Hello, and welcome to be Short Stuff. This is Josh, there's Chuck, there's Jerry. Let's get going with this edition of Short Stuff about the difference between whiskey and bourbon. Let's just talk. Yeah, you know, for someone who loves this stuff, I really didn't know a lot about it, and I'm glad I do know. Yeah, there was a really big fact that we're going to get to that just knocked my socks clean off. Man. Yeah, well, I'll I guess just watch my feet and you'll smell something.
Are your socks off? Hey, my feet do not smell. To take great pride in there, all right, So we'll go ahead and tell you what whiskey is. Whiskey is a distilled spirit that you make from grain, right, that is not distilled higher than one hundred and ninety proof, and it is exposed to oak as in, you know, sits in an oak container. That's whiskey. That's whiskey. If it's higher than one kindy, then you're not making whiskey. You're making what you would call a neutral spirit like vodka. Yeah,
that's whiskey. So around the world, if you have Japanese whiskey, yum. If you have Irish whiskey, great Scotch whiskey delicious? Why not? Um, They're they're like all of those whiskeys follow that same general those same general guidelines, or meet the same general criteria. And I don't believe there's too many um like laws or anything restricting types of whiskey. I'm sure there are
in Scotland. But we're talking about America in this episode, and when you get to America from what what From what we've seen, we have like the most strict, extensive laws detailing what can be considered a type of whiskey any of anywhere in the world. Yeah, it's very much regulated by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, right, not the a t F. No, they those firearms still mix with whiskey, very not. Even though I said a t F three times, I think you called out something
that nobody heard. It's like he just reached out from a different dimension. I saw a funny tweet the other day that's been going around that says the closest you will come to knowing what it's like to be a ghost is uh. Something was something like yelling at podcasters who are trying to think of something that you know, that's amazing, that's great. I have that same experience as
a listener. So uh, yes, not the A T F, the A T T T B. If you want to be labeled whiskey in America, you've got to be aged in new charred oak containers or barrels, and you have to have a certain percentage of grain. Like if you're making rye, it has to be rye, and then so to be whiskey anywhere in the world, it has to
be aged in oak. But for specifically an American straight whiskey, like a American straight rye whiskey, it has to be aged in a charred oak either barrel or container of some sort, but it has to be charred inside first for at least two years. Yes, and it all has to come from the same state as to be still distilled in the same state. Right, So I mean that's it. That's the law as far as an American straight whiskey goes.
And there's plenty of whiskeys that you know follow that that tradition or those laws, I guess, and um, it gets even stricter though, like if you add a couple more caveats to it, A couple more restrictions, a few more criteria, you suddenly have bourbon. Bourbon pops out of the mix. That's right. So if you want to be bourbon, you have to be corn, and it has to be aged in new charred oak barrels or containers. Right, But also when you um, when you distill it. Yeah, that
was right. Yeah, I just referred to another edit we took out it. Uh, it can't be distilled at anything higher than one sixty proof, that's right, because remember we said one ninety for whiskey. Bourbon is down to one six, right,
and that's just the distillation. When they start to age it, they have to drop it down even further I believe, to something like one forty, and that they just do that with watering it down, literally watering it down, right, Yeah, they literally water down I think one forty and then they put it in charred oak barrels for I believe
four years for bourbon. That's right. So the very popular saying, um, all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon is very much true, and that's why that's the case. So bourbon is corn at least doesn't go higher than one sixty proof and his play in his Charred in Earth's Aged and Charred Oak barrels below on proof yep, And so now watch my socks, Chuck. Okay, you you might be saying, hey, guys, you left out probably the most important part. It has to be made in Bourbon County, Kentucky,
or at least Kentucky. Well, friend, you'd be wrong on both parts, because bourbon can be made anywhere in the States. How did you think it had to be Kentucky? Yes, oh, I didn't know that. Well, that explains why I didn't know your right, did you say it was more of a curl and they're actually knocking off? Yeah? All right, Yeah, that's what I thought for a very very long time. But now you can make it anywhere. And in fact, in nineteen Congress declared bourbon as quote America's native spirit.
So Congress like bourbon. Alright, well, we like e takey break, and we're gonna go do that right now and talk about Tennessee whiskey. And I think you know what we're talking about right after this, all right, Chuck, He said, they think we know what we're talking about. We think we know we think we think they know what we're talking about. Yeah, if you're talking Tennessee whiskey, there are plenty of Tennessee whiskeys. But we'll just go ahead and
say the words Jack and Daniel. I was gonna say, Yeah, that's what I was gonna say, Tennessee whiskey. You think Jack Daniels, I mean, it says Tennessee right on the label. But it turns out that Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey, which is a straight American whiskey. Um, you'd think that that it's the only kind. It's not. That's actually Jack Daniels follows a specific process, a set of criterion very similar to the same set of criteria that bourbon goes through.
