Is Jack Daniel's a bourbon?
Updated November 2026 · BourbonTown Tours
Jack Daniel's is labeled and sold as Tennessee whiskey, not as bourbon. It is made from a corn-majority mash and aged in new charred oak, which is how bourbon is made, so the whole question turns on one production step, charcoal filtering before the barrel, that the federal bourbon rules never mention.
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Quick facts
- Jack Daniel's is labeled and sold as Tennessee whiskey, not as bourbon.
- Jack Daniel's is made from a corn-majority mash and aged in new charred oak, as bourbon must be.
- Jack Daniel's filters its new spirit through sugar-maple charcoal before barreling, a step called the Lincoln County Process.
- Tennessee law has defined Tennessee whiskey, including the charcoal step, since 2013.
- One Tennessee producer, Benjamin Prichard's, is exempt from the charcoal step.
- The federal bourbon standards say nothing about filtering.
The federal bourbon rules, tested one line at a time
Federal labeling rules, set out in 27 CFR 5.143 and enforced by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, decide when the word bourbon may go on a bottle. Those rules work as a test with seven points. It must be made in the United States. Corn must hold 51% or more of the mash. Distillation may not exceed 160 proof. Barrel entry may not exceed 125 proof. The wood must be new charred oak. The bottle must hold 80 proof or above. Nothing but water may be put in.
Every item concerns country, grain, proof, wood or additives; none concerns filtering. Jim Beam White Label shows how a bourbon maps onto that test: it is built on a 77% corn mash bill, spends four years in new charred oak and is bottled at 80 proof, and our Jim Beam distillery visitor guide sets out how that campus works. What the checklist never does is describe what may or may not happen to the spirit between the still and the barrel. Most whiskey made to that standard comes from Kentucky, as our directory of Kentucky bourbon distilleries shows.
How Jack Daniel's measures against the bourbon rules
Two items are settled in public and are the reason the question keeps being asked: the mash is corn-majority, and the whiskey goes into new charred oak. That is the same grain rule and the same wood rule bourbon has to meet, and the label is equally settled: the bottle reads Tennessee whiskey. Neither side disputes that the remaining checklist items are within reach of a whiskey made this way.
The Lincoln County Process is the dividing line
The one step that separates Jack Daniel's from bourbon is what happens between distillation and aging. New spirit is run through sugar-maple charcoal before it ever touches a barrel. The filtering is meant to remove some of the heavier compounds from the raw distillate before aging. This is the Lincoln County Process.
The case for and against calling Jack Daniel's bourbon
Both arguments below use the same facts. They disagree only about which fact decides the name.
The case for calling it bourbon
The federal bourbon rules say nothing about filtering, so the Lincoln County Process breaks none of them. The North American Free Trade Agreement (Annex 313), in force from 1994, described Tennessee whiskey as a straight bourbon whiskey authorized to be produced only in Tennessee; its 2020 replacement, the USMCA (Annex 3-C), keeps the same description. The 2013 Tennessee statute itself builds on those same standards rather than departing from them. On this reading, Tennessee whiskey is a subset of bourbon with a house rule, much as straight bourbon whiskey is a subset with an aging rule.
The case for keeping it Tennessee whiskey
The label is the legal identity a buyer is sold, and it says Tennessee whiskey. Tennessee created a defined category in state law in 2013, with its own name and its own mandatory step, and producers who meet it sell under that name. The Lincoln County Process is a real intervention: it changes the spirit before aging begins, so the finished whiskey differs from what the same mash would have become without it. On this reading, a separate name describes a separately made thing.
What Tennessee's 2013 whiskey law requires
Tennessee's 2013 statute, now Tennessee Code Annotated section 57-2-106, takes the federal bourbon standards and adds two conditions: the whiskey must be made and aged in Tennessee, and it must be filtered through maple charcoal before aging. One producer, Benjamin Prichard's, holds an exemption from the charcoal requirement, so a Tennessee whiskey label on its own does not prove that filtering took place. Bourbon, Tennessee whiskey and scotch are all legal categories defined by production rules, and how bourbon, whiskey and scotch differ comes down to the same kind of rule-by-rule comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Is Jack Daniel's a whiskey or a bourbon?
It is a whiskey, sold under the Tennessee whiskey category rather than the bourbon category. Both are American whiskey, and Jack Daniel's uses a corn-majority mash and new charred oak barrels in the same way a bourbon does. The label is what distinguishes the two here. The label follows Tennessee state law; whether that makes it something other than bourbon is the debate set out above.
What is the Lincoln County Process?
It is the filtering of new whiskey through sugar-maple charcoal before the spirit goes into the barrel. The step happens after distillation and before aging, and it is meant to remove some of the heavier compounds from the raw distillate. Tennessee state law has required it for whiskey sold as Tennessee whiskey since 2013.
What is the difference between bourbon and Tennessee whiskey?
Tennessee whiskey follows the bourbon production rules and adds state conditions: it must be made and aged in Tennessee and, with one exemption, filtered through maple charcoal before it goes into the barrel. Bourbon can be made in any US state and has no filtering rule. Both are American whiskey from a corn-majority mash aged in new charred oak; the name on the label tells you which set of rules it is sold under.
Is Jack Daniel's not bourbon because it is made in Tennessee?
No. The federal bourbon standard requires only that bourbon be made in the United States and names no state, so being made in Tennessee does not stop a whiskey from qualifying. What sets Jack Daniel's apart is the Tennessee whiskey category it is sold under, defined by Tennessee law and marked by the charcoal step, which is why the question is a debate about filtering rather than about geography.
Is all Tennessee whiskey charcoal filtered?
Almost all of it is, because the 2013 state law requires the step for whiskey sold under that name. One producer does not use maple-charcoal filtering. So the Tennessee whiskey name signals the charcoal step in the great majority of cases, and the one distillery the statute's charcoal exemption covers is Prichard's.
See the rules at work in Kentucky
The clearest way to understand what these rules do is to watch a bourbon made under them, from the grain bill to the barrel. A group only has to ask. Producing exactly that kind of day is what our private tours built around the production side exist for.
Since 2012 we have run 3,000+ private tours, each for a single party, so a group that wants to see the corn-majority mash and new charred oak behind the bourbon label can make that the theme of its day.
