Brown-Forman is set to close its Louisville cooperage where approximately 210 employees work, but unless you are in or interested in the bourbon industry, you may have never heard of it.
The Louisville-based company’s facility, where barrel makers — also known as coopers — produce the white oak barrels that hold Brown-Forman’s whiskey brands: Jack Daniel’s, Old Forester, Woodford Reserve and Coopers’ Craft.
“Brown-Forman is one of the world’s largest producers of whiskey barrels and one of the only major distillers in the world that owns and manufactures its own barrels,” the company stated on its website.
However when Brown-Forman closes its Louisville cooperage, which the company said would be no later than April 25, it would start to source barrels from an “external supplier to ensure a steady supply of the same high-quality barrels at a competitive price.”
Here’s what else you should know about cooperages and distilleries:
How is a cooperage different from a distillery?
In short, cooperages only make the barrels bourbon ages in. Distilleries generally focus on the whiskey-making side.
Bourbon barrels are typically made of oak, which is dried, shaped into a barrel and charred to give bourbon its taste, smell and even color, according to an article from Rabbit Hole Distillery.
It often takes years for a cooper to master the skill of fitting the wood slats, called staves, together tightly for the barrels so that it has a strong seal. An expert cooper can hammer together more than 30 staves in as little as 90 seconds, Heaven Hill Distillery stated in an article about the process of making barrels.
Are there other cooperages in Kentucky beside Brown-Forman’s?
Yes, there are other cooperages in Kentucky, including five owned by the Independent Stave Company. The company operates cooperages in Louisville, Lebanon, Benton and Morehead.
Other businesses include Kelvin Cooperage, which moved its operations from Scotland to Louisville in 1991, and the Robinson Stave Mill and East Bernstadt Cooperage in southeastern Kentucky.
More: Just Askin | Was Louisville one of the first cities to adopt telephone service?
Reach reporter Leo Bertucci at lbertucci@gannett.com or @leober2chee on X, formerly known as Twitter
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: What is a cooperage? What to know about where bourbon barrels are made