New Brown-Forman Cooperage Set To Open in Alabama

By Richard Thomas

According to AL.com, the website for the Huntsville Times and the Birmingham News, Brown-Forman’s new cooperage in Trinity, Alabama is set to open on Monday.

The $60 million barrel-making facility will employ 200 workers. Drawing on staves supplied from Stevenson, Alabama and Clifton, Tennessee, the cooperage should start with an output of 400 barrels per day. Brown-Forman, maker of Jack Daniel’s and Woodford Reserve, intends to ramp up production from that starting figure after just a few weeks.

Although American whiskey distillers are currently experiencing a shortage of the new oak barrels so critical to making their products, Jack Daniel’s, the world’s No. 2-selling whiskey, has reported no problems in securing a barrel supply large enough to meet their production needs. Adding a second cooperage to the one already operating in Kentucky is clearly meant to provide a sound foundation for expanding production of Jack Daniel’s and other Brown-Forman whiskeys.