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Does anyone have experience with naming of “whiskeys” that use alternative grains? In particular, I’ve been looking at recipes that include quinoa and buckwheat, or other pseudocereals, in the grain bill, but I am interested in its legal defintion. Is is still whiskey if it has some pseudocereal but is primarily grain?
Hey Molly, Anytime you introduce something that is not considered a cereal grain into your mash bill it becomes a Distilled Spirit Specialty. From my understanding one area that this can get complicated is with sorghum, depending upon which part of the plant you use. Pseudocereals are grains and the CFR doesn’t define what is and isn’t a grain so I *think* TTB would allow it to be classed as simply Whisky and then you would include the type of grains in a separate statement.
Hi Molly – I agree with the above answer. I would imagine you could get an approved label as Whiskey for that situation. The Standards of Identity don’t define grain, as far as I know. Even though they are pseudocereals, they are still grains. Of course, the Whiskey definition also includes the catch all that it must “possess the taste, aroma, and characteristics generally attributed to whisky.” So, someone (not me) might argue that an alternative grain distillate doesn’t taste or smell like Whiskey. Also note, there are certainly products out there made from these types of grains labeled as Whiskey (Koval, Corsair, etc.).
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