By Chris Morris • Photos by Matt Johnson
A quick review of the global standards for Whiskey (I’m going to spell it with an “e” throughout this article) reminds us that a Whiskey must be crafted from a fermented cook, mash or wash of cereal grain. Following the global standard, we know that the Bourbon Whiskey standard requires the predominant use of corn, 51% or more, in its grain recipe composition. That has been an established fact since the current Bourbon standard was approved in 1935. This leads me to the question that no one has ever asked me, “Why corn?” Why not rye, wheat or oats? The answer is two-fold, history, and environment, in other words time and place.
First, maize, called corn by North America’s European settlers, is a cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago. It is therefore native to North America. Rye, barley, wheat, and oats are not native cereal grains – they were introduced to North America by Europeans.
The origins of Bourbon Whiskey began in the settlement of the Virginia Colony’s western Fincastle County in the mid 1770’s. Yes, the early Kentucky settlers were actually settling Fincastle County. In 1776 Fincastle was renamed “Kentucky” County. If this hadn’t happened, would we be talking about “Fincastle Bourbon Whiskey” today? Roseann Reinemuth Hogan’s book, Kentucky Ancestry, provides a fascinating look at the early days of Kentucky’s settlement.
Hogan points out that one of the important motives in the settling of Kentucky was the fact that the farmland of Virginia’s populated tidewater region was being exhausted. This was due to the lack of crop rotation and the absence of modern fertilizers. Also, one of its main crops, tobacco, was very destructive of soil fertility. New land had to be cleared approximately every seven years to keep up with the demands of Virginia’s agricultural economy.
The settlement of Virginia’s western lands began in 1773 when veterans of the French and Indian Wars began to acquire land in Fincastle County as compensation for their service in that conflict. These were military land grants. However, others took advantage of this activity to also stake out a claim and begin a new life on the western frontier. Land speculation companies like the Transylvania Company also began to claim land in Fincastle County. The rush for land was so out of control the Virginia General Assembly had to step in and impose order on the chaos.
By the time Virginia began to settle land claims in 1776 Kentucky County had been formed. Virginia decided to recognize the claims of squatters, French and Indian War veterans and the grant of the Transylvania Company at Fort Boonesboro. To bring order to the situation the Virginia General Assembly passed a law in 1779 that allowed new claims to be filed. This law has been called “The Cabin and Corn Act.”
Settlers under this law were entitled to purchase 400 acres at $2.25 per 100 acre and the right to an additional 1000 acres for $40 per 100 acres if they met the following conditions…
• They had to have lived in Kentucky County for one year prior to 1778.
• They had to have built a cabin.
• They had to have grown a crop of corn on the claim.
The bottom line? To become a landowner in Kentucky County you had to grow corn.
Why corn? Because it was grown in Kentucky by the native people, and it was not required to be planted as a row crop. As the early settlers cleared the land, they were left with fields full of tree stumps. This restricted their ability to plow the soil and plant rows of rye, barley, wheat, or oats like they did in traditional European farming. Corn, however, could be planted in the “native style.” Walking among the stumps a planter would poke a hole in the soil with a sharp stake and drop a few kernels of corn in it and then step on the hole to seal it. It was that simple. What happens when everyone is planting corn and there is too much for the local market to absorb as food? And it can’t be stored for long periods of time and there is no way to ship it east because of the Appalachian Mountains. You turn it into Whiskey of course! A bushel of corn weighs 56 pounds. If mashed, fermented and distilled that bushel would produce or yield a little over 2 gallons of Whiskey (today the yield has improved to 5 gallons). Reducing 56 pounds to around 15 pounds (Whiskey weighs less than water per gallon) made it easier to store and transport your corn crop – and made it more valuable as well!
Why Whiskey? The first census of Kentucky County’s population conducted in 1790 revealed that many of the settlers were of Scotch, Scotch- Irish and Irish descent. These were Whiskey making people. And now they were making Whiskey from corn. And from this early beginning Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey was born. More next time on where the name “Bourbon” comes from.
Comments