Sour mash is like using a sourdough starter rather than a yeast packet. Sweet mash is when fresh yeast is used, rather than the more common sour mash process. Most Monongahela whiskey was made with a mix of malted and un-malted rye and a sweet mash. In the 18 th century, it became the preeminent beverage of the new country. The rye whiskey made there took the place of rum. The most popular rye whiskey of the era originated on the river Monongahela (MO-non-gah-HEEL-a) and its tributaries which ran through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland. When the British began taxing molasses, rum’s base ingredient, the colonies started looking for a homegrown substitute. (That’s 315 shots a year, which averages to a shot a day with Sundays off). They really enjoyed their rum, with consumption estimates running as high as 3.7 gallons per person per year. They also enjoyed the fruits of their southern neighbors’ labor in the form of rum. In the early days, colonists fermented anything they could get their hands on. German rye flourished in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland. The rye German immigrants brought with them from the regions of Palatinate and Hessen could handle the cold and the acidic soil found in the mid-Atlantic states. Rye, a member of the grass family that includes corn, barley, wheat, millet, and rice, is winter hardy and did better in the colonies than wheat or barley. The history of rye is one of ups and downs, bad luck and good. It makes one wonder why rye whiskey nearly disappeared. It’s what differentiates it from the sweeter, smoother, and rounder profile of bourbon. Like the name suggests, cinnamic acid is responsible for developing notes of cinnamon, anise, and clove, the “baking spices.” This spiciness is the main character of rye whiskey. The warm, baking spice notes are products of the enzymatic breakdown of arabinoxylans and lignin, which produce hydroxy-cinnamic acids. They create that flavor profile-a mix of oak, smoke, fruit, and spice-that makes rye whiskey so unique. But it is worth it because the compounds that make rye troublesome to produce are what make it so unique. This makes rye harder to distill than corn. When rye is mashed, these compounds create a gooey mash that is difficult to work with. Both compounds add to the viscosity of the mash. The kernel’s cell walls also contain arabinoxylans (hemicellulose, cellulose’s weaker younger brother), and lignin, a structural polymer that cross-links with arabinoxylans to create a more rigid cell wall. It’s a complex sugar or, to be technical, a polysaccharide that gets gummy when mashed. The cell walls of the rye kernel have compounds called beta-glucans. Unlike animals that use skeletons ( endo, like us, or exo, like crabs), plants have cell walls that give the plant structure and strength. Rye Whiskey’s uniqueness starts with the kernel. Why is Rye so Different From Bourbon or Scotch? It’s an oversight that should be remediated, but until it is, always check the label. The Canadian government never changed the regulations, so any whiskey produced in Canada can be labeled as rye, even if it doesn’t have any rye in the mash. Gradually, they moved to corn, which is cheaper and easier to distill. Once upon a time, all Canadian whiskey was made from rye. Surprisingly, Canadian rye might not even have a drop of rye in it. The extra rye gives these bourbons a spicy kick that’s similar to, but not to be confused with, a rye whiskey.Īnd while we are clearing things up, Canadian rye doesn’t always meet the U.S. Each has a mash bill with 18 percent or more rye the rest is primarily corn. There can be some confusion with the high-rye bourbons produced by Basil Hayden, Four Roses, Old Forester, and Woodford Reserve. Everything else, including the requirement of aging in charred new oak barrels, is the same. Unlike corn whiskey, the only difference between rye whiskey and bourbon is the mash bill. It’s an uncommon whiskey style, but like rye whiskey, one that is returning. There is even a classification for rye malt whiskey, which requires (you guessed it) 51 percent or more malted rye. Fifty-one percent wheat = wheat whiskey, and 51 percent malted barley = malt whiskey. Rye whiskey must have 51 percent or more rye in its mash bill (aka recipe).įifty-one percent corn = bourbon. To define rye whiskey, we turn to our favorite legal document, The Standards of Identity. If the last image isn’t the first to pop into your head, by the end of our Ultimate Guide to Rye Whiskey, we hope it will be. What do you think of when you think of rye whiskey? Is your head filled with images of hard-drinking cowboys or hard-bitten detectives? Bottles in brown paper bags littering Skid Row? Or do you think of a Manhattan, properly made with rye whiskey, in a swanky Prohibition Era club? Or just a glass of your favorite rye neat?
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