September is National Bourbon Heritage Month , a celebration of America ’s “ aboriginal spirit . ” I celebrate bourbon somewhat much year - orotund , but it ’s nice to have everyone else bring together in for a little while . If you ’re not too familiar with the all - American whisky , here ’s a few things to catch you up to speed .
1.First thing first : Where ’d the name occur from ? The common explanation is that the hooch is named for the original Bourbon County , Kentucky , which covered a far larger area than the modernistic county ( which has no distilleries today ) and come to be called “ Old Bourbon . ” As the corn whiskey made by expanse distiller was shipped around the country , the barrels were stamp with the county ’s name , and people started calling the Kentucky whiskeysbourbonto differentiate them from other regional styles . Bourbon County , in turn of events , was named for the royal House of Bourbon , which produced monarch that rule over France , Spain , Sicily , Naples , Spain and elsewhere .
There ’s also an alternating explanation of the name that credits it to the whiskey ’s popularity in New Orleans and queer imbiber seeking out the whiskey sold on Bourbon Street , or “ that Bourbon dynasty whiskey . ”
2.While bourbon was born in Kentucky and much of it is still made there today , bourbon doesn’thaveto come from Bourbon County or the Bluegrass State . What piddle bourbonbourbon , harmonize to the Federal Standards of Identity of Distilled Spirits , is this :
Bourbon that meets those standards , and hasbeen aged for at least two years can be labeledstraightbourbon .
3.The “ proof ” of a Bourbon dynasty or other spirit is a measure of its alcoholic strength , fix in the U.S. as twice the share of alcoholic beverage by intensity . So , for example , the bourbon that start into the barrel at 125 test copy is 62.5 percentage alcohol . The term comes from 18th one C Britain , where sailors “ proved ” their rum ration were not watered down by splashing gunpowder with the intent and then igniting it . If the pulverization burn , the rum was legit .
4.Last year , Kentucky ’s distilleries filled 1,007,703 gun barrel with delicious bourbon . They had n’t hit the million - drum milepost since 1973 , and the busy class brought their total inventory to 4.9 gazillion barrel . Kentucky now has more cask of aging whiskey than it does people ( the population is 4.3 million ) . The 2012 tax - tax note value of all that bourbon was $ 1.7 billion .
5.Bourbon ’s beginning are n’t well documented , but popular fable credits the first batch to Baptist preacher Elijah Craig . Ever thrifty , Craig supposedly re - used an sure-enough barrel to age some rest home - made corn hooch and hygienize it by char — giving it a unique color and flavor . More likely , bourbon has no one creator . Corn whisky was distill in Kentucky before Craig arrived from Virginia , and aging in charred barrels is also documented decennary earlier as a means of dealing with “ sap bleb ” in the woodwind instrument that could alter the whisky ’s flavor .
6.You’ll sometimes see bottles labeledsour mash bourbon . This does n’t describe the smack , but means that the whisky was made using the “ sour mash process , ” where themash — the mixture ofgrain , malt , and water that the sprightliness is distilled from — comprise some material from a previously fermented and used mash . This help maintain the chemical balance of the new mash , discourage growth of foreign bacteria , and maintains consistency and tone from batch to batch .
7.Another condition you might see on a bottle isBottled - in - BondorBonded . This means the bourbon was made at a individual distillery , by one distiller in one distillation season , get on for at least four years in a federally stick and supervised warehouse , and bottled at 100 substantiation .
Bonded bourbons came about in the late 1800s , when some distilleries were to turn a quick Pearl Sydenstricker Buck on harsher , unaged bourbons and append anything from yield syrups to tobacco plant to improve the coloring and smell . AsAmerican Whiskey Reviewsexplains , the distilleries that churned out these “ rectified whiskies ” had a leg up on more proper bourbon makers in term of production time and cost , allowing them to control much of the whisky market . To protect themselves , distillers lobby Congress to pose down the above criterion in the Bottled - in - Bond Act of 1897 , giving their products a mark of government - guarantee quality assurance and a fight chance in the market .
