Better Whiskey Through Science! Leveraging a Public Corn Breeding Program to Improve Regional Whiskey Flavors and Create New Industries
Better Whiskey Through Science! Leveraging a public corn breeding program to improve regional whiskey flavors and create new industries Rob Arnold, MSc Seth C. Murray, PhD Head Distiller Associate Professor and Eugene Butler Endowed Chair Firestone & Robertson Distilling Co. Dept. of Soil & Crop Sciences PhD student, Texas A&M University Texas A&M University @TXDistiller @DrSethMurray What is Whiskey? https://www.winebags.com/The-Compendium-of-Alcohol-Ingredients-and-Processes-s/2054.htm Whiskey: generic. Distilled alcohol made with grain and aged in a wood barrel Most U.S. whiskeys use a lot of corn Bourbon whiskey: US Law: 51+% corn, distilled <80% alcohol, barreled at < 62.5% alcohol, new charred oak barrel Tennessee whiskey: Usually filtered through charcoal Texas whiskey: The best whiskey! Rye whiskey: 51+% rye (grain) Scotch whisky: Usually malted barley, distilled 2 times in Scotland Irish whiskey: Usually malted barley, distilled 3 times and aged 3 years in Ireland Most corn (maize, Zea mays L.) is not sweet corn Corn - $51.5 billion, 89 million acres, 404 million tons Sweet corn - $860 million, 495,000 acres, 4 million tons Plant breeding and agronomy have increased yields Brummer, E.C., W.T. Barber, S. Collier, T.S. Cox, R. Johnson, S.C. Murray*, R.T. Olsen, R.C. Pratt, and A.M. Thro. 2011. Plant breeding for harmony between agriculture and the environment. Frontiers of Ecology and the Environment 9:561–568. Data from USDA- NASS A need to feed the growing world population Nobel Laurate Dr. 10 billion people Norman Borlaug by 2050 “Father of the Green Revolution” Former Texas A&M Faculty Member http://www.worldfoodprize.org/ http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Graphs/Probabilistic/POP/TOT/ 170 U.S.
[Show full text]