1. Bourbon Basics

Made in America

To make whiskey, you start by mixing a cooked mash of grain and water; then you add yeast and ferment the mash to produce alcohol. This process actually results in a three-grain beer. If you carry on and distill this liquid to increase its alcohol percentage by volume, you will end up with whiskey. Of course, unless you have a distilling license, this could get you arrested. Although it is legal to be a home brewer or to make wine for your own consumption, the U.S. government does not condone amateur distilling—it would lose too much tax revenue (in Kentucky about sixty cents of every dollar you pay for a bottle of bourbon goes toward state or federal taxes). So when you have a thirst for a drop of whiskey, you'll have to buy it.

As far as can be determined, the first whiskies were made in medieval times, and the place of origin was Ireland or Scotland, depending on which source you credit. The grain used to make Scotch whisky (note: there is no e in the spelling) is made primarily of malted barley (that is, the sprouted grains). Rye whiskey uses primarily rye, and bourbon is based on corn. In short, all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskies are bourbons.

Bourbon Specifics

Bourbon has some very specific requirements that were codified by Congress on May 4, 1964. By law, bourbon whiskey is “a distinctive product of the United States,” so corn-based whiskey can be made anywhere in the world, but it can be called “bourbon” only if it is made in America. The Federal Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits require the following ingredients and manufacturing techniques for bourbon:

• It must be made of a grain recipe (mash bill) that is at least 51 percent corn.
• It must be distilled to no higher than 160 proof (80 percent alcohol by volume).

Corn, barley, and rye—the grains fermented and distilled for most bourbons.

• It must be aged in new, charred oak barrels.
• Bourbon cannot be put into a container (usually a barrel, but it could be an oak bucket!) at higher than 125 proof (62.5 percent alcohol by volume).
• Bourbon cannot be bottled at lower than 80 proof. Only distilled water can be added to bourbon to adjust the proof.
• No additives of any kind can be used to flavor or color bourbon.
• Bourbon has no age requirement. As soon as the new whiskey touches the oak, it can be called bourbon. Bourbon that has been aged a minimum of two years can be designated “straight bourbon.”
• Bourbon aged less than four years must have an age statement on the label.
• If an age is stated on the label, it must be the age of the youngest whiskey in the bottle.

Most bourbon is made with far more than 51 percent corn—usually in the 70s. There is no limit on the amount of corn used: the recipe could be 100 percent corn, and the whiskey would still be bourbon if it met all the other standards. This is different from “corn whiskey,” which is aged in used or uncharred cooperage.

There is no requirement regarding the other grains used to make bourbon. Tradition, rather than legislation, has resulted in the use of rye, malted barley, and sometimes wheat. These grains are referred to as the “smalls,” since they are used in smaller proportions than corn. In the last few years, some distilleries have produced limited amounts of experimental bourbon using other grains, such as rice.

There is no requirement that bourbon be made in Kentucky, although the vast majority of it, about 95 percent, is. To be labeled “Kentucky bourbon,” the whiskey must be distilled in the state and aged in Kentucky for at least two years.

Bourbon Origins

While the definition of bourbon is rigorous, its origin is the subject of speculation and more than a few tall tales. You may even hear some of these tall tales presented as fact on distillery tours. One of the most popular stories is that farmer and Baptist preacher Elijah Craig introduced charred barrels to whiskey making. It seems that his barn caught fire and he didn't want to waste the charred wood, so he made it into barrels to store his whiskey. There is no evidence this is true, but it makes a great story. It may be that when the temperance movement was gathering momentum in the late nineteenth century, claiming that bourbon had been “invented” by a man of the cloth was valuable pro-alcohol propaganda.

What is true is that settlers of Irish, Scottish, and German descent brought distilling knowledge (and their stills) with them to the Ohio Valley. Thus, the earliest distillers were farmers, and they dominated whiskey making for several decades. When they arrived, they found that the most abundant grain—the one best suited to the local soil and climate, and the one already being cultivated by the Indians—was corn. Besides being the region's native grain, there was another incentive to grow corn: the “Corn Writs,” enacted by Virginia in 1779. As payment for their service in the Revolutionary War, men had been given land in what was then Virginia's westernmost county, Fincastle (Fincastle County would eventually become most of the state of Kentucky). The law stated that anyone who built a cabin and planted a forty-acre patch of corn had a legal claim to the land.

