Lets See if you Retain What You’ve Studied

1. What makes a whiskey “straight’?
2. What is the definition of the broad category of “whiskey”?
3. What is a small batch bourbon or whiskey?
4. How do you make an Old Fashioned?
5. What is the difference between a wheat bourbon, and a wheat whiskey?
6. What does the grain RYE bring to the final flavor of a whiskey?
7. What percentages make up the “Distiller’s Rule Of Thumb”  and how they account for in the final flavor profile of a whiskey?
8. What distiller championed the “Bottled In Bond Act of 1897”?
9. What does it mean to “char” the inside of a barrel?
10. What is the #1 flavor yielded from a charred American White Oak barrel?
11. By law we must use what type of wood in aging bourbon/rye/wheat whiskey?
12. Who created the first single barrel bourbon at the Ancient Age Distillery in 1984?
13. Who coined the term “small batch” describing his bourbon in 1987?
14. Who created the bourbon “Elijah Craig 12 year” in 1986?
15. Who created Bernheim Original Wheat Whiskey?
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Answers

1. To be “staight” the whiskey must be aged for 2 years by the type of oak specified for their category (bourbon, corn, wheat, etc).

2. Whiskey – is from a fermented mash from any grains, produced anywhere in the world, distilled up to 190 proof, aged in oak, bottled at no less than 80 proof, and must look, smell, and taste like whiskey, and you can add color/flavor/sugars to it to achieve that.

3. There is no definition for “small batch” but it’s generally agreed that a small batch differs from a single barrel as it is a mingle of barrels from either certain areas of the warehouses, certain ages, or hand picked barrels/lots of barrels.  There is no minumum or maximum number of barrels for a small batch, although some distilleries have their own definition.

4. To make an Old Fashioned, you take sugar along with a half slice or orange and cherry and aromatic bitters and muddle them in an Old Fashioned glass…then add bourbon and water.

5. A “Wheat Bourbon” has to be at least 51% corn.  But a “Wheat Whiskey” must be at least 51% wheat in the recipe.

6. Rye brings that nice white pepper spice, or carroway seed flavor…it presents itself on the back of the tongue.

7.  10% Yeast Strain  15% Distillation  25% small grains/fermentation  50% Maturation

8. Col. Edmund H. Taylor

9. You can’t just toast it, the inside of the barrel must catch on fire.

10. Vanilla

11. Oak.  It just states oak, no specific type.  Although the industry standard is American White Oak.

12.  Elmer T. Lee (Ancient Age Distillery, now Buffalo Trace)

13. Booker Noe (Jim Beam Distillery)

14. Parker Beam (Heaven Hill Distillery)

15. Craig Beam (Heaven Hill Distillery/”Bernheim” Distillery)