Bourbon

Question 1

What are the requirements to make Bourbon ?

Answer 1

・Made from a mash bill of min. 51% corn.
・Added with a selection of small grains (rye, wheat or malted barley).
・Distilled no higher than 80% abv.
・Aged at no more than 62.5% abv, in new charred oak barrels, for a min of 2 years.
・No color adjustment is allowed.

Question 2

What is a mash bill ?

Answer 2

The mix of grains (corn/maize, rye, wheat, barley) in a whisky.

Question 3

In Bourbon making, what flavour provides malted barley ?

Answer 3

Flavour, a “biscuity sweetness”, and a dry finish.

Question 4

In Bourbon making, what flavor provides corn ?

Answer 4

The Bourbon signature: soft sweetness.

Question 5

In Bourbon making, what flavors provides rye ?

Answer 5

Its attack. Rye is aromatic, lemon-accented. In middle palate: intense, acidic and slightly oily quality.

Question 6

In Bourbon making, what flavors provides wheat ?

Answer 6

A gentled rounded quality, alongside notes of honey.

Question 7

Explain the steps of Bourbon cooking/mashing.

Answer 7

1) Corn is ground into a meal.
2) Cooked at a high temperature with a small amount of malted barley (to help to liquefy the corn slurry).
3) Corn mash is cooled before rye or wheat is added (to avoid rye balls and bacterial infection).
4) Rye is cooked.
5) Temperature is dropped again, and the rest of the malted barley is added (for its enzymes which convert the starches into fermentable sugars).

Question 8

What is the sour mash process ?

Answer 8

A process, especially for North American whiskies, where the acidic backset is added to a fermenter. The backset must contribute at least 25% of the total mash (in the USA, a mash containing no backset may be known as “sweet mash”).