If a farmer's corn crop happened to be significant, storage could become a problem. The grain might rot or be eaten by vermin before it could be used as food, but not if it was distilled. So corn whiskey became both a common beverage on the frontier and a commodity to sell or to use as barter.

Oak trees were abundant in the region, and oak barrels had been used in Europe for centuries to age spirits as well as wine. (By the way, both distillers and wine makers have found that white oak [Quercus alba] is the best species for making barrels because it imparts the most desirable flavors.) But why were the barrels charred? Thriftiness (though probably not Elijah Craig's specifically) may be part of the answer. Farmers and merchants used barrels to store many commodities—salt pork, pickles, shellfish—in ice and sawdust. Once these barrels were empty, why not use them to store whiskey? Because most drinkers would shy away from pickle- or oyster-flavored whiskey, the barrels had to be cleaned and any offending odors and flavors erased, which was accomplished by burning off the layer that had come in contact with the previous contents. But would charring really exorcise the ghosts of dead fish or pickling brine?

Louisville bourbon historian Michael Veach offers a far more plausible scenario. By the late eighteenth century, one of the major markets for Kentucky's whiskey was New Orleans, a city largely populated by French Loyalists who enjoyed the taste of cognac, a distilled spirit aged in charred oak. (In addition to enhancing flavor and adding color, charring killed microbes that could taint the product.) Brothers Louis and Jean Tarascon fled France during the post-Revolution Reign of Terror and arrived in Pennsylvania in the 1790s. They became interested in the growing trade between settlements in the Ohio Valley and New Orleans and soon started a company in Pittsburgh to ship goods downriver. When one of their vessels was wrecked on the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville, they saw another business opportunity and built a mill and a warehouse on Shippingport Island near the Falls. Cargo-laden boats arriving in Louisville would off-load their goods, store them in a warehouse, and wait for enough rain to raise the water level and make the river navigable. Often they had to wait so long that they lost their customers for nondelivery of the merchandise. These lost sales certainly would have included whiskey, which the Tarascons could buy cheaply, store in charred barrels, and ship south. By the time it arrived in New Orleans months later, the whiskey would have acquired an amber color and some satisfyingly complex flavors. Granted, this story isn't as colorful as the one about the whiskey-making preacher, but culturally, it is certainly plausible.

Finally, there's the question of how bourbon got its name. In 1776 Virginia started dividing Fincastle into smaller counties, including Fayette, where the city of Lexington was located. In 1785 Fayette was divided, and the new county was named Bourbon in honor of the French royal family, in gratitude for France's aid against the British during the War of Independence. At that time, Bourbon County stretched from central Kentucky north to the port of Maysville on the Ohio River. Barrels of whiskey shipped along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers from Maysville had “Bourbon County” stamped on them to indicate their point of origin, and the whiskey became synonymous with the county. But since we're talking about bourbon, there's another explanation. Remember the cognac-loving French Loyalists of New Orleans, destination of so much of this “red liquor” from Kentucky? Many of their serious drinking establishments were concentrated along a thoroughfare also named in honor of the French royals—Bourbon Street. Was that how bourbon got its name? You are welcome to take your pick of explanations. In any case, by the 1820s the term bourbon was being used to specify corn-based whiskey from Kentucky and to differentiate it from rye whiskey produced in Pennsylvania.

How Bourbon Is Made Today

Some of the major developments in the evolution of bourbon making are described in subsequent chapters, but here's an overview of how bourbon is being made in the twenty-first century—a process that has changed little in 150 years. There is some variation from one distillery to the next (a topic covered on the tours), but in general, the first step is to boil milled field corn (not sweet corn) in water to make a hot porridge or mash. A portion of backset (sour mash saved from the previous fermentation) is added to ensure a consistent flavor. When the corn has boiled long enough, the temperature is lowered and rye or wheat, depending on the mash bill, is added. Finally, malted barley is added to the mash. The cooked mash is then pumped into fermenting vats, and yeast and more backset are added. The barley contains enzymes that help convert starches in the grains to sugar, which the yeast then ferments into alcohol.

The water is a very important ingredient and is a key reason why the bourbon industry has flourished in Kentucky. The state's limestone geology means that iron is filtered out of the water as it flows over the rock, and it becomes sweet-tasting mineral water. Whiskey made from water containing iron would turn black, which is absolutely unappealing. All the Kentucky distilleries use either water that comes from springs near or on the distillery property or city water (usually from the Ohio or Kentucky River) that has been filtered to remove fluoride and other chemicals. By the way, limestone's constituent mineral is calcium carbonate, which means that calcium (as well as high amounts of magnesium) is dissolved in the limestone-filtered water. So it is no coincidence that Thoroughbred horse breeding is another signature Kentucky industry. The calcium in the water and in the grass (which absorbs the mineral through its roots) helps build strong bones in the racehorses that drink and graze in the Bluegrass.

