A statue of Jack Daniels sits on a bench as a visitor enters a souvenir shop in the town where the distillery is located Wednesday, June 14, 2023, in Lynchburg, Tenn. A destructive and unsightly black fungus which feeds on ethanol emitted by whiskey barrels has been found growing on property near the distillery's nearby barrelhouses which has resulted in a lawsuit against it. – For decades, the whiskey and bourbon makers of Tennessee and Kentucky have been beloved in their communities.
“Our industry was always a handshake agreement,” Summers said. Now, those agreements are being broken. “I know it was tough. You had an industry that supports so many jobs and calls Kentucky home. At the same time, you've got communities that have helped build that industry. I know there are, right now, probably some difficult feelings," Beshear said in a news conference.
In lobbying for the end of the tax, the distillers’ group suggested the industry could leave Kentucky. Officials like Summers are calling that a bluff. He said Bullitt County does not want any new barrelhouses unless things change, and he is not alone. The “whiskey fungus” has been been a nuisance around liquor facilities for centuries, but the size and scope of the new barrelhouse complexes means much more ethanol is being released in a concentrated area. The fungus covers nearby homes and cars in a sooty black film, choking trees and shrubs.
Butler and several other neighbors want Jack Daniel’s to capture its ethanol emissions instead of releasing them into the neighborhood. The company would not comment on the fungus but spokesman Svend Jansen provided a statement saying it “will continue to work hard to be a good partner to all members of our community.”