Corn, rye, and barley are the grains that go into Canadian whisky. Corn is used for the base whisky. Rye and barley produce the flavouring whiskies that the distiller blends with the base whisky. Barley also provides malt, which contains enzymes essential to the whisky-making process.
One of the most versatile of the world's grains, and the only one that originated in the Americas, corn is the staple food of more than two hundred million people in eighteen countries in Latin America and Africa. Industry uses corn in an endless array of non-food products such as paper, paint, plastic, and soap. It also happens to serve as the principle ingredient of whisky in both the United States and Canada.
Any grain could be used to produce the highly refined, almost pure base whisky that makes up about 85 percent of Canadian whisky, but most distillers use corn. The reason is economic: of all the grains, corn yields the largest amount of starch. The corn selected must pass rigorous quality control tests before going into Canadian whisky. It must be sweet and ripe, with few damaged kernels. It must be dried to a moisture content of 14 percent. Corn that has a higher moisture content could become mouldy in storage, and mouldy corn would produce a whisky with an unacceptable musty flavour.
Until the 1960s, not much field corn was grown in Canada outside Essex and Kent Counties in southwestern Ontario. Canadian distillers imported their corn from the United States. Even in recent times, during a year such as 1992, when the cool, wet summer reduced the quantity and quality of yields, distiller's still imported corn from the United States. But that is unusual. Today, with corn grown in every province except Newfoundland and especially in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba, Canadian distillers rely mainly on Canadian corn for their products.
The Seagram Company played an important role in increasing the amount of Canadian corn that goes into Canadian whisky. In 1962, the company adopted a Canadian-corn purchasing policy and initiated a program to stimulate corn production in Canada, especially in areas where the crop could be grown but wasn't. With its plans to build a new distillery at Gimli, Seagram was particularly interested in growing corn in Manitoba. At that time, existing corn varieties could not be grown with any degree of certainty in Manitoba because of the province's cool climate and short growing season.
Seagram scientists collaborated with scientists at the University of Manitoba to create new hybrids that would grow in that province. Manitoba corn was crossed with corn that had been grown in harsh conditions high in the Andes Mountains of Peru. The resulting cold-tolerant hybrids thrived in Manitoba. The team undertook extensive testing to evaluate the quality and yield of whiskies produced with the new hybrids. Today, thanks to scientists at the University of Manitoba and to Seagram, which funded a Corn Research Chair at the University, waving fields of corn reach to the sun in Manitoba, and Canadian corn goes into the whiskies made at Gimli.
Europeans brought rye, once the predominant bread grain for the poor of northern Europe, to North America. Originally, rye was viewed as a weed that competed with wheat and reduced yields. Closely related to wheat, it can interbreed with it. But rye's drought and disease resistance, along with its ability to grow in impoverished soils and acidic conditions, gave it commercial importance in northern Europe centuries ago.
Today, rye ranks seventh among the world's food and feed crops. Winter rye, which farmers sow in the fall, is the type usually grown. Most of Canada's rye is grown for export. About 30 percent feeds livestock, and roughly 13 percent goes to the distilleries.
Although Canadian whisky is often called "rye," this nickname is a bit of a misnomer, because the principle ingredient of Canadian whisky is corn. But rye remains one of the most important grains in determining the taste of Canadian whisky. With its spicy flavour and scent, detectable even in the dried grain, rye is used in whisky making as seasoning is used in cooking.
Like barley, rye can also be malted, or germinated, and used for its starch-converting enzymes. Rye malt, however, produces a differently flavoured whisky than barley malt does.
Highly adaptable and easily grown, barley was among the earliest cultivated crops. It served as the chief grain of Europe until the sixteenth century. Today, about half of all the barley grown in the world goes into livestock feed; much of the rest goes into beer and whisky making. In Canada, barley grows best in the Prairie Provinces, where it is sown in spring.
In both brewing and distilling, barley plays a crucial role. Although raw barley is used, like rye, as a flavouring element, barley serves, more importantly, as the source of malt, which provides the enzymes that convert plant starch into sugar.
When barley grains germinate, they produce enzymes known collectively as "diastase." Diastase turns the starch in the grain into sugar, making it available as a food source for the embryonic plant. Diastase does the same thing for the distiller. Once the starch in the mash has been converted to smaller sugar molecules, the yeast can go to work on it, turning it into alcohol and carbon dioxide through the action of another group of enzymes that come from the yeast cells. (Enzymes are catalysts, speeding up chemical reactions.)
Any grain can be used as malt, but barley outdoes all others in its ability to convert starch to sugar: one part of barley malt can convert two thousand parts of starch in any grain into fermentable sugar.
To make malt, the maltster soaks the grains, allowing them to germinate. As the embryonic plant begins to develop, the grain produces more and more enzyme, until no more is necessary to saccharify, or turn into sugar, all the starch available in the kernel. At this point, which occurs within a few days under optimum conditions, the grains are kiln-dried to arrest development. Timing is critical for the maltster. If he or she allows the tiny germinating plants to break through the skin of the grains, the point of maximum enzyme production has been missed.
Distillers, brewers, and food processing companies grind the dried barley, now known as malt, into a powder for use. In recent years, distillers have begun using natural enzymes produced by fungi as well; this allows them to make the conversion from starch to sugar more complete.
Without yeast, a tiny one-celled organism, we could not make beer, wine, or spirits. As well as being the organism that actually makes the alcohol, yeast also determines - to a large extent - the flavour of the final product. In whisky making, yeast interacts with the grain mash and the water to create subtly different whiskies. Using the same basic ingredients, a distiller can use one yeast to produce a whisky with a grape flavour, and use another yeast to give the whisky a peachy taste. Whiskies made with different yeasts can also be blended to achieve a particular finished product.
When choosing yeasts, distillers look for good flavour characteristics, rapid growth, efficient conversion of sugar to alcohol, resistance to changes in temperature and acidity, and the ability to work in mixtures with high concentrations of sugar and alcohol. Distillers maintain "libraries" of hundreds of different yeast cultures, and guard their best strains carefully.
A reliable source of pure water is one of the most important prerequisites for making "the water of life." The production process uses water extensively, for both mashing and cooling. An important ingredient of whisky, demineralized water tops off the final aged and blended product to ensure the proper strength of alcohol. The water used in all these stages has a definite influence on the taste of whisky.
The water that goes into whisky must be pure; foreign elements can adversely affect the flavour. It should contain natural salt and minerals in the right proportions.