something." And so everybody just kind of looked around and said "Well who would know about sports and playing games and everything?" so I think it just rolled downhill to the new guy. 

 

Lucas: Find the college student, right? 

 

Chris: So that was a fun evening with that group coordinating and it was about 200 people that came in the group. So it was quite a feat to get that done and you know, other than that just meeting people from all over the world, you know every day I had people from Asia, from Europe, and it was really an eye-opening thing because growing up in Lynchburg I think you take for granted a little bit how well known Jack Daniel's is and it's such a symbol of America and it's across the globe and it made quite an impression. 

 

Lucas: You mentioned how you had had been around a number of different distilleries around the nation, probably around the world as well just kind of doing research but you spent that early part of your career working with other Brown-Forman, the parent company of Jack Daniel's, working with some of their brands. What were some of the lessons that you were able to bring back from some of those places and apply here at Jack Daniel's? 

 

Chris: Sure. Well, you know when I moved, I moved to Louisville to work in research and development as a chemist right out of college, which was perfect for me that's you know, obviously our company is headquartered there in Louisville. And you know, that's when I got exposed to Bourbon and to Canadian whiskey and tequilas, and how we make our barrels, I worked on projects at our cooperage where we're making our barrels every day. So it really expanded my knowledge, you know, that's where I started to learn how to taste whiskey from a quality perspective, you know, and so I did that, I was in R&D for about nine years and ended up going to another company and making some bourbons and whiskeys in Kentucky as well. And you know, I've been very fortunate. I've worked with a lot of different Master Distillers and other people in the industry that take a lot of pride in doing what they do and I think being able to look and see how you know, everybody kind of has the same process of turning corn or rye or whatever into whiskey, but you know, I think some places they emphasize maybe one part of the process a little more than another part of the process, and I think you know applying that back here to Jack Daniel's and what we're able to do and if you think about it, you know, we want to control every part of the process and you know from making our own barrels, only buying number one quality grain, you know only using Cave Spring water, our yeast strain that I mentioned, you know, the copper stills, you know all of these things, being able to take bits and pieces that maybe were emphasized on some other levels, with other products and apply that across the spectrum of how we can control things here at Jack Daniel's which is which is really unmatched in the whiskey industry. 

 

Lucas: How do you go about applying innovations though technology wise, or distribution wise, flavor profile wise, things like that, to a brand and a process that's more than a hundred and fifty years old. I mean is there resistance that comes up when you try to add a new kind of factor to the equation? Or you just kind of trust, obviously you trust the team, but then you also trust the process but you also know that these can help in this while not taking away anything from the overall product?

 

Chris: Absolutely. I mean, you know with a product like Old Number 7, the first day that starts to taste different we've got a big problem, my grandfather...

 

Lucas: He'll be the first one to tell you, you've got a big problem. 

 

Chris: Yeah. No. Yeah, he won't he won't hold back. I'm sure you know, I think as you look at that, though. Though towards innovation, which I think your question was more geared towards, you know, new offerings. For instance. We have our rye whiskey out now and some different things and that's one of you know, the benefits of the current state of American whiskeys, you know, people are interested in new things. They want to learn about what makes them new and where it's made, and how it's made, which couldn't be better for us because of the way we can control our production process, you know, literally from from grain to glass, you know better than anyone in the industry, but there is a balance there for sure. I think, you know, we have to look back at a hundred and fifty plus years of success in growing Old Number 7, and we do have a lot to live up to, and I think that in a lot of ways we are held to a higher standard. 

 

Lucas: We've not talked a lot though about the barrels themselves. Walk us through the basics of producing a barrel that is then suited for making Jack Daniel's. And how much do you think those barrels add to the finished product? 

 

