Tennessee residents who live near the Jack Daniels distillery are attempting to stop the company from constructing more facilities as the whiskey fungus spreads to surrounding towns.
The fungus, Baudoinia compniacensis, grows on a liquor that evaporates during the aging process, also referred to as “angel share.”
It seems to follow almost anything, including houses, cars, street signs, trees, and patio furniture.
The centuries-old black, sticky substance is nothing recent to those that live near bourbon, rum and whiskey producers.
But Jack Daniel’s, which he owns Brown-Formancurrently has six warehouses – called barrels – in Lincoln County, Tennessee, and plans to construct a dozen more in the future.
![A stop sign in a housing estate near the Jim Beam manufacturing and bottling plant in Frankfort, Kentucky, on April 23, 2014, is covered in a fungus called Baudoinia.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007797977.jpg?w=1024)
AND Tennessee woman sued her local zoning office in January in an try and prevent the construction of 14 more distilleries unless ventilation systems were installed, as she claimed hard-to-remove fungus had damaged her nearby property, including the venue for a party and wedding.
On March 1, the court ordered Jack Daniel’s construction stoppage time.
Residents of Kentucky and even Ontario, Canada, have encountered similar fungi, which they imagine pose a harmful health and environmental threat.
![The whiskey mushroom driven by Jack Daniels is attacking the city](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007798130.jpg?w=1024)
A spokesman for Jack Daniel’s issued a lengthy statement to The Post which read:
“During the site and construction process, we worked closely with Lincoln County and provided all information that local officials asked for, in addition to complying with legal requirements, strict industry guidelines, and the rigorous internal standards we follow in constructing warehouses.
“Anyone who has visited the Jack Daniel Distillery or every other maturing distillery has probably noticed the presence of microflora.
“The microflora grows on trees, buildings and other structures around distilleries and warehouses.
“The ethanol released from the barrels during maturation, also referred to as ‘angel’s share’, is only one of many food sources for the microflora.
“More common in warm and humid environments, it is usually present in and around non-distillation areas resembling food processing corporations and bakeries and dams adjoining to bodies of water,” the company continues.
“Although we are used to the microflora, we realize that some people may not like its appearance and the inconvenience it could cause.
“Based on the information available, we imagine this is just not harmful to individuals or their property.”
![The whiskey mushroom grows on a signboard in Lawrenceburg near the Wild Turkey distillery and bourbon warehouses.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007797976.jpg?w=1024)
Jack Daniel’s statement also addressed the cost-effectiveness of customizing ventilation.
“As for the air filtration technology that some have proposed as a solution, it is straightforward to say but impossible.
“The casks require ventilation – and are designed to accomplish that naturally – to permit the whiskey to maneuver out and in of the recent charred oak casks during the aging process.
“Existing independent and government research shows that there isn’t a reasonably available control technology that forestalls ethanol emissions without significantly adversely affecting the taste and quality of Jack Daniels or every other aging whiskey,” the statement concluded.