In fact, Jack Daniels Tennessee American straight whiskey follows the same process that bourbon making does, and in fact qualifies as a bourbon. But then they add an extra step, and that's what makes it a Tennessee whiskey. That's right. We should point out that they go all the way down to a hundred and forty proof just as a company rule, and they always age in new charred oak barrels, and which it goes in at proof or below. But then that extra step you were talking about is what
they like to tout as the special ingredient. That special magic is charcoal mellowing. Yeah, and it's actually another name for it is the Lincoln County process, after Lincoln County, Tennessee, which is where Jack Daniels Distillery used to be. But basically, they take huge stacks of maplewood logs and set them on fire, and then some guy stands there with a hose and keeps it from like raging too much, and
they turn that wood into charcoal. Then they take that charcoal, they pack it tightly into vats, and then they poured the distilled, unaged whiskey into those vats, and that charcoal kind of filters out some of the impurities. Yeah, and so you're thinking, well, it goes in clear and it comes out brown because of that charcoal. Yeah, that's totally wrong. And in fact, it's a little bit like you're used to these brown liquors if you've ever had like a clear rye or something. It's a little bit of a
mind tease. Yeah, that's not what you're gonna say, but yes, you know what I mean. Agreed, Agreed, it needs to be brown and the reason it is brown, I believe. Of course, I have a terrible reputation on short stuff for just saying stuff off hand. It's totally wrong. But I believe it becomes brown from the charred oak um aging process. I think that's right. Right, So I can't teach that. Okay, men, that whole um key West thing about the necrophile who dug who kept his wife around.
But it wasn't his wife, it was some woman that he really he stalked as a creeper. Oh yeah, we've been getting a lot of emails, so sorry everybody, We'll have to read a listener mail about it or something. All right, Well, they basically like in this whole process too. You know, if you've ever used a water filter. Um, they have charcoal in there, and it's sort of a similar concept. The whiskey comes out the same color as
that goes in at this point, which is clear. Um. And this is what makes Jack Daniel different than the rest. They're the ones who use that Lincoln County process, right. Um, So that's a different type of whiskey. That's Tennessee whiskey. There's bourbon, and technically Jack Daniels qualifies as a bourbon and um Bourbon stripped of a couple of steps would be an American straight whiskey. And there you have it.
That's whiskey's There's one other fact though that um I had no idea about, but I thought it was a nice little touch to add it to this article. I think you've got this article from house to works, right, Yeah, are you talking about the East? Oh? No, there's two facts. Everybody. Well, I mean, if you wonder why different whiskeys, you know, you think, well, maybe they should all taste the same. You know, the ingredients are different depending on where you
get the the initial ingredients that might taste different. Uh. And during the fermentation process you're you're using, depending on what kind of yeast to use, that's really going to fleck the favor the favor like that. What is going on with us today? I don't know. It's silly, silly short stuff Thursday. But UM at Jack Daniel they use
a yeast that they've been using the whole time. So they have this mother culture that they say dates back to prohibition and they've been using the same mother culture. They grow it in their lab every day and they're like, that's why, you know, you get that special taste mother culture. It's a great band name. Oh it is UM. So yeah, so the yus makes of a difference. But certainly, like even if you use the same exact yeast, if you stick that yeast on rye or corn mash, it's gonna
produce a totally different flavor anyway. So all these different steps and different ingredients produce these different flavored whiskeys. The other fact that I UM was surprised but also heartened to see is that apparently women tend to appreciate higher
proof whiskeys and bourbons than UM men do. And supposedly there's a woman named Carrie Richardson who's president of the Bourbon Women's Association in Louisville, Kentucky, who believes that it's because women apparently have a UM larger old factory center than men, and so they're they're picking up more on all this stuff that's going on in these whiskey bottles than men do. And so the higher the proof, the more stuff that's going on in there, and women tend
to appreciate that more. Pretty neat. It is pretty neat. And I did a rare phone look up during recording than of course there's a band called Mother Culture at least one good good for them. See they listened to us in the past a bunch of long hairs. That's exactly right. There's no way it was anything, but you know, a long hair band. Um. So one other question, Chuck, do you like the firewater whiskey? Do you like smooth
or whiskey or both as in higher proof? Yeah, but you know the kind that's like you can really feel, like go all the way down your chest or the smooth sipping whiskey I like. I like both. I like the firewater because I drink it a little slower. Um. I had a I had a big night out on Tuesday, Uh, Emily and I went to see a band and I got into the whiskey a little bit and it was just, you know, it was a bullet and it was just going down so smooth. That's the danger, you know, you
drink it too fast. And I found myself little hammered on Tuesday night. Yeah, but you're not gonna, you know, drink like high proof whiskey that's meant to just be nipped at at like a show. You know, you're right, were you drinking it just on the rocks. Nice. Well, I'm glad you has there another way at a show? Yeah, like with coke or something? Yeah, not cokes already sweet maybe bitters and just club soda because sure, I mean,
I guess I could have. I could have done that, but I didn't get the impression they had that kind of stuff at this venue. I got you. Yeah, all right, Well that's it. Huh, that's it. That's it for short stuff. As we said, that's it. Stuff you should know is a production of iHeart Radios. How Stuff Works. For more podcasts For my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H