Nashville, Tennessee

Ah, Nashville, Music City USA, home of hot chicken, iconic street art and Vanderbilt University. No trip to Nashville would be complete without a walk down Broadway, the acoustics of hopeful musicians escaping the open doors from the row of Honky Tonks. The energy is high, the music is loud, the drinks are named in southern style puns.

On our first trip to Nashville, Drew and I were lucky enough to be guided by our friend, cousin, and Nashville resident, Kaelyn Warne. She took a break from her graduate studies in Environmental Engineering, and from hosting her educational science podcast “Seasoned and STEAMed”, to acquaint us with Nashville's nightlife. The three of us hopped from rooftop bars, watching the plethora of bachelorette parties dance in the street, ever hopeful for a sighting of Kid Rock’s fedora or of the party-side of Miley Cyrus’s mullet. The night finished in Printer’s Alley, where we absorbed the energy from the string of musical performances whilst sitting in historic buildings dating as far back as the 1940s.

The lesser known gem of Nashville

All this to say, the music scene in Nashville is definitely worth experiencing if you find yourself in the area. I however, am an old soul, more intrigued by lesser known local gems than packed nightclubs. So to continue our tour of the city, Drew and I wandered a mile northwest of Broadway, finding ourselves on the front porch of Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery. We had heard a rumor that this newly resurrected distillery bore a liquor license older than Jack Daniels, who famously brands its bottles as “Old No. 7”. Sure enough, before we even graced its entrance, the overhanging sign assured us that we were about to enter “Old No. 5”.

The history of Nelson’s Green Brier is so inspiring that it demands to be retold, and its whiskey so good that it motivated me to research the science behind their trademark sour mash recipe.

The story of Nelson’s Green Brier is best heard while walking around their warehouse, and so as best as you can, imagine you stand in their slightly chilled storeroom, surrounded by stacks of whiskey barrels, your nose excited by the sweet smell of yeast and malt. Que soothing tour-guide voice of your choice.

Charles Nelson was only 15 years old when his father, John Philip Nelson, decided to move his family from a small village in Germany for hope of a better life in America. In 1850, before boarding his voyage across the Atlantic, John consolidated the entirety of his family’s wealth into gold, sewing it into his clothes for safekeeping. In a rather devastating series of events, intense storms during the journey threw many passengers into the water. John, being one of these unfortunate souls, sank quickly while weighed down by the gold, leaving his six children both fatherless and penniless as they first set foot on American soil.

Pause for reaction.

Then, kindly remind me to empty the spare change out of my pockets before I get on another boat.

As the oldest boy of his siblings, Charles quickly took on the responsibility of providing for his family. He began to make soap as his father had done while in Germany, but he soon became a skilled craftsman, meeting and learning from butchers, distillers and grocers. He eventually started his own grocery store which became famous for its coffee, meats and whiskey. With the overwhelming demand for his whiskey far exceeding the rest of his sales, he sold his grocery business, opting to focus his attention on his Tennessee Whiskey and soon making it globally known. 

After his perseverance resulted in this amazing story of success and achievement, Charles died in 1891 at the age of 56, leaving his late wife Louisa to run the business by herself. In my eyes, Louisa is the unsung hero of this story, independently running the Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery in a time when women weren’t given the right to vote, and typically denied access to tasting room floors across the country. Because the culture of the time meant many men would find the presence of a woman in a distillery offensive, Louisa silently steered the success of the distillery until 1909, when prohibition forced Louisa to close its doors.

Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery was resurrected in 2009 and is now run by the direct descendants of Charles and Louisa who use the original sour mash recipe that made the brand famous over 100 years earlier.

The science of sour mash

Sour mash is the technique used in making most Tennessee whiskeys. Whiskey is made from grain, often being a proprietary blend of corn, barley, rye and wheat which provide depth of flavor for the finished product. For the legendary Nelson’s Sour Mash, corn, wheat and malted barley is used. These grains must first be dried, milled, added to water, and finally mashed in order to break down the starch. Starch, found in high concentrations in grains, is a carbohydrate composed of glucose molecules all bound together in glycosidic, covalent bonds (a type of chemical bond which works by the sharing of electrons between individual atoms). Thus, this mashing physically breaks down starch into its component parts of glucose, creating a highly saturated, sugary solution that I’m sure would knock your socks off.

At this stage, yeast is added to the mixture, prompting the process of alcoholic fermentation where yeast (which is actually a fungus (I know, try not to think too much about that)) turns glucose into cellular energy called ATP. This process produces both carbon dioxide and ethanol as byproducts, with the ethanol being the target of interest for most distillers and whiskey lovers alike. During this process of fermentation, it is extremely important that the pH of the mash be highly regulated, with yeast flourishing in a slightly acidic range of 4 to 6, depending upon the strain of yeast. Allowing the mash to have a higher, or more basic, pH puts the solution at increased risk for unwanted bacterial growth which I highly suspect would not give the consumer a desirable mouth-feel.

When the solution’s alcohol content is optimal, the liquid from the mash is extracted from the yeast, a process that utilizes sugar maple charcoal for Nelson’s Sour Mash. It is then finally left to age in oak barrels, where it absorbs flavors from the barrel itself to add to the complexity of its flavor profile. In the end, a sip of Nelson’s Hand Made Sour Mash brings notes of brown sugar, caramel and cinnamon and will leave you wondering why all whiskey can’t taste this good.

Discover it for yourself

Charles Nelson is not only the creator of the original Tennessee whiskey, but he is the embodiment of the American dream. Starting with nothing but the clothes on his back, Charles Nelson created a legacy which has since been carried by his wife Louisa, who reminds us that no obstacle is too large to overcome, and his grandsons Andy and Charlie, who run the business today. Even if you’re not a whiskey fan yourself, I encourage you to take the walk up to Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery, where you may have a chance to meet members of the Nelson family and learn more about the history of Tennessee in the 1800’s. When you take a sip of the handmade sour mash for the first time, close your eyes, picture what it would have been like for Charles Nelson to finalize his recipe more than 100 years ago, or imagine the delight when Andy and Charlie finally finished piecing together the recipe, tasting for the first time what their grandfather has created before they were even born. Everyone has their favorite recipes. Apple pie tastes like a picnic on the fourth of July; mashed potatoes and turkey taste like thanksgiving; Nelson’s Green Brier Whiskey tastes like the legendary Nashville, Tennessee.

Thank you for joining us at Discovery Detour, where the destination is always unknown.