Now that American single-malt whiskey is an official category—attracting a lot of attention, in the meantime—its codification comes with new rules about how it can be made and labeled. And while some may worry that these rules could hinder experimentation, there’s still plenty of room for distillers to distinguish themselves through their process.
One of the most prominent ways you can do that is through the decision on whether to boil the single-malt wort before fermentation. That choice has far-reaching impacts on many aspects of the whiskey.