The real Golden Age is coming

[BigBoldBully]

Man, that is seriously Monsanto'd up.

[suntour]

Yes, Mr. Rutledge is also on record as saying there is no difference in the quality of the whisky produced by GMO or non-GMO corn varieties.

When it comes to Bourbon and GMO corn the issue for some in Europe and elsewhere is political and used to further their real agenda which is bashing America.

[squire]

suntour my point is they complain about GMO corn in our Bourbon but not about GMO barley in Scotch.

[sutton]

suntour my point is they complain about GMO corn in our Bourbon but not about GMO barley in Scotch.

Can you even get non-GMO barley Scotch? Until you mentioned it, I haven't even thought about it.

[suntour]

I didn't necessarily want to go down the rabbit hole, but as far as I can tell GMO barley is not actively used for brewing or distillation. Pretty much the same goes for wheat. Corn and soy are the two things that are almost exclusively GMO in this country.

Malts for blends in Scotland are likely to contain GMOs, esp. in the form of GNS.

[ChainWhip]

Is barley modified by radiation considered GMO? I'm thinking specifically of the Gold Promise strain.

[squire]

Several things, but still on topic.

The famous barley variety Golden Promise (Macallan is very proud of their use of this strain) is a laboratory GMO created in part by bombarding the barley kernel with gamma rays to cause a mutation of the genes to bring out desirable traits such as disease resistance and increased yield. More than 90% of the crop in the 1970s - 80s, if you're drinking a 25-30 year old Scotch it's GMO whisky.

Maris Otter was the king of brewing barley in the UK and it too was developed in a lab. Both of these have been supplanted by newer GMO barley varieties.

US grown GMO corn is imported by the European Union and grown there as well.