What Makes Bourbon Bourbon?
The Kentucky Derby just was, summer will be soon--bourbon is on the brain. Not much is better with charred meats than a sweet but sturdy spirit that's as good served neat as it is after ice cubes have slowly folded into it. So I stopped by Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn to see how it's made.
Bourbon made outside of Kentucky is not bourbon, you say? Not true. Kings County co-owner and Master Distiller Colin Spoelman (who hails from Kentucky) showed me the federal code, in fact. I won't bore you with the five or so pages of statutory mumbo jumbo, but here's the section that lays down the law on what makes bourbon bourbon:
"Bourbon whisky", "rye whisky", "wheat whisky", "malt whisky", or "rye malt whisky" is whisky produced at not exceeding 160 proof from a fermented mash of not less than 51 percent corn, rye, wheat, malted barley, or malted rye grain, respectively, and stored at not more than 125 proof in charred new oak containers; and also includes mixtures of such whiskies of the same type.
The document proceeds to discuss Scotch whisky, Irish whisky, and Canadian whisky, but there's not a lick of geography mentioned in the bourbon section. "Our lawyer actually didn't think it could be called bourbon" because he believed the same Kentucky-only myth, says Spoelman. "He spent the first hour of our first meeting on the phone, talking to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau."
Okay, so Kings County is legally making bourbon in New York. But why? "I like the culture of bourbon," says Spoelman. "There's a little bit of a snobbery associated with Scotch that isn't there with bourbon," which he says he appreciates.
Furthermore, "it is the most classic of American spirits. It's the only American spirit, really."
And with that, we bid you a happy summer.
--Julia Bainbridge
Photo Credit: Colin Spoelman
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