Barrel maker serving Jack to shutter Ala. facility

Independent Stave to close Trinity cooperage Sept. 14, eliminating 71 jobs at facility that supplies Jack Daniel’s barrels

8:30 p.m. July 17, 2026

DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor

A north Alabama cooperage that makes new white oak barrels for Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey will permanently close in September, eliminating 71 jobs.

Independent Stave Company will end production at Alabama Cooperage in Trinity on Sept. 14. Trinity is in Morgan County, about 70 miles west of Lynchburg.

The company said the closure is part of an effort to align production with current market demand and make greater use of its broader network of cooperages and stave mills.

“As part of our ongoing efforts to align production with current market demand, Independent Stave Company has made the decision to cease production operations at Alabama Cooperage in Trinity, Alabama, effective September 14, 2026,” a company representative said.

Independent Stave said investments and modernization projects at its other facilities would enable the company to continue providing customers with a reliable, long-term supply of barrels.

The company did not identify which plants would absorb the production now handled in Trinity.

Plant opened in 2014

Brown-Forman opened the Trinity facility in 2014 as the Jack Daniel Cooperage. The plant produced American white oak barrels for shipment to the Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, where they were filled with newly made whiskey and placed in barrelhouses for aging.

The facility was producing about 1,300 barrels per day in 2020, according to reports published at the time.

Brown-Forman sold the plant to Independent Stave in 2024, and the facility was renamed Alabama Cooperage. Under the agreement, Independent Stave continued supplying barrels for Jack Daniel’s.

The closure comes a little more than two years after the sale.

Independent Stave operates major cooperages in Missouri and Kentucky, as well as stave mills across North America. Its Tennessee operations include mills in Waynesboro and Rickman.

Barrels remain essential to Jack Daniel’s

Jack Daniel’s is aged only in new, charred American white oak barrels, making cooperages and stave mills a critical part of the distillery’s supply chain.

Staves are the curved wooden pieces that form the sides of a barrel. After a barrel is assembled, its interior is toasted and deeply charred.

The heating process breaks down natural sugars and other compounds in the wood. As the whiskey ages, it moves in and out of the oak, drawing much of its amber color, aroma, and vanilla, caramel, and toasted-oak flavors from the barrel.

Brown-Forman continues to own and operate its longtime cooperage in Louisville, Ky. As of 2024, that facility produced approximately half of the barrels used across Brown-Forman’s portfolio and supported the company’s barrel research and product development.

Neither Brown-Forman nor Independent Stave has said the closure is expected to disrupt barrel supplies for the Jack Daniel Distillery. Independent Stave said its broader manufacturing network would allow it to continue supplying barrels after the Trinity plant closes.