Chris: Sure. We'll start there. As far as adding to the finished product, you know, it is unquestioned the number one ingredient, when you look at the laws of Tennessee whiskey making, you have to use a brand new, charred oak barrel every single time. So just that regulation alone assures that the oak barrel is going to bring a lot of flavor to the game. Of course, whiskey is clear when it's distilled. So a lot of people associate that with like a moonshine, you know, hopefully we're a little more consistent than they were back in the day, putting that clear whiskey in a barrel. I think we are, however, the barrel will provide 100% of the color. So every bit of the color is coming from the oak and over half the flavor. So, if you look at the process of making Jack Daniels, there's only three things that truly add flavor to the product and of course you've got the grains, and the yeast, and the barrel. I mean you can argue different parts of the process and the fermentation and we could get into the details, but really on a very high level it's grain, yeast, and barrel that are creating flavors and adding flavor. That's it. There's no sugar added. There's no flavor added, and no color added. And so if you look at it that way, it's pretty easy to see that the barrel is the number one ingredient, over half the flavor and all of the color. And so, I would say if you look at the history of American whiskey the barrel has probably been the one thing as we understand it better with technology and with science and how do we really make sure that we're putting our whiskey in the best barrel we can make, and fortunately we're the only company in the industry of any major, of any size, of making any sizable whiskey now, I know there's lots of micro distillers out there now, and much different than it's been historically. However, there's no other whiskey maker making sizable amounts of whiskey that's making their own barrel. And so, we're able to actually contract with loggers from across, you know, basically the eastern US, some harvested here in Tennessee, in fact. And from that point on, we control that log, that tree. So I say, you know, every other whiskey maker is buying a barrel from a barrel-making company, a cooperage. We buy trees. That's a big difference. right? And so we're able to source those logs and from that point on our own employees are processing the log, cutting it down into staves. So, those staves will air dry from six months maybe even up to a year.  That kind of seasoning process, you know, is important for the wood to start to get the wood chemistry right to make a barrel, basically. I mean, you don't want any kind of green notes or anything left in the oak, you start to get that moisture balanced, you get some things that kind of start to leach out of the wood that you don't necessarily want to start controlling the flavor of what's going to go in your whiskey. From there, it will go into our cooperages, from our stave mills into our cooperages, we have two cooperages, where we're making everyday by hand, our own employees are making Jack Daniel's barrels every single day. So they're going to first raise that barrel from those staves, and it's called raising, it's done by hand, about 32 to 34-ish staves per barrel, and then that barrel of new oak will be toasted, and that toasting process is something that we actually have a patent on, and it's just exactly what it sounds like, like toasting a piece of bread right you're starting to you know, warm that barrel up. It's actually going to get to about 500 degrees Fahrenheit and you're going to start to bring those wood sugars naturally to the surface, start to break down some tannin, right and some lignin that's there, to create these sweet notes, these sweet brown notes from the barrel as I call them, so you associate vanilla, caramel, butterscotch, molasses all these things that you may pick up in a glass of Jack Daniel's on the nose and on the palate, it's coming from that oak barrel. After the toasting process, and that toasting process takes several minutes, about 17 minutes or so. Then it will be charred with a char fire. So that char will further degrade a lot of the lignin and things and also will create that charcoal layer, that char layer, that the whiskey will move in and out of as well. And so that's how, you know, we control this process, from the log to the barrel, with a patented toast, with a very deep char that we can apply in only about 25 seconds, maybe 30 seconds, because of the toasting process, to give us that nice thick char layer and then of course, once that whiskey goes in, it's going to sit for at least four years probably up to seven or eight years even in some cases, until we get the flavor and the color and the aroma that we're looking for. 

 

Lucas: I've always found that fascinating and it just now kind of hit me that, again the charcoal mellowing the new distillate through that, is such an important part of that initial phase before it even goes in the barrel. And then again that second introduction of charcoal essentially inside the barrels themselves, you forget about that being or at least I did, forget about that being a part of it as well. But as the barrels are rotated and as they move and they go through the various seasons here, you know, that and you can speak much more expertly to this than I can, continues to affect that whiskey as it starts to age.

 

Chris: Right yeah, if you think about the surface of what the whiskey is exposed to inside that barrel, so think about the surface of that oak stave, you know in your brain and of course you see kind of that char, black layer that doesn't contribute anything to flavor, right? That's charcoal, or pure carbon, and so the movement in and out across that layer will actually serve as more of a filter, right? Just like charcoal mellowing does for us before the barrel. Of course, that's more of a distillery function of the whiskey when it's clear after distillation, but there's nothing added by charcoal. Charcoal is a filtration, even in the barrel the charcoal does not add, now as it works its way behind that charcoal layer, then it gets into what we call the red layer. And so there's where your caramelized sugars your lignin, as lignin breaks down that's where you get the vanillin compound that gives you that distinct vanilla note in American whiskeys and certainly very prevalent in Jack Daniel's. And so that interaction of getting deep inside that red layer, that's where your extraction is really going to come from, from a color and flavor standpoint. 

 

Lucas: What does your day-to-day now look like as far as what your directly in charge of, and what kind of big picture projects you're working on that we can look out for in the future? 

