Bourbon Pursuit Podcast #56: Brown-Forman Cooperage

Michael Nelson, Plant Director at the Brown-Forman Cooperage, gives a step-by-step and inside look to the barrel making process.

• Give us your bourbon story.
• Before we dive into the ins and outs of technicalities of barrel char, give us a history lesson about where we are.
• So this is my first time being at a cooperage. Give me the 101
• We saw one barrel that was cross cut. Talk about that.
• What’s the average number of discarded barrels that don’t meet some sort of quality assurance?
• Talk about char levels for a bit because it’s something that is always said, but never really explained about in depth.
• Is the barrel making process getting more expensive on a yearly basis because of demand and material supply?
• For everyone that missed the episode with Chris Morris where we talked briefly about the cooperage, talk about what it means to have a cooperage dedicated to their private whiskey
• The release of Cooper’s Craft happened recently. And it was named after the location of where we are recording today. What does that mean to you?