Different types of corn to make mash will make a difference?

[Guest sensei]

I really hope that this is not a stupid question, but I wanted to ask it. After seeing a video about a guy talking about maybe making a whiskey primarily from corn, I started thinking about that great plant. Does it matter what corn you use to make your mash or will all corn taste the same and yield the same alcohol?

My father would go to the farmers market in town and get cotton candy, peaches and cream, silver queen, etc., really sweet corns that is so much better than the plain yellow corn you would get in you standard grocery store fresh or frozen. I was just thinking that sweeter corn might yieled more natural sugar and be a better base for a corn whiskey/bourbon. I'm not a chemist, so I just don't know.

[cowdery]

I don't have a complete answer to your question but can tell you that distillers do not use sweet corn. Sweet corn, i.e., the corn humans eat as a vegetable, is a bit of an anomoly and represents a tiny fraction of all the corn produced. Most corn is what is known as field or dent corn and if you cooked it like you do sweet corn and tried to eat it, you would spit it out. It's all starch. What distillers do is grind it, then cook it to liquify the starch, then use enzymes to convert the starch into sugar. Only then is it fermented. The large commercial distillers use a standard #2 grade field corn. There may well be some differences between types, and maybe sweet corn can be used to make good whiskey, but that's still very much an open question and one craft distillers certainly are in a position to explore.

And, as an aside, omigod is Silver Queen good!

[Guest sensei]

There may well be some differences between types, and maybe sweet corn can be used to make good whiskey, but that's still very much an open question and one craft distillers certainly are in a position to explore.

Methinks that this may very well be underway by some intrepid craft distiller to see if there are in fact any differences.

And, as an aside, omigod is Silver Queen good!

Ah, that it is. Silver Queen and Cotton Candy have to be my favorites. Homemade cream corn is sooooo much better than the vomit sold in cans at the grocery store. But, that's just my personal opinion.

[Paul Tomaszewski]

We use a standard white corn for our "White Dog" and "Black Dog" KY Corn whiskies. I feel that it imparts a sweeter, less grainy character that makes sipping an unaged whiskey pleasant and more on par with an aged whiskey.

Paul

[Wilder]

Sweet corn when dried on the stalk evaporates to nothing(mostly water). When comparing the two one looks like corn the other is almost none existant.

I don't think this would be a workable solution.