Corn whiskey is an American

liquor Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or h ...

made principally from

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

. Distinct from the

stereotypical In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

American

moonshine Moonshine is high-proof liquor that is usually produced illegally. The name was derived from a tradition of creating the alcohol during the nighttime, thereby avoiding detection. In the first decades of the 21st century, commercial dist ...

, in which

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...

is normally added to the mash, corn whiskey uses a traditional mash process, and is subject to the tax and identity laws for alcohol under federal law.

Legal requirements

Corn whiskey is made from a mash of at least 80 percent

and distilled to a maximum strength of 160

proof Proof most often refers to: * Proof (truth), argument or sufficient evidence for the truth of a proposition * Alcohol proof, a measure of an alcoholic drink's strength Proof may also refer to: Mathematics and formal logic * Formal proof, a c ...

(80%

alcohol by volume Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol ( ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) ...

). Unlike other

American whiskey American whiskey is whiskey (a distilled beverage produced from a fermented mash of cereal grain) produced in the United States. American whiskeys made from mashes with at least 51% of their named grains include bourbon whiskey, rye whiskey, ...

styles, corn whiskey is not required to be aged in wood. If aged, it must be in either uncharred or previously-used oak barrels and must be barreled at lower than 125 proof (62.5% abv). In contrast, a whiskey distilled from a mash consisting of at least 80% corn in a charred new oak barrel would be considered bourbon. Aging is usually brief – six months or less – during which time the whiskey absorbs color and flavor from the barrel while the off-flavors and fusel alcohols are reduced. A variant called straight corn whiskey is also produced, in which the whiskey is stored in used or uncharred new oak containers for two years or more. Whiskeys produced in this manner and aged for at least four years can be designated

bottled in bond Bottled in bond is a label for an American-made distilled beverage that has been aged and bottled according to a set of legal regulations contained in the United States government's Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits, as originally laid ...

if they meet additional requirements.

Availability

Many American whiskey distillers include unaged corn whiskeys in their product lines along with bourbons and other styles. A few large whiskey producers make unaged corn whiskeys but most corn whiskeys are made by smaller distillers located all around the country.

References

Whisky Maize-based drinks {{whisky-stub

Legal requirements

Availability

See also

References