Rye is the stuff of frontiersmen and trappers, hell-bent-for-leather types whose guts were already so rotten with fetid salt pork and hardtack that this wretched stuff acted as some kind of palliative. It might make their ulcers burn, but it would make their hearts burn even hotter. It’s the original American whiskey. George Washington made it, and it’s what people meant when they ordered whiskey in barrooms from the Declaration of Independence to Prohibition.
Rye History
In the early 1700s waves of Scots, Irish and German immigrants made their way to the shores of the New World bringing with them not only a strong agricultural tradition, but a heritage of brewing and distilling virtually unrivaled throughout the world. As the British government tightened the restriction on the importation of molasses from the Caribbean (with which they had made their rum) and, because they were already cultivating bumper crops of hardy rye grain, they turned to what was at hand to produce their spirits.
Rye was the whiskey of the 13 colonies and indeed it was George Washington, First President of the United States and Father of America, who is reputed to have been the largest whiskey producer in nation (11,000 gallons of it in two years). His whiskey was rye. Over time other varieties of grain supplanted rye and as migration continued into the Southern states, the advent of corn, better water sources and the introduction of aging whiskey in charred oak casks, American whiskey eventually became Bourbon, named for the county in Kentucky which continues to produce it in large quantities. While rye was the dominant spirit in the region that included Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, it was eventually replaced in the glasses of mid-20th century Americans by smoother and sweeter Bourbon.
What Makes It Rye?
According to U.S. government standards, in order to be called rye, a whiskey must be made with at least 51 percent rye, distilled at less that 80% alcohol by volume and aged in charred, new oak barrels for a period of no less than two years. Often used as a blending agent to add character to other whiskies, rye lends a hint of anise flavor to cocktails and is an excellent mixer – indeed, most whiskey-based cocktails (such as the venerable Sazerac) originally called for rye.
In fact, two kinds of whiskey are commonly known as rye, the American version and some Canadian whisky. Although it traditionally contained more rye content, Canadian whisky is now virtually without rye and contains only small amounts used in the blending process to add greater character. Unlike the U.S., Canada has no requirements that a whiskey contain a certain amount of rye in order to be called rye. So, if you’re looking for real rye, and it’s not clear from the label, you might want to stick with the American brands.
Rye tends to be spicier than its sweeter Bourbon brethren due to the nature of the grain used to make it. If you’ve ever tasted toasted rye bread and toasted corn bread side by side, you can actually get a fair approximation of the difference. Rye tastes darker, like a biting breath of smoke and fog coming from the moist timber of a campfire on the California coast. Rye is Bourbon’s brooding, sullen-eyed, unshaven older brother, and he don’t much cotton to strangers, but if you can whip him, he’s a friend for life.
The Modern Rye-vival
Although it was virtually dead as a style of whiskey by the mid-1980s, as the market for small batch and craft-distilled spirits has exploded throughout the United States, rye has made a significant comeback. Several distilleries have been revived, others have begun to produce new ryes and, thanks to a new generation of bartenders who employ it in classic cocktail recipes, rye has been resurrected.
And speaking of resurrected, in 2006, after years of archeological excavation and research the distillery at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home was reopened. The George Washington Distillery was constructed using 18th-century techniques on the very site of his original distillery at the cost of $2.1 million.
