Tasting Notes: Georgia Moon brand Corn Whiskey

[NorCalBoozer]

so the question for me is, is georgia moon's mashbill specific for georgia moon? I'm sure it could be barrelled and aged, but if it's not anywhere near a bourbon mashbill, i don't see the point in spending the money to fill a toasted barrell when;

a.) there are other young bourbons that I can buy for almost the same price, that have a better flavor profile.

b.) when it ages, it's really not good and requires mature bourbon added to it to create a palatable drink. I don't think GM is "bourbon starter" so to speak in that regard.

but in the end, it's really gonna have to take someone to put it in a barrel and test it. I'll leave the science up to you guys, I'm not near as educated on the process of distillation. But it's great to have the input b/c I am still deciding what to put in my second toasted barrel. (WT Rye is going in the first)

[Gillman]

On the Heaven Hill website, it refers to its corn whiskeys (showing a picture of Georgia Moon, Mellow Corn and one other) as requiring at least 81% corn and the rest malted barley and rye. I read this to mean HH's corn whiskeys have some rye even though the legal definition of corn whiskey does not require those or any specific small grains, merely that the whiskey be made from at least 80% corn. The rest can be any other cereals under the basic defintion of whiskey. But since HH's corn whiskeys seem to contain some rye, they may be suitable to be aged into bourbon or a bourbon-like drink.

Even if they had no rye, though (say it was 90% corn and 10% barley malt) that is still a potential bourbon mash since bourbon is required only to have at least 51% corn content in the mash: the rest can be any kind of cereal grains. In other words, a bourbon can legally be made from a mash of, say 90% corn and 10% barley malt.

What would it taste like? I am not sure, maybe like some of the wheated bourbons. Wheat seems to contribute not that much to bourbon from what I can see, maybe it is used because less costly than malting barley. If it was me doing it though I'd want something that is 100 proof, barreling under that may (I am not sure) cause too much wood extract to enter the spirit. I am not sure if Georgia Moon comes in 100 proof though. So I'd probably go with Mellow Corn's 100 proof version, maybe adding some 2 year old Potrero (the earlier high proof version if possible and either the 18th or 19th century version). I am not sure what results would come from it though but in theory I can't think one could go far wrong. Still, if Parker Beam said corn whiskey shouldn't be aged into bourbon, I am sure he felt he had a good reason. Maybe he simply feels that an 80%+ corn spec is too high, not that it won't make bourbon, but not good bourbon. I don't know the corn content of the HH rye-recipe bourbons but surely they are all under 80% and he probably considers he gets a better flavor that way because of the rye in the small grains.

Gary

[BobA]

Following this discussion has prompted a couple of questions.
Mellow Corn is bottled in bond; that requires four years on a corn whiskey as well, right?
And does the distiller of a 81% corn mashbill have the option of labeling the resulting whiskey either bourbon or corn whiskey?
Thanks for any answers.
And just to try to keep this on "tastings," I've not had Georgia Moon, but Mellow Corn is all right IMO. Simple, but not really a negative.
Bob

[Gillman]

4 years old for bonded corn, yes I think that is right, but there is no option to call it bourbon if it wasn't aged in all-new charred barrels, and clearly Mellow Corn wasn't. A corn whiskey cannot be termed as such and aged even for a time in new charred wood, so the reverse case, a cereal whiskey of at least 80% corn grain aged for a time in new charred wood, can't be called corn whiskey but can if distilled at under 160 degrees proof and entered at not >125 proof be called bourbon or, if the producer prefers, just whiskey - is my understanding.

Gary

[Edward_call_me_Ed]

Straight Corn must be unaged or aged in used cooperage or new barrels that have not been charred, so saith the regs. Therefore, while Old Charter has a mashbill that could be made into Straight Corn (at least that is what I have always heard, here and elsewhere) it can only be labeled bourbon as it was aged in new charred barrels. And that goes for George T Stagg, Buffalo Trace and Eagle Rare which all share the same high corn mashbill.

Oh, and I had a pour of Georgia Moon last night. Sweet, not harsh and no hint of armpit. Feinty, though. Not likely to make the normal rotation. Something in it that is reminiscent of a Tequila Blanco, but not as nice.
Ed

[Gillman]

Or perhaps like a grappa as Chuck Cowdery suggested. Flowery examples were cited as an index of quality in mountain shine in a circa 1918 study of Appalachia and its customs by a British ethnographer. No doubt many different flavors abounded in shine depending onhow it was made, where, by whom. Today Georgia Moon is perhaps the sole surviving (legal!) example of something that might taste like some moonshine did back then. Some of the new small-scale distillers are producing white whiskey from rye and other cereals that offer a different take, e.g. that company in West Virginia (can't recall the name at the moment).

Gary

[BobA]

Thanks Gary and Ed. Makes sense that there has to be some difference in the regs, but hadn't thought of the lack of char. So I guess the Mellow Corn is four years in new wood. I'll have to remember that the next time I take a drink of it.
Bob

[barturtle]

I would hazard a guess here, assuming someone else hasn't said otherwise, that Mellow Corn is aged in used cooperage. Seems to me that HH would have plenty sitting around that're already paid for, rather than ordering in some uncharred barrels.

[JeffRenner]

I would hazard a guess ... that Mellow Corn is aged in used cooperage.

I believe that that is true.

I've just done a little tasting of Mellow Corn that I picked up in Bardstown in 1998 (?) I still have a quarter bottle left.

It has a spicy attractiveness on the palate - cinnamon/wintergreen/sassafrass - wish I could be more definitive on this, but it triggers sensations in the primative brainstem, which has very poor connections to the verbal matrix.

At any rate, this is, as I have posted before, a genuinely attractive whiskey, though not at all in the style of a bourbon. It is, as others have noted, remarkably oily on the palate, with those spicy elements.

Not content with tasting it as is, I added about an equal amount of Jim Beam rye (those who have followed my posts here before will know that I enjoy young spirits).

All right! This brings the oily, rich, spicy spirit more into balance. Kind of like a young, feisty bourbon. The way I like 'em. (Although I like mature ones as well.)

A touch of Old Forester Bib adds some depth, but I'm not at all sure that it is an improvement. It is a change, to be sure, bringing more maturity. But I rather like the 50/50 Mellow Corn/JB rye for its in-your-face audacity.

OK. I've been playing around enough with these ratios all evening to be somewhat impaired (that doesn't happen to any of the rest of you, does it?).

But, per the parallel thread on white dog, I think that there is something to be said for young spirits. And I think that this is a (preliminary) winner.

Cheers for now, as I have to go to work (making 80 lbs (35 kg) of bread dough for tomorrow).

Jeff

[Gillman]

Well done, Jeff the one thing I haven't done is blend my Mellow Corn with anything else but what you've done makes a lot of sense. I may try the same with Old Overholt.

I agree with you about young whiskey, at its best it has a charm of its own. But it has to be good whiskey, not too denatured of its essence. The regular Ancient Age is a very good young whiskey, or was when I last had it some years ago. In blending, I like to combine old and young whiskey, I don't believe in the concept of a minimum age expression. Even Early Times, say, might be combined well with medium and much older whiskey and maybe with good corn whiskey too.

Blending/vatting is in my opinion, in its relative infancy. It would benefit from today's advanced techniques in software and computer analysis, in fact I believe models can be developed to predict a range of whiskey flavours and this would assist both in blending and new product development.

I've got two rums I'm proud of that (I know I keep saying this) might end up soon on the Gazebo table. Some 30-40 Caribbean rums of from no age to 23 years old and the blending is suave and very flavourful.

Gary