What is Bourbon Whisky

Growing up I've always wondered ‘what is bourbon and why is Jack Daniels proud not to be a bourbon whisky?’ 

For a whisky to be Bourbon there are certain laws in place, this stops any distillery from claiming their whisky is bourbon.  To begin with bourbon must be made in the USA, many people believe it has to come from kentucky which is false (95% of bourbon comes from Kentucky but Bourbon can be made anywhere is the USA). Another characteristic of bourbon is it must by law have a mash bill with 51% corn, so depending on the rest of the ingredients will determine the smoothness of the bourbon, wheated bourbon will be smoother or mellower and rye bourbon will be spicier. 

The process is also under U.S. law, the mash must be distilled at 80% or less alcohol volume, put in a barrel (of which has another law) at 62.5% alcohol volume. After these two criteria are met the barrel aging can begin.  The barrel of which the bourbon goes into must be by U.S. law a new charred white oak barrel. This has been a problem in recent years as bourbon production has gone up which means there is a shoutout for charred white oak barrels.

Bourbon does not necessarily need to have an age statement unless it has been aged for less than four years and for it to be defined as straight bourbon it must be aged for less than two years.

So where does Jack Daniels come into all of this? Its from the U.S. isn’t it the same?

No. Jack Daniels is a Tennessee whisky which by law must be made in tennessee and must go through a filtering process with sugar-maple charcoal. This is the step which makes it ultra smooth to their fans.

Who would've thought there would be so many laws in american whisky making!

Written by Oliver Partington - 06/02/2020