Rye Whiskey

Hi everyone, welcome back to the channel. In this video I'm going to be talking about rye whiskey. So whiskey is a more broader category of a certain type of alcohol that has subcategories that include rye, bourbon, scotch, irish whiskey, and the list goes on. But today I'm just going to be focusing on rye. So rye whiskey originated in the U.S. in the late 17 and early 1800s, primarily in the states of Pennsylvania and Maryland, and that was predominantly due to its abundance of rye grain, which was similar to a lot of areas in northern Europe. So Europeans were already distilling rye grain into alcohol, so when they settled in the U.S., that's how they were able to create the rye whiskey. So the way that American rye whiskey is made is that it has to have at least 51% of rye in its mash bill. It can include other ingredients such as corn, malted barley, wheat, but the rye content has to be at least 51% in order for it to legally classify as a rye in the U.S. These are my two favorite ryes to work with here. This is Rittenhouse and this one is Sazerac. So the Rittenhouse is a little bit more higher proof. It sits at about 50% ABV. It's got a lot more peppery kind of spices. Yeah, you got a really good spice from the rye in this one. It's a little bit sweet as well. The Sazerac, you don't get as much spice. Yeah, the spiciness in this one is toned down a bit. This one even sits a little bit lower. This one's at about 45% ABV. So even though rye whiskey originated in the U.S. before bourbon, bourbon is actually now more popular in the U.S. over rye. Rye whiskey actually happens to be more popular in Canada. And this leads me to a Canadian rye whiskey here. So this is Lot 40 made here in Toronto. This is a really good rye to use. So the differences between bourbon and rye, bourbon has to have at least 51% of corn in its mash bill versus rye that has to have at least 51% of rye in its mash bill. Canadian rye doesn't have to have 51% of either. So it doesn't need to have 51% of rye. So Canadian rye is typically a lot more smoother because it has more corn in its mash bill to give it a little bit more sweetness. So even though Lot 40 is a Canadian rye whiskey, it's built more like an American rye whiskey because you really pick up on those peppery notes in the rye. Yeah, this is a really good rye. It's not as sweet as something like say a Crown Royal. It's a lot more similar to a Rittenhouse. It's actually a little bit more spicier than a Sazerac, I'd say. So it's kind of in between. So this is built a little bit more like an American whiskey style. So the first cocktail that I'm going to do is the Whiskey Sour. So nowadays it's more common to make this cocktail with bourbon as opposed to rye, but it first originated using rye. So the modern version of this cocktail was created in 1862 and it first appeared in print in Jerry Thomas's Bartender's Guide. And why I say modern version is because it included the addition of egg white. So a version of this cocktail actually originated 100 years earlier without using egg white. It was similar to these other early Caribbean drinks just like grog where it was invented by sailors to combat scurvy. So we're going to start off with two ounces of rye, three quarters of an ounce of lemon juice, three quarters of an ounce of simple syrup, and three quarters of an ounce of aquafaba. This is the same aquafaba from the Campari and Pisco videos. So again you can freeze and repurpose your aquafaba. And we'll give this a dry shake for about five seconds. Add ice and shake for 12 to 15 seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe glass, beautifully garnished with angostura bitters, and there you have the whiskey sour. Cheers! That's a really good, nice, light, simple drink. You get the spiciness from the rye coming through. So I'm a big fan of bourbon, but this is actually pretty good with rye because it's not as sweet as bourbon. It's got a little bit more of that peppery spice and it cuts through some of that sweetness from the simple syrup. So it's a really good balanced drink. So the next cocktail that I'm going to do is the Ward 8. So this cocktail was invented in 1898 by Tom Husson at the Lockerbie Cafe in Boston, and it was created to celebrate the election win of political boss Tom Lamassie in the state legislature to represent Boston's eighth ward. So for this one we're going to take out the aquafaba and the simple syrup, and we're going to add an orange juice and grenadine. So we're going to start off with two ounces of rye, half an ounce of lemon juice, half an ounce of orange juice, and half an ounce of grenadine. Add ice and shake for 12 to 15 seconds. Double strain into a footed rocks glass. Garnish with an orange and a cherry skewer to a pick. And there you have the Ward 8. Okay, cheers. That's really good. Up front you get the spiciness from the rye, and it turns into this blend between the orange juice and the grenadine, giving this sweetness. And also you get the acidity from the lemon juice just cutting through all of it. So you don't have to serve this in a footed rocks glass. You can serve this in an old-fashioned glass or a Nick and Nora glass or a coupe. This is a footed rocks glass from Libby. It's really hard to find. I bought a pack of 12 from Vancouver, and it was really expensive to ship. I have a really expensive hobby, I know, but that's why I'm simplifying things for you guys. So the next cocktail that I'm going to do is the Rye Tie. So this is a riff on the tiki cocktail, the My Tie, and it was invented in the last 10 years or so by Nick Brown at the Spaniard in New York. So for this one, we're going to sub out the orange juice and the grenadine and bring in au jet and pineapple juice. So this is the same pineapple juice from the pineapple video. So freshly juiced pineapple juice will only last about three days. So before it goes bad, you can store it in the freezer, in your froster whenever you need it, and it's going to be just as good. So we're going to start off with two ounces of rye, three quarters of an ounce of lemon juice, three quarters of an ounce of au jet, and three quarters of an ounce of pineapple juice. Then we're going to crush up some ice, then we're going to add a scoop of crushed ice into the shaker, and shake for about 12 to 15 seconds. So I'm going to show you how I like to build my tiki cocktails and smug those cold balls the same instructions. So I like to fill the glass with crushed ice to about three quarters of the way up, and then we'll just strain this in, top off with some more crushed ice, put your reusable straw in, garnish with a pineapple wedge, and the garnish calls to be topped off with angostura bitter. So I put it into a dropper bottle. If you use the angostura bottle, it's just going to go all over the place. So putting it into a dropper bottle gives you a little bit more control. And there you have the rye tie. Cheers! That's a fun tiki cocktail with rye whiskey. It's very similar to a whiskey sour. You got a little bit of this nuttiness coming from the orgette, and a little bit of the pineapple juice coming through. And as you drink the cocktail, the angostura bitters will slowly come down, and the flavor of the cocktail will slightly change, and developing into this more of a bitter profile from the angostura bitters. Okay, so that's it for today. Here you have three really easy rye cocktails. In this one, you have the aquafaba that you can repurpose from the Campari in the Pisco video. In this one here, you have the pineapple juice that you can repurpose from the pineapple video. And in all of these, you have rye and lemon juice. So a lot of the ingredients in these ones are really similar, so you don't have to go and buy a lot of different products to make these three different cocktails. I hope this video was as much fun for you as it was for me. Hit that like and subscribe button. Follow me on Instagram for more recipes, and I'll see you in the next video. Cheers!