Canadian Whisky Rules

[cowdery]

Someone shared the following with me and I thought I would pass it along. Although I can't verify it myself, it seems reasonable. The person who sent it to me is Canadian.

"There is a basic misunderstanding about the 9.09% additives allowed in Canadian whisky. It wasn't distillers who asked for this, it was accountants. Additives are occasionally used to change the flavour profile, but generally not. By and large, when they are used there is another very mundane reason: the US taxman. In Canada the tax structure for spirits is essentially the same regardless of the sugar source, but not in the US. As one example, tax breaks were introduced in the 1980s for whisky that contained Florida orange wine - a response to two years of failed crops and the need to dispose of a lot of sub-quality oranges.

"There is no advantage in adding orange wine or anything else to whisky that is made strictly for sale in Canada, but for whisky that will be exported to the US, the tax savings can be huge. These tax incentives were targeted at American distillers, but the US is our largest market and in order to compete we need the same advantages American distillers have. Even still, not everyone uses blenders."

[Rughi]

...where you add any imported or domestic spirit OR wine to a whisky, if the alcohol in what you add does not exceed 9.090% of the total alcohol in the blend, the age can be stated as that of the whisky to which such spirits were added...

[Gillman]

Interesting, Chuck, could well be. There is a history though of using flavourings (prune wine comes to mind, mentioned by Jackson in his late 80's book) in Canada that I think is unrelated - I have found prune wine ads in the U.K. addressed to the spirits makers as far back as the 1800's - but if U.S. tax laws gave an incentive, that might give an additional reason to use them. Still, and as your source also indicated, they may not be used as much as people think. I think the main flavourings used are good old (straight-type) whisky, but I don't know for sure.

Gary

[Gillman]

On the point of what can be added, it is any domestic or imported spirit or wine. I have not checked the definition of wine as yet, I would think the wine must contain some alcohol, but I don't know for sure, I'll check.

Gray

[Gillman]

This is the definition of "wine" in the same Food and Drug Regulations which contain the rules on Canadian whisky discussed in the other thread earlier. I don't know if "alcoholic beverage" is defined, I'll check a little later on that.

Wine

B.02.100. . Wine

(a) shall be an alcoholic beverage that is produced by the complete or partial alcoholic fermentation of fresh grapes, grape must, products derived solely from fresh grapes, or any combination of them;

( may have added to it during the course of the manufacture

(i) yeast,

(ii) concentrated grape juice,

(iii) dextrose, fructose, glucose or glucose solids, invert sugar, sugar, or aqueous solutions of any of them, (iv) yeast foods, in accordance with Table XIV to section B.16.100,

(iv) yeast foods, in accordance with Table XIV to section B.16.100,

(v) calcium sulphate in such quantity that the content of soluble sulphates in the finished wine shall not exceed 0.2 per cent weight by volume calculated as potassium sulphate,

(vi) calcium carbonate in such quantity that the content of tartaric acid in the finished wine shall not be less than 0.15 per cent weight by volume,

(vii) sulphurous acid, including salts thereof, in such quantity that its content in the finished wine shall not exceed

(A) 70 parts per million in the free state, or

( 350 parts per million in the combined state, calculated as sulphur dioxide,

(viii) any of the following substances:

(A) citric acid, fumaric acid, lactic acid, malic acid, potassium bicarbonate, potassium carbonate, potassium citrate and tartaric acid, at a maximum level of use consistent with good manufacturing practice,

( metatartaric acid at a maximum level of use of 0.01 per cent, and

© potassium acid tartrate at a maximum level of use of 0.42 per cent,

(ix) amylase and pectinase at a maximum level of use consistent with good manufacturing practice,

(x) ascorbic acid or erythorbic acid, or their salts, at a maximum level of use consistent with good manufacturing practice,

(xi) antifoaming agents, in accordance with Table VIII to section B.16.100,

(xii) any of the following fining agents:

(A) activated carbon, albumen, casein, clay, diatomaceous earth, egg white, isinglass, polyvinylpolypyrrolidone and silicon dioxide,

( acacia gum, agar, gelatin and potassium ferrocyanide, at a maximum level of use consistent with good manufacturing practice,

© tannic acid at a maximum level of use of 200 parts per million, and

(D) polyvinylpyrrolidone in an amount that does not exceed 2 parts per million in the finished product,

(xiii) caramel at a maximum level of use consistent with good manufacturing practice,

(xiv) brandy, fruit spirit or alcohol derived from the alcoholic fermentation of a food source distilled to not less than 94 per cent alcohol by volume,

(xv) any of the following substances:

(A) carbon dioxide and ozone at a maximum level of use consistent with good manufacturing practice, and

( oxygen,

(xvi) sorbic acid or salts thereof, not exceeding 500 parts per million calculated as sorbic acid,

(xvii) malolactic bacteria from the genera Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc and Pediococcus,

(xviii) copper sulphate in such a quantity that the content of copper in the finished product shall not exceed 0.0001 per cent,

(xix) nitrogen, and

(xx) oak chips and particles; and

© prior to final filtration may be treated with

(i) a strongly acid cation exchange resin in the sodium ion form, or

(ii) a weakly basic anion exchange resin in the hydroxyl ion form.

