Here in the good ol’ US of A, we bleed whiskey with veins gushing full of rye, wheat, and bourbon. It’s a boldly flavorful cornucopia of grain distillates, and a patchwork of production regulations governs each of them.
However, our national whiskeys share at least these four requirements:
- The maximum distillation proof is 160 (or 80 percent ABV).
- The base grain (corn for bourbon, rye for rye, etc.) must be at least 51 percent of the grist.
- The maximum barrel-entry proof is 125 (or 62.5 percent ABV).
- It must mature in new, charred oak barrels.
That last requirement merits some deeper conversation because it affords the distiller quite a bit of latitude when it comes to whiskey character.
Raise a Toast to Char
Sure, we know that whiskey barrels need to be made from oak, and 99.999 percent of the time it will be American white oak (Quercus alba). So, that part of the equation is a relatively fixed variable.
But what about the char level? All the regulations say is “charred”—so, in theory, we can get a little creative here. First, let’s talk about the charring process, what it is, and what it does to the barrel.