 

Chris: Sure you know Assistant Master Distiller, I mean, I guess it's pretty straightforward. You know, I work for Jeff, obviously, which is fantastic. And you know, I've been very lucky. I've worked with many different distillers and very talented other people in American whiskey and really in global whiskey for that fact. I've been very lucky in my career having spent, you know, about 12 years both with our company in an R&D function and then with other companies as well, making whiskeys but the opportunity to work for Jeff was certainly something that you know I wouldn't want to pass up, and I think when you look at whiskey makers across the country, I mean, it's Jack Daniels, you know, this is this is the major leagues, you know, this is where you want to be, because of the way that we can make whiskey here, because of the quality of our grains and our water and the how we control our distillation and how we make our own barrels, you know start to finish, we do it all, and it's unmatched. So, you know that opportunity in itself was the reason to come back home. It wasn't necessarily a calling that come back to Lynchburg. Although I'm very happy to be back home, but the opportunity to work for Jeff and the opportunity to be able to work here at Jack Daniel's in the way that we make whiskey is what sets us apart. What was what was the other part of the question? 

 

Lucas: Well again, what does your day-to-day role look like here? 

 

Chris: Well, the Master Distiller role, you know, probably in the last 10-15 years has evolved in the industry. Of course, all the distillery production does roll up underneath Jeff, right as the Master Distiller as it should, and so I certainly support that function as well. But I would say it there's a lot of quality control involved with it now, you know we, Jeff and I on the master tasting panel, we are one of 11 people that can actually select Single Barrel whiskeys here at Jack Daniels, which I think our Single Barrel is certainly a sweet spot for us. It's a fantastic product. Obviously each barrel tastes a little bit different so, you don't have this gold standard glass that you want to match perfectly every time. You know, there's going to be subtle variation. So, Single Barrel is part of the process that I'm pretty tightly focused on, both in that sense I also manage our inventory for our whole barrel customers, which is a lot of fun. We have we have people, you know, really from all over the world that will buy our Jack Daniel's Single Barrel in a whole barrel form, right? And so, you know, that's that's really really a lot of fun. You may have a restaurant or a hotel group that comes in and they say, well we want to we want to look for a flavor profile that's maybe really dark and spicy. We have this idea of creating this this custom cocktail and you know with our own Single Barrel Jack And then you know, they may own another property down the street and they say well and then we're going to also pick a barrel that you know, it's very soft on the front end finishes, you know, kind of sweet and subtle because we want to serve this as a neat pour, you know in our steak house or something like that and so being able to work with those customers or something that I really enjoy and being attached to that Single Barrel process. I also travel quite a bit, you know, Jeff travels some but you know, he's here a little more than I am, you know, as you should be as Master Distiller, but I get to travel, you know, close to a hundred days a year and globally and talk to people about Jack Daniel's and how we make our whiskey and about Lynchburg and the people here that day in and day out, you know come to work to make the best whiskey in the world. 

 

Lucas: So in 2018 and beyond what excites you about the future of this brand, this distillery, the universe of products that are that are coming out of Lynchburg now? 

 

Chris: Absolutely. Well, you know, we continue to focus on innovation and that's something that I'm very involved with as Assistant Master Distiller. That's one of those hats I get to wear which is exciting. It's fun for me and I've seen a lot of different things done with whiskey and you know, we've done a lot of different things in the past that have created these great brands and great products, whether it be a new mash bill with our rye whiskey, whether it be creating a unique barrel for our Sinatra select product, you know, again, we control all of this, you know, we can make new barrels ourselves. We don't have to go to somebody and argue over a price on a contract and how they're going to do this that or the other to the barrel. We just go do it. And man, we've done everything from you know, grooving those barrels and big barrels and small barrels and inside-out barrels. You name it? We've done it. So that's exciting. You know, I've got to keep some secrets for the future, but just know that we are going to continue to look at each part of the process and look at a question and "What If?" you know, that's kind of the question you ask, and the beauty of it is, as Jack Daniel's and being able to control all those factors, you know, the barrels and everything else. We've got a lot of different "What If's?" that we can ask and that's that's something that we will continue to pursue and will, when the time is right and when the product is right, will continue to innovate 

 

Lucas: Chris Fletcher, thank you again for joining us "Around the Barrel."

 

Chris: Thank you, I appreciate it. Thanks so much

 

Lucas:  "Around the Barrel" is the official podcast of the Jack Daniel Distillery. Follow the podcast on the web at Jack Daniels.com/podcast.  If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, and review at Apple podcasts or wherever you gather your on-demand audio. Always remember, with great podcast and great whiskey, please enjoy responsibly. Join us next time for more conversations Around the Barrel. Your friends at Jack Daniel's remind you to drink responsibly. Jack Daniel's and Old Number 7 are registered trademarks, copyright 2018, Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey, 40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof, distilled and bottled by Jack Daniel Distillery Lynchburg, Tennessee. Around the Barrel is intended for listeners 21 years of age and older.