The Hunting Master

Today we went to the Jagermeister factory for a tour. Jagermeister translates to hunting master and ther is no deer blood in Jager. I blame/credit my mother for my interest in tours of all sorts of things. Growing up, I think I toured everything possible from the Cape Cod potato chip factory to the new prison in CF. Anyway, I talked Patrick into taking a tour as brewery tours are interesting so Jager must be too and it was. The only thing was I didn't understand everything as the tour was conducted in German. Interesting facts I was able to take away with a bit of translation from Patrick:

• There are 56 herbs and spices in Jager <- Germans never say Jager, always Jagermeister
• Only 2 people know the recipie
• There are several secret ingredients in the recipie
• The secret ingredients are stored in unmarked boxes in a glass room
• The largest consumer is the US
• 10 years ago they sold 30 something million liters/year, now they sell that much in the US alone and 56 million L total
• The 1.75L bottle is only sold in the US (it is illegal to sell bottles of alcohol over 1.1L in Germany)
• Most of the production from the factory we visited was on its way to the US via Breman
• The entire company makes only 2 products
• Jager is stored in barrels for one year (see photo)
• New barrels are never used because they don't want the wood flavor
• the oldest barrel is from 1884