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Making Spirits with Uncommon Grain Varieties
Meet some of the distillers who are building unique grain bills for their spirits through research, farmer relationships, and environmentally mindful production.
Meet some of the distillers who are building unique grain bills for their spirits through research, farmer relationships, and environmentally mindful production. <a href="https://spiritsanddistilling.com/making-spirits-with-unexpected-varietals/">Continue reading.</a>
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Ann Marshall harvesting Jimmy Red corn. Courtesy High Wire Distilling. Photo: Leigh-Ann Beverley.
Mike Swanson is in the unusual position of being both a distiller and a farmer.
As cofounder of Far North Spirits in Hallock, Minnesota—just 35 miles south of the Canadian border—Swanson set out to investigate a matter that interested him: the impact of the rye variety on whiskey.
“I thought rye was rye, like everybody tells you, and it doesn’t really matter,” he says. But then a phone call from a farmer in Maine sparked his curiosity. The farmer was keen to get hold of the AC Hazlet rye variety after hearing about its rich vanilla note, and that led Swanson to start digging into rye flavor profiles.
AC Hazlet rye. Courtesy Far North Spirits.
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Hollie Stephens is an award-winning journalist based in New Mexico and originally from the United Kingdom. Her work has been published in Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine®, Brewer and Distiller International Magazine, Wine Enthusiast, and many other publications.
