corn (Zea mays), known as maize in Europe and elsewhere outside America, is a giant grass that grows taller than most humans, with each plant producing hundreds of grains—kernels—grouped in several ears. It was domesticated and bred over thousands of years from a Central American grass called teosinte, which can still be found growing wild in that region. Corn has become the world’s most important cereal crop, with a greater total harvest weight than any other grain, and it is grown on every populated continent. The United States harvest accounts for about 40 percent of the total.
Corn is also a major component of both American and Canadian whiskies. It is generally not malted but milled and cooked under pressure to gelatinize the starches in the endosperm. In mashing, these now-soluble starches are converted to sugars by enzymes from an addition of barley malt, or by enzymes added directly to the cooking corn. It has a distinctly sweet flavor that carries through to the distiller’s beer and then to the distillate. See Aspergillus oryziae and mash.
Bourbon whisky, by US regulation, must be at least 51 percent corn (most have substantially more), and corn whisky must be at least 80 percent corn (some are made entirely from corn). Most American rye whiskies have a significant amount of corn in their formulation. Canadian whiskies vary in composition, but the most common grain used overall in the industry is corn. Corn is also used in Scotland and Ireland as a component in grain whisky and in the United States to make vast quantities of grain neutral spirits, or GNS. In Brazil, some producers in the state of Minas Gerais add small amounts to the sugar-cane juice from which they distill cachaça.
See also cachaça; whisky; whisky, bourbon; whisky, grain; and whisky, rye.
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006.
27 CFR 5.22: The Standards of Identity. Lew Bryson.