Each distillery has its own proprietary strain of yeast. All use brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), but the strains are unique populations of the microorganism. This is important, because the by-products of fermentation, besides ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide, are a class of fruity-smelling compounds called esters. Each strain of yeast produces a different ester—some may smell like apples, others like flowers. The complex of esters from a particular yeast strain helps give each bourbon its unique flavor. Change the yeast, and you change the bourbon.

Mash tub in which grains are cooked.

While touring the fermenting room, you will notice vats containing bourbon in various stages of fermentation. At the earliest stage, you will see large, vigorous bubbles. Stick your finger in the vat and get a taste. It will be sweet and taste a lot like hot, corn-flavored cereal. At the final stages, there are only tiny, infrequent bubbles. A taste test will reveal a very tangy flavor, which is why it's called “sour mash.”

The result of fermentation is called distiller's beer. Depending on the distillery, the alcohol content at this point is usually between 8 and 11 percent. The distiller's beer is introduced into a column still and pumped to the top. As it trickles down the length of the column, the temperature of the still fluctuates between the boiling point of ethanol (grain alcohol) and the boiling point of water—175 and 212 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively. The alcohol vapor is condensed to produce “low wines,” with a concentration of about 55 to 60 percent alcohol by volume (110 to 120 proof). The low wines are then put into a second still, called the doubler, and redistilled into “high wines” with a greater alcohol content of 65 to 80 percent alcohol by volume (130 to 160 proof).

Fermentation tank where yeast is added to the cooked mash, resulting in distiller's beer.

Column still that turns distiller's beer into low wines.

The thumper produces high wines, or new whiskey, and increases the percentage of alcohol by volume up to 160 proof.

Some distilleries do not allow the first distillate to condense. Instead, they add what amounts to a low-wine vapor directly into a still called a thumper, which contains hot water. The vapors bubble or “thump” in the water before being condensed as high wines. The clear alcohol is also referred to as “new whiskey” or “white dog” (so named for its high alcohol “bite”). Distilled water is added to adjust the concentration to a maximum of 125 proof before the liquid is put in new charred white oak barrels for aging.

The entire process from milling the grain to producing the new whiskey takes only two or three days. Of course, the whiskey won't be palatable bourbon until it has aged for several years in the oak. Climate also plays a part in bourbon's aging, and Kentucky's hot summers and cold winters are perfectly suited to the process. The barrel wood expands in summer, so the bourbon soaks into the charred portion, called the red layer; then it contracts in winter, forcing the whiskey back into the barrel interior. A few distilleries have climate-controlled warehouses to simulate this temperature cycle, but the vast majority depend on nature.

Because of the evaporation that takes place during aging, the proof when a barrel is “dumped” can be much higher than 125. Again, distilled water is added to adjust the proof. Before bottling, most bourbon is chill-filtered (the temperature is lowered, and the liquid is passed through a paper filter) to remove vegetable solids that could cause cloudiness (referred to as “flocking”) when the bourbon gets cold, such as when ice is added. Bourbon can also be filtered using activated charcoal, to which the solid particles stick. Flocking is generally considered undesirable, although a few premium bourbons are sold unfiltered because some bourbon connoisseurs maintain that flocking adds extra flavor. Once bottled, bourbon can last for decades—that is, if you don't drink it first.

How to Taste Bourbon

There's nothing mysterious about the art of tasting bourbon, but these tips will help you get the most flavor from your sip—after all, drinking any whiskey is about quality, not quantity. Some bourbons are best enjoyed neat, others with a splash of water; still others lend themselves to mixing in cocktails.

Flavor Profile

Not all bourbon drinkers like all bourbons, which is, of course, one of the reasons there are so many different ones available. Each has a distinctive flavor profile based on half a dozen major factors:

 

Grain Recipe. The type and proportion of grains in the mash bill affect the flavor of the whiskey. Think of how corn bread, whole wheat bread, and rye bread differ in flavor. Now imagine a multigrain bread baked with different kinds of flour and in a variety of proportions. The mash bill has a similar effect on the flavor of bourbon. By definition, bourbon is distilled predominantly from corn and malted barley, and the third grain is usually rye. When wheat is substituted for rye, the resulting whiskey is called a “wheated” bourbon. Again, consider the difference in flavor between rye bread and wheat bread, and you can understand how this factor changes a bourbon's character.

