Jack Daniel's master distiller Jimmy Bedford is pleased as punch to know that the bar crowd has been calling for Jack and Coke in increasing numbers over the past few years — so much so that 60 percent of U.S. Jack Daniel's sales are consumed in that form.

But he'll still take his on the rocks, thank you. Or maybe, when he's at home and nobody will take him to task about it, with just a splash of water. And he likes to keep a bottle in the kitchen, too, for cooking. "Anywhere you can use vanilla, you can substitute Jack Daniel's," he said.

Though he travels a great deal now — including a trip to the Islands this week — home for Bedford, 66, is Lynchburg, Tenn., pop. 361, where he's lived all his life. The son of a farmer, he thought he might become a veterinarian, but like most people in Lynchburg, he found himself working for Jack Daniel's during high school and college, and in 1968, he was asked to join the distillery department full time. He apprenticed under Frank Bobo until 1988, when Bobo retired, and he's only the sixth master distiller Jack Daniel's has ever had.

His job: Keep it consistent. Every bottle or barrel of Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey had better taste like every other bottle or barrel, or his customers will know the reason why. This involves a lot of tasting — and spitting — so he can keep both his head and his figure.

The Advertiser talked to Bedford while he was getting ready for a promotion at last weekend's NASCAR Watkins Glen International in upstate New York. You'll just have to imagine his gravelly voice and Tennessee twang.

Q. What's the recipe for making Tennessee sour-mash whiskey?

A. We never change our recipe. Our recipe is three grains — barley, malt and rye — and

the water from a limestone cave, mineral-free water. We cook the grains, ferment the mash, distill the liquor, put it through a charcoal mellowing process, age it in oak casks and then it's in the warehouse, where it'll stay for four or five years. The charcoal mellowing is what makes the difference. We use maple, a very prevalent tree in our part of the country, usually grows on the hillsides and in rocky areas, and we cut it and pile it up in a particular way and do a controlled burn on it and put the charcoal in the mellowing vat, and the whiskey is allowed to seep down through the charcoal prior to going into the barrel, and it smooths it out and takes away some of the undesirable characteristics.

That step is what makes the difference, it's what makes it a Tennessee sour-mash whiskey and not a bourbon.

By the way, the term "blend" does not exist in my vocabulary. We do not blend anything together. When we're bottling, we intermingle barrels from the same batch, but we don't blend in other ingredients.

Q. How does Tennessee sour-mash whiskey differ from Scotch?

A. There is a lot of difference between the products. (Scotch) uses 90 percent barley, and they use hops in the formula, and they fire their boilers with peat, and that gives it some of the flavor. Then they age it in oak barrels from Kentucky. About 85 percent is in those barrels; the other 15 percent is aged in cherry barrels.

Q. There are several kinds of Jack Daniel's whiskey; describe the differences.

A. Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 ($16-$20) is the standard — toasted oak, caramel, slightly vanilla. It's not gonna be harsh; it's gonna be very smooth, some people say sweet. I can't say I taste sweet, though. Gentleman Jack Rare Tennessee Whiskey ($20-$25), which we introduced in 1988, goes through the charcoal before aging and then again after. It's bonded 80 proof just like Old No. 7, and it's a little more mellow. Single Barrel ($35-$45), which we introduced in 1997, we age a little bit longer in the top portion of the warehouse, and it's bottled at 94 proof. It's going to have a little more characteristics of the barrel, be a little more full-bodied. It's bottled one barrel at a time and is never mixed or mingled with another barrel.

(A hot trend is for a bar or private company to buy an entire barrel for promotional purposes. For about $9,000, you get roughly 240 bottles of Single Barrel Jack, with a personalized "necker" tag.)

Those bikers will roll on up to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar in Jackson, Wyo., and buy a souvenir bottle, and they wouldn't drink it for nothing. They just put it down in the side saddle and throw out some clothes.

Q. If I order Jack in the average bar, which one am I getting?

A. Well, here in the bar this afternoon, I made sure to order my Single Barrel, because that builds notoriety into the brand, but about 96 percent of everything we sell is the regular Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 with the black label.

Q. Does Jack Daniel's pair well with food, and how do you like to use it in cooking?

A. I guess you'd have to say as a Southern guy — I can't say a gentleman — I love to cook, and if I'm gonna cook, I'm gonna use Jack Daniel's. Of course, in Tennessee, I don't have the ocean around me like you do, so I'm probably gonna be cooking meat. I enjoy a steak with Jack Daniel's. My hobby is curing country hams, and at Thanksgiving and Christmas, I boil a country ham, and after it gets boiled and the bone is taken out and the skin taken off, I score the fat and put cloves down in there and then I'll take Jack Daniel's and brown sugar and make a little syrup solution and pour it over that and put it back in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, and it just caramelizes the sugar, and that makes an excellent glaze.

Tomorrow on TV, we're going to do a marinade of Jack Daniel's, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, green onion and brown sugar and marinate rib-eye steaks or a T-bone, and that is just excellent. We use a lot of recipes from Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House (a restaurant in Lynchburg), and they use it in pies. If they make a whipped cream, they put a little Jack Daniel's in. They make a tipsy cake, like a fruitcake, where they saturate the fruit with Jack and soak the cake with Jack Daniel's. Yeah, cooking is big with Jack Daniel's.

Q. Is it true Lynchburg is in a "dry" county, one where liquor may not be served in public places?

A. I get asked that all the time. Yes, ma'am, it's true.

Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.