The Lincoln County process is a method of filtering new whisky through hardwood charcoal—typically maple—before it is put in the barrel. This step is associated with Tennessee whisky, although it was not a requirement until 2013 (because there were no requirements for Tennessee whisky until then). Prichard’s Tennessee Whisky does not charcoal-filter its distillate before putting it into the barrel and was exempted from the new regulation. Jack Daniels and George Dickel, the two largest producers of Tennessee whisky, both filter their product. George Dickel chills theirs first.
The Lincoln County process is so named because the Jack Daniels distillery was in Lincoln County until the county lines were redrawn. There is no distillery employing the Lincoln County process in Lincoln County at this time. Adding to the irony, the county that Jack Daniels found itself in is dry.
To filter fresh whisky, sugar maple is converted to charcoal and put in vats, which are subsequently filled with fresh distillate. The distillate can be trickled through the charcoal, as it is at Jack Daniels, or the distiller can fill up the vat before the spirit is drained, as it is at George Dickel. The idea of filtering whisky through charcoal before aging it is nothing new: a 1908 study of American whisky found four out of thirty-four bourbon and rye distilleries studied ran their raw distillate through charcoal-packed “leach tubes” prior to barreling.
There is some mythology about the process. Some believe, falsely, that it disqualifies Tennessee whisky from being bourbon. It doesn’t. The only reason Tennessee whisky isn’t called bourbon is because it is called Tennessee whisky. (Some bourbons are in fact filtered in a similar manner, though none of them would call it the Lincoln County process, for reasons that should be obvious.) Some believe that the process of filtering the whisky through maple charcoal before it enters the barrel removes substantial flavor from the spirit, although others insist that it does not. Inarguably, the Lincoln County process grants the aging of the whisky a head start.
See also whisky, Tennessee; and Jack Daniel’s.
Camacho, LeNell. “Chalk One Up for the Charcoal”. The Alcohol Professor, May 13, 2013. https://www.alcoholprofessor.com/blog-posts/blog/2013/05/13/chalk-one-up-for-the-charcoal (accessed March 24, 2021).
Crampton, C. A., and L. M. Tolman. “A Study of the Changes Taking Place in Whiskey Stored in Wood.” Journal of the American Chemical Society 30 (January 1908): 98–136.
By: Max Watman