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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsWhiskey Fungus Fed by Jack Daniel's Encrusts a Tennessee Town
?quality=75&auto=webpWhiskey Fungus Fed by Jack Daniels Encrusts a Tennessee Town
The dark growth, fed by alcohol vapors from barrels of aging Jack Daniels whiskey, has coated homes, cars, patio furniture and road signs in a sooty crust, residents said. One woman is suing Lincoln County.
The ethanol-fueled fungus known as whiskey fungus has thrived for centuries around distilleries and bakeries. Its been the source of complaints from residents who live near Kentucky bourbon distilleries, Canadian whiskey makers and Caribbean rum manufacturers.
Now, it is driving a wedge between some residents of Lincoln County, Tenn., and Jack Daniels, the famed distillery founded in 1866 in neighboring Moore County.
For months, some residents have complained that a sooty, dark crust has blanketed homes, cars, road signs, bird feeders, patio furniture and trees as the fungus has spread uncontrollably, fed by alcohol vapors wafting from charred oak barrels of aging Jack Daniels whiskey.
Jack Daniels has built six warehouses, known as barrelhouses, to age whiskey in the rural county, which is home to about 35,000 residents, and is building a seventh on a property that has room to house one more, a company spokesman said. The distillery has asked the county to rezone a second property where it could build six additional barrelhouses.
A company representative, Donna Willis, told county officials in November that 14 barrelhouses would generate $1 million in annual property tax revenue for the county, which had approved about $15 million in general fund spending for the 2022 fiscal year.
But not all residents are happy about the expansion.
Christi Long, the owner of a local mansion built in 1900, which she operates as a venue for weddings and other events, sued the county in January, contending that barrelhouses near her property lacked the proper permits. Insider previously reported on the dispute...
...The fungus that thrives off the lost alcohol has been noted at least since the 1870s, when Antonin Baudoin, the director of the French Distillers Association, observed a plague of soot blackening the walls of distilleries in Cognac, France.
James A. Scott, a professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto who has studied the fungus since 2001 and helped name its genus, Baudoinia, in honor of Baudoin said he was not aware of any research specifically looking at the health effects of exposure to the fungus.
But the fungus can destroy property and can cling to almost any surface, he said. A puff of alcohol, Dr. Scott said, makes it remarkably resistant to temperature changes, allowing it to withstand hot summers in Tennessee.
The fungus is pretty destructive, and the only way to stop it is to turn off its alcohol supply, Dr. Scott wrote in an email. It wrecks patio furniture, house siding, almost any outdoor surface. Ive seen trees choked to death by it. It is a small mercy that it does not also appear to have a negative impact on human health...
The ethanol-fueled fungus known as whiskey fungus has thrived for centuries around distilleries and bakeries. Its been the source of complaints from residents who live near Kentucky bourbon distilleries, Canadian whiskey makers and Caribbean rum manufacturers.
Now, it is driving a wedge between some residents of Lincoln County, Tenn., and Jack Daniels, the famed distillery founded in 1866 in neighboring Moore County.
For months, some residents have complained that a sooty, dark crust has blanketed homes, cars, road signs, bird feeders, patio furniture and trees as the fungus has spread uncontrollably, fed by alcohol vapors wafting from charred oak barrels of aging Jack Daniels whiskey.
Jack Daniels has built six warehouses, known as barrelhouses, to age whiskey in the rural county, which is home to about 35,000 residents, and is building a seventh on a property that has room to house one more, a company spokesman said. The distillery has asked the county to rezone a second property where it could build six additional barrelhouses.
A company representative, Donna Willis, told county officials in November that 14 barrelhouses would generate $1 million in annual property tax revenue for the county, which had approved about $15 million in general fund spending for the 2022 fiscal year.
But not all residents are happy about the expansion.
Christi Long, the owner of a local mansion built in 1900, which she operates as a venue for weddings and other events, sued the county in January, contending that barrelhouses near her property lacked the proper permits. Insider previously reported on the dispute...
...The fungus that thrives off the lost alcohol has been noted at least since the 1870s, when Antonin Baudoin, the director of the French Distillers Association, observed a plague of soot blackening the walls of distilleries in Cognac, France.
James A. Scott, a professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto who has studied the fungus since 2001 and helped name its genus, Baudoinia, in honor of Baudoin said he was not aware of any research specifically looking at the health effects of exposure to the fungus.
But the fungus can destroy property and can cling to almost any surface, he said. A puff of alcohol, Dr. Scott said, makes it remarkably resistant to temperature changes, allowing it to withstand hot summers in Tennessee.
The fungus is pretty destructive, and the only way to stop it is to turn off its alcohol supply, Dr. Scott wrote in an email. It wrecks patio furniture, house siding, almost any outdoor surface. Ive seen trees choked to death by it. It is a small mercy that it does not also appear to have a negative impact on human health...
I've always heard alcohol could be bad for human health, but I had something different in mind.
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Whiskey Fungus Fed by Jack Daniel's Encrusts a Tennessee Town (Original Post)
NNadir
Mar 2023
OP
Yuck. At a minimum it would surely pose an allergan to some. And really disgusting.
hlthe2b
Mar 2023
#2
Tastes like it to me. I can drink good Scotch. Bourbon has an abhorent sweet taste to me.
hlthe2b
Mar 2023
#4
Elsewhere the neighbors complain about flower smells from cannabis farms ...
sanatanadharma
Mar 2023
#7
Srkdqltr
(6,365 posts)1. I can't imagine that it would not impact humans. Just haven't studied it yet.
hlthe2b
(102,489 posts)2. Yuck. At a minimum it would surely pose an allergan to some. And really disgusting.
But then, I hate bourbon. Sorry, JD lovers, but not my thing.
Captain Zero
(6,845 posts)3. Technically, JD is not Bourbon.
Just a whiskey.
hlthe2b
(102,489 posts)4. Tastes like it to me. I can drink good Scotch. Bourbon has an abhorent sweet taste to me.
Captain Zero
(6,845 posts)5. Technically, JD is not Bourbon.
Just a whiskey.
hlthe2b
(102,489 posts)6. The answer looks to be more complicated than that:
Is Jack Daniel's Bourbon? Yes. And no. Jack Daniel's chooses not to call itself bourbon, but the historic brand applies for federal label approval under the class of bourbon and Tennessee whiskey is listed as straight bourbon in the North American Free Trade Agreement.
https://www.fredminnick.com/2017/11/28/jack-daniels-bourbon/
Regardless, I'll stick with Scotch.
sanatanadharma
(3,747 posts)7. Elsewhere the neighbors complain about flower smells from cannabis farms ...
... in legal jurisdictions; to compare neighborhood disturbances resulting from human desires.