The color is bluish green and the leaves are ½ inch wide. The seed is 1/3 inch long. This grain is used in making bread and rye whisky.
Rye has the similar color of bourbon, but the flavor and aroma are different. Rye whisky must be distilled from a fermented mash of grain containing at least 51 percent rye.
The straight rye whiskey is matured for at least two years in the charred white-oak barrels. Unless the distillation process includes extensive rectification, rye distillates has a characteristically – pungent aroma and hard edged spicy grain like flavor.
Production of rye whiskies had vanished altogether from the Mid-Atlantic states by the 1980s. A handful of modern rye whiskies are currently being made by bourbon distilleries in Kentucky and Indiana.
In addition of the use of rye malts in the manufacture of rye whiskey, rye is used in the production of Holland gin and the Russian drink, kvass.
Rye whiskey
