Bourbon, Straight Up

I’m so excited to announce that the next Cock’s Tales meeting is Saturday the 30^th.  In this installment, we will be moving away from vodka and on to whisky, more specifically; bourbon. Everyone at the last meeting loved the blind tasting format so much that we are doing it again. At the risk of sounding like an easily excitable teenager I’m going to say, OMG, I can’t wait! There are so many great bourbons on the market today, and it is going to be hard to narrow it down to just a few for the tasting. But, I have some time, so until then, here is a little something to hold you over:

First off, as I stated earlier, bourbon is apart of the whisky family of spirits.  Well that’s great, what’s a whisky? Aheam.. A whisky is any spirit distilled from a mash of grain and then aged in wood barrels.  The type of grain used, the amount of time spent in the barrel and the type of barrels used is determined by the distiller or the laws governing the type of whisky being made in the particular region the whisky is being produced. There are also different spellings of the word Whisky ß-- that way and Whiskey. Which way do we spell it? “The United States use to use the e, but now omits it in the Standards of Identity but permits its use in a traditional context” – Grossman’s Guide to Wines, Beers, and Spirits, 7^th edition. However, after a quick pursing of the bourbon section at my work, I see that the e is indeed on many of the labels.  Therefore, my conclusion, based on observations, is that, in America at least, no one gives a flying flip about how you spell whisky! ß and that right there is how I’m going to spell it, because it’s less letters for me to type, so :P (unless I’m talking about a specific brand that spells it with that damned e).

But, I digress, we are suppose to be talking about bourbon specifically.  Bourbon is the only truly American spirit.  Whisky distilling was happening in America since the 1600’s but it wasn’t until the 1780’s that a unique form of whisky was distilled in Bourbon County Kentucky (we have title). This new form of whisky was made primarily from corn since it was more plentiful and cheaper than the more commonly used rye.  In 1964, America defined bourbon more specifically with bourbon laws. In order for a distiller to have the word bourbon on the label they had to use between 51 and 80% corn in the mash. Any less and it is labeled as whatever the predominant ingredient is (i.e. rye whisky, wheat whisky).  Any more and it is labeled as corn whisky. Other ingredients, the amount of which is determined by the distiller, are rye, barley malt and sometimes wheat. It also must be aged at least two years in new, charred, white oak barrels.   Bourbon can be made in any state of the US, but only bourbon from Kentucky can list the name of the state on the label, and that is where the majority of bourbons come from (in fact I don’t know of any that come from another state, but I’m sure they’re out there [Just an FYI: Jack Daniels is not a bourbon, it’s a Tennessee whisky, but I’ll get into that later]).  One more thing that makes bourbon unique is the sour mash, or yeasting back, process. Now, keep in mind that not all bourbons use the sour mash process and it’s not a government requirement, but the majority of bourbon makers do use it.  In the sour mash method, at least one quarter of the mash must be from a previous distillation. There is a bit more to it, but that is the jest of it and all that you really need to know. 

Anywho,, that’s bourbon whisky in a nutshell. I hope you found it informative.  In the next issue of the Cock’s Tales I will give a quick overview of the bourbons we will be sampling at the meeting.  Should be exciting!