SOR/78-402, s. 1; SOR/81-565, s. 1; SOR/84-300, ss. 14(F), 15(E); SOR/2006-91, s. 1; SOR/2008-142, s. 1(F).

B.02.101. No person shall sell wine that contains more than 0.24 per cent weight by volume of volatile acidity calculated as acetic acid, as determined by official method FO-2, Determination of Volatile Acidity of Wine, Cider and Champagne Cider, October 15, 1981.

[CorvallisCracker]

There has to be something, somewhere about distillation proof. Is there a standard of identity for just 'whisky' as opposed to Canadian Whisky?

Yes, but not in Canada. The EU uses the Scottish standard, which is 94.8% ABV, and Canadian distillers, who want the option of exporting to EU countries, conform to that standard.

I learned this today during a phone conversation with Rob Tuer, Director of Operations at Alberta Springs Distillery.

Last month our ol' buddy Jeff (Mozilla) posted a comment to my blog asserting his claim that Canadian Whisky is "75% vodka". At the time I was following this (very informative) SB.com thread, but decided to do some independent research on blended whiskies (by the way, during that a Google search returned your 2007 SB.com post that I referenced in the comment I posted to your blog).

Learned a number of things, such as the base spirit used in Wiser's is distilled at 92.5%. This is lower than GNS, but I'm not sure I could tell the difference between two spirits made from identical mash, one at 92.5% and one at 95%, and both watered down to 40%. Nevertheless, it's not legally GNS, and I didn't find any information anywhere to support a claim that this or any other Canadian uses GNS.

Until last week.

I picked up a copy of Charles MacLean's book Whiskey. In the entry for Alberta Springs (pg 221), it states that the the base spirit used in Alberta Springs is "distilled to an alcohol level of around 95-96 percent ABV".

Since I don't believe everything I read, I contacted the distillery, eventually reaching Rob Tuer. "I don't know where they got that," he told me, "but it isn't correct". He went on to tell me that although there is no Canadian standard, "we use the Scottish standard so that we can export to the EU."

He wouldn't say exactly to what proof they distill, only that "it's low enough that the flavor of the rye comes across." So I don't know how low it is, but I suspect it's not much lower than 94.8%, because I can smell the rye in Sobieski vodka, which is presumably distilled at 95%.

[Megawatt]

Great post, Scott. Nice to have some light shed on this spirit.

[CorvallisCracker]

Great post, Scott. Nice to have some light shed on this spirit.

Why thank you Mike, but, after all, Gary has done most of the shedding here.

When I buy Alberta Premium it says right on the bottle "100% rye whisky". Sounds good. Can I take it to mean that there is no non-rye flavouring added, or are they within their rights to add flavouring and still call it 100% rye?

Rob was quite emphatic that they use 100% rye whisky, distilled at two different proof levels, and I'm pretty sure he said that they add nothing else. I didn't actually note that (as in, jot it down), but I believe that's what prompted my question to him about how they managed starch-to-sugar conversion.

"Do you use malted rye?" I asked.

He replied that they use enzymes, but produce their own. Unfortunately it didn't occur to me until after the conversation that I should have asked from what they produce the enzymes (rye malt or barley malt or ?).

But I have his E-Mail address, so I could send that as a follow-up question.

[Megawatt]

Why thank you Mike, but, after all, Gary has done most of the shedding here.

Rob was quite emphatic that they use 100% rye whisky, distilled at two different proof levels, and I'm pretty sure he said that they add nothing else. I didn't actually note that (as in, jot it down), but I believe that's what prompted my question to him about how they managed starch-to-sugar conversion.

"Do you use malted rye?" I asked.

He replied that they use enzymes, but produce their own. Unfortunately it didn't occur to me until after the conversation that I should have asked from what they produce the enzymes (rye malt or barley malt or ?).

But I have his E-Mail address, so I could send that as a follow-up question.

[CorvallisCracker]

He replied that they use enzymes, but produce their own. Unfortunately it didn't occur to me until after the conversation that I should have asked from what they produce the enzymes (rye malt or barley malt or ?).

But I have his E-Mail address, so I could send that as a follow-up question.

[Gillman]

Very interesting, good stuff.

Gary

[CorvallisCracker]

Response from Rob Tuer regarding the enzyme Alberta Springs uses to convert starch to sugar:

"We have an enzyme production facility to produce Glucoamylase. We use a Aspergillus culture for this process."

[smokinjoe]

Response from Rob Tuer regarding the enzyme Alberta Springs uses to convert starch to sugar:

"We have an enzyme production facility to produce Glucoamylase. We use a Aspergillus culture for this process."

[sku]

I figured it was Aspergillus....