CRAFT by Under My Host® Issue No. 16 Made in America: Part I | Page 122

W W W. C R A F T BY U M H . C O M and mineral rich. All of these nuances translated into the roundness of the spirit. As promised, the Guenthers came to see the distillery and give their bless- ing to our use of their beloved sorghum. Scott and I agreed that we would produce this spirit only from Muddy Pond sorghum. We also agreed to pro- duce it sparingly and in quantities that the Guenther family could sustain without harming their core business. In 2016, when vicious pests called aphids threatened their sorghum supply, we cut back on our production and put our sorghum whiskey on allocation, parceling it out to customers in limited quantities. We also connected the Guenthers with Dr. Stephen Kresovich of the Clemson University cane re- search team to help get them the resources they needed to battle this grow- ing problem. Our experimentation with sorghum whiskey that winter opened our eyes to the possibility of finding magic in more mainstream crops as well, and this is where our initial meeting with Roberts comes back into focus. We ap- proached Roberts in January 2014 about helping us identify the best possi- ble whiskey corn available in South Carolina. Without hesitation, Roberts led us straight to Jimmy Red corn with one small caveat: we would have to figure out how to grow our own. There sim- ply was not enough Jimmy Red corn being grown for us to use in consistent whiskey production. He happily supplied us with sufficient seed to plant about two and a half acres and pointed us in the direction of Ward at Clem- son University. Ward was immediately interested in running tests on Jimmy Red to develop a grower’s playbook for us to pass along to our farm part- ners. Ward’s work that summer offered tremendous insight into favorable plant spacing, weed control, and irrigation that we now pass along to each of our farm partners. We grew enough corn that year to process two batches of bourbon and put back three barrels of our very first Jimmy Red Straight Bourbon. We knew this corn was intensely different right from the very first mash. The freshly milled cornmeal was rich with oil, smelled like peanut butter, and clumped in our fists when we squeezed it. A few days of fermentation yielded a three-inch thick oil cap that smelled like banana Laffy Taffy. We blended that right back into the mash prior to distillation, and the cream- iness translated straight into the fresh spirit. We tasted notes of marzipan in the white dog, fresh cherry and almond flavors that coated the palate in the rich, creamy finish. There was no doubt that day that this corn was the future of our whiskey program. With our successful Jimmy Red experiment safely tucked away in barrels, we set out to find a farmer who might take a chance on carefully expanding production of this precious crop. We found a willing and eager partner in