Master Distiller 2, Jesse B Motlow

Newly released by Jack Daniel's is the Master Distiller No. 2, Jesse B Motlow. Before writing about this bottle, just a bit of history on the Motlow family and their connection to Jack Daniel's.

The Motlows were nephews of Jack Daniel of Lincoln County, Tennessee. In early 1901 the Motlows visited Birmingham and made plans to invest in a distillery here. They approached the Farmer's Bank of Lynchburg, in which Jack Daniel had a significant share, for a loan, but were denied. They quickly raised enough capital to buy out the Georgia-based partners in the bank and installed Lemuel as president and their younger brother, Thomas, still finishing his studies at Vanderbilt University, as cashier.

At the time the only distillery operating in Birmingham was the Birmingham Distilling Co. Quickly after funds were raised the Motlow Distilling Company was opened as the Motlow Brothers Distillers by Lemuel, John Franklin 'Spoon' and Jesse Butler and was operated at various times under various names until the state of Alabama enacted statewide prohibition in 1915.

In the 1907 City Directory of Birmingham, the Motlow Distilling Company was classified as a saloon, while the Birmingham Distilling Company held the lone entry under the heading of "Distilleries". John Franklin was no longer shown as an officer of the company, and a Thomas B. Motlow of Lynchburg was listed as co-owner. That business closed in the wake of Jefferson Country's local prohibition, which went into effect in 1908.

 After Jefferson County's prohibition law was repealed in 1911, the company returned to business as the Jack Daniel Distilling Company, owned by Lem Motlow. Lemuel took over the entire operation after Daniel died that October and his brother Jesse Butler was made Master Distiller. The Birmingham distillery produced the famous "No. 7 Lincoln County Whisky" from Birmingham during the period that Tennessee had enacted statewide prohibition. The plant also produced Lem's corn whisky, and perhaps his famed peach brandy as well. A painted advertisement for "Motlow's Corn and Jack Daniells' No. 7 Lincoln County Whiskies" can still be seen in Birmingham.

In the 1915 the Motlows also started the Jack Daniel Distributing Company from Birmingham. Around the time the family also opened another distillery in St Louis, Missouri, which took over for the Birmingham plant when Alabama's statewide prohibition law took effect in 1915. National prohibition forced the company out of business entirely in 1918. The Motlow's eventually re-opened their uncle's old Lynchburg distillery.

So Jesse Butler Motlow was the second Master Distiller at Jack Daniel's. To commemorate this, Jack Daniel's released a special bottle, the second in the Master Distiller-series. However in the first released batch there is an error, a misprint, which will make the bottles sold before they got called back, a special one for collectors. In the picture below you can see the error.

Jesse B Motlow was in fact Master Distiller from 1911 to 1941. The error is on the label, where they printed Jesse being Master Distiller up to 1944!