189 Sustainability There's a Kind of Magic in White Oak Barrels made of white oak are not simply containers. They are crucial to the bourbon-making process. The internal structure of the white oak—its cellular makeup—creates an ongoing exchange within the barrel where the liquid is drawn into the wood and then pumped out without soaking through the barrel. Ideally, the trees must be 80 to 100 years old and should be growing in a forest tract that has steady weather, neither too wet nor too dry. If those conditions aren’t met, the heartwood doesn’t possess the internal cellular structure that makes for the best liquid-tight barrels and the finest bourbons. In the past, it was impossible to locate decades of weather records for rural, hilly, unpopulated areas to confirm historical patterns. So, even a trained forester, who was scouting trees for a big company, often relied on personal knowledge of the region. Traditionally, the search for the best white oak was not only competitive among major distillers, but even had an air of secrecy. Just ask people like Bob Russell, a former forester who became something of a woodlands detective for the BrownForman distillery, makers of a variety of alcoholic spirits including Woodford Reserve and Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey. In his role at Brown-Forman, Russel had to figure out ways to analyze large swaths of forest over most of the eastern half of the United States. Twenty years ago, Russell often had to rely exclusively on his own eyes, his instincts for promising places, and paperbased censuses of trees done by the federal government. If a forest area looked favorable, he might also see if it could be a good location to build a sawmill. Often, he would visit a potential site without drawing attention to himself, looking for clues. He’d watch the roadways and count the logging trucks passing by to get a sense of the forestry activity, economy, and workforce. He kept a low-key presence to avoid tipping off competitors about Brown-Forman’s interest in the area. Recently retired, Russell had a career that spanned more than 40 years, including working as a forester, wood supply analyst, and, for lack of a better term, tree scout. In his tenure at Brown-Forman, Russell was grateful for any tree census information the federal government could provide. Over the decades, he has seen the data and the analyses improve immensely with the help of GIS technology and the advent of what has been called a bourbon barrel app. “Just knowing where to go helps a whole lot,” Russell said of his early days in the industry. “And then seeing the Forest Service data and knowing how it’s collected and how it’s put together became a key in helping make those decisions.” Empowered with that knowledge and his own boots-on-theground observations, Russell could help guide and sometimes even reverse decisions about where to build a sawmill, based on the number and quality of local white oaks, available road and river transport, and potential workforce. Bourbon Barrel Apps and GIS Aid in the Hunt Today, the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program of the US Forest Service has made its data more widely available online and more easily amenable to analysis by GIS. Developers from the US Forest Service and some in the spirits industry are creating apps to find stable areas of timber production and avoid places where the highly valued white oaks might become endangered from overcutting. But even in the old days, the major producers knew they had to be careful to balance the need for white oak barrels with the need to ensure the survival of the slow-growing species. They realized early on that 80- to 100-year-old trees made the best barrel staves and had qualities that produced smoother, better-tasting bourbon. So, they could not afford to overharvest or create gaps in the staves supply line.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjA2NTE0Mw==