Does Whiskey Truly Need to Be Aged?

It’s frequent information that whiskey will get its coloration and most of its taste from the method of barrel growing old. Barrel growing old is likely one of the defining traits of the spirit, however is that course of needed for any liquor to be categorized as whiskey? 

Each nation that produces the spirit has its personal distinctive set of legal guidelines that dictate whiskey manufacturing. Many of those restrictions lengthen to barrel growing old and may regulate how lengthy a whiskey is aged, how every bottle must be labeled, and even what kinds of wooden it may be aged in.

Phrases like “straight bourbon whiskey” and “bottled in bond” aren’t simply advertising hooks, they’re legally outlined phrases. For those who see “straight Kentucky bourbon whiskey” on a label, that implies that the distillers needed to comply with a algorithm to make use of that time period.

Taking a look at each nation’s rules for producing whiskey would fill a ebook. Fortunately, American whiskey is about as closely regulated as wherever on the planet and offers an ideal case research to reply the query of whether or not or not whiskey really must be barrel-aged.

Whiskey legal guidelines

To grasp why whiskey manufacturing is so closely regulated within the U.S., we now have to have a look at when the business was a bit extra unfastened.

“Return to the nineteenth and early twentieth century rectifiers and the individuals who would add completely different sorts of coloring and flavoring and completely different substances to whiskey, and even simply nice impartial spirits to promote it as whiskey,” says Susan Reigler, writer and director for whiskey training for Buzzard’s Roost whiskey. “That form of nonsense went on up till the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897.”

The Bottled in Bond Act of 1897 was the primary federal laws that imposed strict manufacturing requirements on whiskey. The regulation basically states that to be labeled bottled in bond, the whiskey must be produced from a single distillery throughout a single distilling season. The whiskey should even be aged in oak barrels in a federally bonded warehouse underneath authorities supervision for not less than 4 years. Bottled in bond whiskey should even be bottled at 100 proof. 

In 1909, President William Howard Taft amended the Pure Meals and Drug Act of 1906 to additional make clear the authorized definition of whiskey. The Taft Choice outlined the time period straight whiskey, which refers to a whiskey that’s barrel-aged for no less than two years and constructed from nothing however grain, yeast, and water.

“Straight bourbon is required to be aged a minimal of two years in new charred oak barrels, in contrast to different world whiskey choices that may be aged in beforehand used barrels, leading to a extra intense influence from the wooden on the whiskey,” says Danny Kahn, the grasp distiller and distillation and growing old operations director at Buffalo Hint Distillery. 

Whereas preventing the rectifiers, the U.S. developed among the world’s strictest legal guidelines for growing old whiskey. “We’ve rules on distillation proof, and what kind of barrels we age in. If we have been to make a rye whiskey however age it in a used cask, it’s now not a rye whiskey, it’s now a whiskey distilled from a rye mash,” says Kate Douglas, the distiller at Keeper’s Coronary heart Whiskey.

One of the necessary rules is implementing a minimal age assertion. 

“If the whiskey bottle does have an age assertion, nothing in that mix could be youthful than the age assertion,” says Kahn. “For instance, when you’ve got 1,000 barrels at 20 years outdated and one at 4 years outdated, one may age assertion the bottle at 4 years outdated or haven’t any age assertion in any respect. You can’t use a median or use the bulk.” 

Due to this, shoppers at all times know the age of the youngest whiskey blended right into a bottle.

All of those guidelines are overseen by the Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Commerce Bureau (TTB) which has to approve the labeling of any distilled spirits bought within the U.S. Distilleries need to report back to the TTB, which enforces the principles positioned on the various completely different acknowledged kinds of whiskey. 

The gray areas of whiskey regulation

Taking all of that into consideration, can an unaged spirit be bottled and bought as whiskey? The reply is a bit sophisticated. 

Technically, to be thought of a whiskey, the spirit should spend not less than a while maturing in a wood container. The precise guidelines fluctuate between straight bourbon, rye, and different kinds of whiskey, however all whiskeys are required to the touch wooden.

As with many legal guidelines, there are some loopholes.

“You may take your new make off the nonetheless, put it within the barrel, instantly dump it, and now you are entitled to name it whiskey,” says Reigler.

Douglas additional provides, “Some will interpret the regulation because the whiskey that passes by means of a barrel, others will say that it wants to take a seat in a barrel for not less than an hour.” 

There are rules in place to keep away from any obfuscation from whiskey producers, nevertheless. “If the bourbon is aged for lower than 4 years, it will need to have an age assertion someplace on the bottle telling the customer how lengthy it was aged,” says Kahn. 

Due to this, most distillers will age their whiskey for not less than 4 years to keep away from having to place a minimal age assertion.

Some producers appear to get pleasure from pushing boundaries. 

“I’ve seen some age statements like that, the place they will offer you months as a substitute of years to make it look older,” says Reigler. “Possibly you are simply glancing at it on the shelf and assume ‘oh, wow, how great. An 18-year-old bourbon,’ and then you definately take a better look and discover out it’s solely aged 18 months.”

Unaged whiskey is bought within the U.S., but it surely’s often labeled as white canine, which is simply American whiskey jargon for unaged distillate. Buffalo Hint, for instance, bottles three of their completely different whiskey mash payments to permit the distillery’s followers to strive what their whiskey tastes like earlier than it’s aged. Regardless that it’s constructed from the very same grains and yeast, and distilled the identical means as whiskey, it could’t be labeled as such as a result of it by no means rested in a wood container.

So, does American whiskey need to be barrel-aged? Technically sure, however so long as the bottle is labeled appropriately, the spirit solely has to make temporary contact with any wooden to be thought of whiskey.