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 without doubt one of the defining traits of the spirit, however is that course of obligatory for any liquor to be labeled 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 sorts of wooden it may be aged in.

Phrases like “straight bourbon whiskey” and “bottled in bond” aren’t simply advertising and marketing hooks, they’re legally outlined phrases. Should you see “straight Kentucky bourbon whiskey” on a label, that signifies that the distillers needed to observe a algorithm to make use of that time period.

each nation’s laws for producing whiskey would fill a e book. Fortunately, American whiskey is about as closely regulated as wherever on the earth and supplies an ideal case examine 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’ve 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 schooling for Buzzard’s Roost whiskey. “That kind 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 legislation primarily 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 beneath authorities supervision for no 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 Resolution outlined the time period straight whiskey, which refers to a whiskey that’s barrel-aged for at least two years and created from nothing however grain, yeast, and water.

“Straight bourbon is required to be aged a minimal of two years in new charred oak barrels, not like different international whiskey choices that may be aged in beforehand used barrels, leading to a extra intense impression 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 a few of the world’s strictest legal guidelines for growing old whiskey. “We’ve laws 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 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 crucial essential laws is imposing 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, in case you have 1,000 barrels at 20 years previous and one at 4 years previous, one may age assertion the bottle at 4 years previous or don’t have any age assertion in any respect. You can not use a mean or use the bulk.” 

Due to this, shoppers all the time 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 must report back to the TTB, which enforces the principles positioned on the various completely different acknowledged sorts 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 difficult. 

Technically, to be thought of a whiskey, the spirit should spend no less than a while maturing in a wood container. The precise guidelines range between straight bourbon, rye, and different sorts of whiskey, however all whiskeys are required to the touch wooden.

As with many legal guidelines, there are some loopholes.

“You possibly can 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 legislation because the whiskey that passes via a barrel, others will say that it wants to take a seat in a barrel for no less than an hour.” 

There are laws in place to keep away from any obfuscation from whiskey producers, nonetheless. “If the bourbon is aged for lower than 4 years, it should 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 no less than 4 years to keep away from having to place a minimal age assertion.

Some producers appear to take pleasure in pushing boundaries. 

“I’ve seen some age statements like that, the place they’re going to offer you months as a substitute of years to make it look older,” says Reigler. “Perhaps you are simply glancing at it on the shelf and assume ‘oh, wow, how fantastic. An 18-year-old bourbon,’ and then you definitely 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 attempt what their whiskey tastes like earlier than it’s aged. Though it’s created from the very same grains and yeast, and distilled the identical manner as whiskey, it may possibly’t be labeled as such as a result of it by no means rested in a wood container.

So, does American whiskey must 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.