Evaluating bourbon in a Glencairn whiskey-tasting glass.

Water. The best water for making any whiskey, including bourbon, is iron free, so the water source is important. Kentucky's limestone-filtered water is excellent for making bourbon. The mineral content gives it a little sweetness and also provides a nutritional boost for the yeast as it carries out the task of fermentation.

Yeast. Yeast does more than turn the sugars in the mash into alcohol. It also delivers a raft of flavors in the form of complex, aromatic molecules called esters, which may have a fruity, flowery, spicy (especially cinnamon), or sweet (especially honey) aroma. If you detect spices in a bourbon's nose, the source is often the yeast, even though many people think rye accounts for this spiciness.

Distillation. The lower the distillation proof, the more concentrated the flavors from the mash bill and the yeast. Whether a column still or a pot still (or both) is used for the distillation can also make a difference, and single, double, and triple distillations have an effect as well. Distilleries make a variety of claims about their distillation processes.

Oak and Aging. The level of char of the oak barrel (from light to dark) and the length of time the bourbon stays in the barrel have a major effect on the bourbon's flavor as well as its color. Aging in oak provides most of bourbon's characteristic vanilla and caramel attributes. Other factors at work in aging include the barrel's location in the warehouse, whether the warehouse is temperature controlled, and the new whiskey's proof when it was introduced to the barrel.

Bottling. Both the proof at which the bourbon is bottled and how it is filtered (chill filtering or active charcoal) can affect the taste. Higher-proof bourbons tend to have greater concentrations of flavor, but they may also be “hotter.”

Evaluation

Glassware. The most desirable shape for a bourbon tasting glass is wide at the bottom and narrower at the top. This helps concentrate the vapors from the whiskey as they rise from the liquid. Suitable glasses might be a tulip-shaped wineglass, a brandy snifter, or (perhaps best) a Glencairn whiskey tasting glass (see photo).

Color. Bourbon comes in a range of colors: dark straw, light amber, gold, dark amber, orange, copper, and red. The time spent in the barrel, the depth of the char, and the amount of water added to adjust the proof are all factors in the color.

How to taste bourbon.

Nose. Before you take a taste, put your nose to the top of the glass and, with your mouth slightly open, inhale. The aromas are referred to as the whiskey's “nose,” and the action you are performing is called “nosing.”

Mouthfeel. When you sip the bourbon, allow it to start at the tip of your tongue and work its way to the back of your throat. The flavor profile will probably change. The sensation in your mouth—the mouthfeel—will range from creamy to oily to light.

Water. After you have tasted the bourbon neat, add a splash (about half a teaspoon) of water to the whiskey. This can release more and different flavors, especially in higher-proof bourbons. It is entirely up to you if you prefer a bourbon with or without water.

Descriptors: Vanilla, Caramel, and More

Everyone's palate is different. For instance, a good friend of mine, whose taste I usually trust implicitly, says that one of my favorite bourbons tastes like “rotting peaches,” a flavor I do not detect at all. But this shows the usefulness of having a vocabulary to describe what you taste. All bourbons have a characteristic vanilla and caramel flavor (more prominent in some than in others), which comes largely from aging in charred oak barrels. Beyond that is a raft of other characteristics that make tasting different bourbons so fascinating. The following list will help you pick out certain aromatics you are smelling or tasting. Not all these elements are present in all bourbons, and they occur in various combinations. Depending on your palate, you will probably detect flavor notes not listed here as well, but these descriptors will certainly give you a start in “speaking bourbon.”

 

Sweetness: brown sugar, burnt sugar, butterscotch, candied fruit, candy corn, caramel corn, honey, maple syrup, marzipan, molasses, spun sugar, toffee

Fruits and Nuts: almond, apple, apricot, banana, black currant, cherry, citrus, dark fruit, date, fig, hazelnut, lemon, nutty, orange, orange peel, peach, pear, plum, red currant, tangerine, walnut

Spices and Flowers: allspice, black pepper, chocolate, cinnamon, clove, clover, cocoa, floral, licorice, mint, nutmeg, peppermint, rose, violet

Other: bacon, butter, cedar, cereal, corn, grainy, grassy, leather, manure, oak, pine, popcorn, smoke, tobacco, wood, wood smoke