Corn is more than a staple food source for many Americans. Corn is more than feed for livestock and poultry. Corn is more than an energy ingredient for high-octane fuels such as ethanol. Corn, in reality, is a versatile grain that is abundant and useful in a variety of products.
The Indiana Corn Marketing Council (ICMC), the state’s corn checkoff program, is dedicated to delivering corn in all of its different forms to customers across America and around the world. One of the more popular forms is as old as Indiana itself – whiskey. ICMC joined 18 other state corn marketing associations in promoting new products in the competitive whiskey industry through the Heartland Whiskey Competition.
The other state checkoffs participating in the competition were from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.
Heartland Whiskey Competition
The Heartland Whiskey Competition is a biennial, blind-tasting judging contest that is sanctioned and supervised by the American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA). The competition offers several categories to craft distillers from all U.S. states and territories. In addition to category competitions, such as bourbon, moonshine, etc., “Best of State” awards are given to those states with corn association sponsorships. A “Best of Show” award is given to the highest-scoring whiskey from the “Best of State” winners.
The 2023 competition introduced the Top Farmer-Distiller Award. Farmer-distillers made up 32 percent of this year’s entries this year – a new record high. The winner of this award was Single Barrel Bourbon – Tobacco Barn by Tobacco Barn Distillery of Hollywood, Md.
Source: incornandsoy.org
Photo Credit: gettyImages-dilok-klaisataporn
Categories: Indiana, Crops, Corn, Livestock, Poultry