What You Really Need to Know About American Whiskey

With new bars from Brooklyn to San Francisco devoting shelves and shelves to everything from Jack Daniel's to small-batch bourbons, it's never been easier to become acquainted with American Whiskey, The U.S. of A.'s most potent, ballsy, rip-roaring spirit.
For one thing, it's not just bourbon. There's rye, Tennessee, corn, and more recently, other, unofficial styles from microdistilleries cropping up everywhere from New York to Michigan to California. And although no one is saying scotch is crap (the Scots and Irish were the ones to bring whiskey to the States, after all), the American variety can be much more approachable—it's noticeably sweeter, not as smoky, and for the most part, less expensive. Generally, American whiskey is made up of a mixture of corn, rye, wheat, and barley (collectively referred to as the mash) and is aged in charred-oak barrels, but each variety has its own characteristics.

Bourbon

What scotch is to Scotland, bourbon is to the U.S.A. It's produced mostly in Kentucky, although it can come from any state as long as it's a minimum of 51 percent corn and is aged in new barrels. The traditional mashbill (i.e., recipe) is approximately 75 percent corn, 15 percent rye, and 10 percent barley, but in wheated bourbons like Maker's Mark, the rye is substituted with wheat to further soften the flavor.

Tennessee Whiskey

This is essentially bourbon with one extra step in its production: After distillation, it's filtered, very slowly, through ten feet of sugar-maple charcoal—what's known as the Lincoln County Process. Smooth with a sweet finish, this easy-drinking spirit is the reason Jack Daniel's is the world's best-selling whiskey.

Rye

Bitter and peppery—think rye bread versus corn bread—rye packs a flavorful punch and used to be the American whiskey. European immigrants found that it was easier to grow rye here than barley (the main ingredient in scotch). So why isn't it more common? After Prohibition, drinkers developed a taste for the milder-tasting bourbon. Rye has recently made a big comeback as the whiskey for those in the know.

Corn Whiskey

Not sure how this nonmatured whiskey tastes? Its nicknames include moonshine, ruckus juice, and mule kick. Clear and strong as gasoline, this stuff is more fun to drink if you tell this story: When a whiskey tax was imposed in 1791, disgruntled distillers migrated to corn-rich regions, where they began production.

Microdistilled

Microdistillers often experiment outside the legal defintions of the whiskeys above, producing everything from re-creations of American whiskeys from the eighteenth century (Anchor) to a blend of Georgia peach juice with bourbon mash (Leopold Bros.). Whether that's your thing or not, you have to appreciate that the renegade, innovative spirit that made American whiskey what it is today is still brewing.