If it is aged it can be for as little as six months and must be in either un-charred barrels or used bourbon barrels.

Rye is slightly more powerful and spicy than bourbon cocktails made with rye are drier.Ĭorn Whiskeymust be at least 80% corn. Most of it is blended into other whiskeys to give them additional character and structure. Only a small amount of straight rye whiskey is sold today. As bourbon gained popularity beyond the southern US, bartenders increasingly substituted it for rye in cocktails like Whiskey Sour, Manhattan, and Old Fashioned. Rye was the prevalent whiskey of the northeastern US but largely disappeared after Prohibition. Other ingredients are usually corn and malted barley. Though permitted to label their products bourbon, Jack Daniel and George Dickel distilleries prefer to designate them as Tennessee Whiskey. It was recognized as a separate American style by the US Government in 1941 in a letter from the US Taxing Authority to the Jack Daniel Distillery. This whiskey variety is not specifically defined in Federal regulations ( Title 27 CFR Chapter 1 Subpart C Section 5.22) so is not required to meet any of the Federal codes for bourbon or any other whiskey. Tennessee Whiskeyis identical to bourbon in every way except it must be made in Tennessee and filtered through ten feet of sugar-maple charcoal prior to aging (called the Lincoln County Process, named for the original location of the Jack Daniel Distillery). Single-barrel bourbon is from one specifically chosen cask. Small-batch bourbons are bottled by blending the contents of specially selected barrels. Common examples are Jim Beam, Makers Mark, and Wild Turkey. Nearly all bourbon is aged four years and is made in Kentucky - which has the largest concentration of distilleries on the continent - though the only requirement is that it be made in the US. If it is aged two years or more it is additionally designated “straight” as in “straight rye whiskey.” A whiskey that fulfills all these requirements except that it is derived from less than 51% of any one specific grain is called “straight whiskey” without naming a grain.īourbon must be made from at least 51% corn. It must be aged in charred new oak barrels (corn whiskey is an exception). It must be distilled to not more than 80% alcohol by volume and the addition of coloring, caramel, and flavorings is not allowed. It must consist of at least 51% of a particular grain to be called by the name of the grain (corn whiskey is an exception). American whiskey is made from a fermented mash of cereal grain.

Bourbon vs whiskey wheat vs corn