SOUR

If you ask me, Jack Daniel's is a good whiskey.  I'm no connoisseur, of course, but I know what I like. 

Well, there I was, sipping my drink and I mistakenly took a closer gander at the label on the bottle.
Do it and you'll notice that it calls itself a "Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey."  What's the deal with that?  'Sour Mash'?  Is that good?  Sour sounds bad! 

Here's a clue.

Have you ever eaten sourdough bread?  Of course, you have.  Have you made any sourdough bread?  Here's the trick and the reason the dough is 'so called' sour.  You always have to use some of the last batch to get the new batch going.   We've made some of this bread before and a friend gave us the starter dough.  (I'm not sure where people got the first batch - it sounds a little like the chicken and the egg.)  In any case, it works and it tastes good. 

Enough of bread - back to the booze.  Mash is a crushed grain mixture which is the basis for making whiskey.  As the mash is warmed and stirred it ferments and produces a liquor (the process can be slow). Sour mash means that a part of the last batch was used to get the new batch going - fermenting.  Now you know. 

Now that I know, I'm sorry.  I didn't want to know how they make it - no one wants to see the sausage while it's being made.  Same goes for good booze.