2019 Q4 Iowa Spirits - 17

The Gift of

IOWA
SPIRITS
One-stop shopping for everyone
on your holiday list.
By Bob Saar

I

owa liquors, wines and beers make perfect
holiday gifts.
Spirits not only lift everyone's spirits, they
are easily shared, and communal interaction is a
big part of any holiday celebration.
But whether you're celebrating Christmas,
Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or the winter solstice, holiday
shopping can be either fun or frustrating.
What if you could do all your seasonal shopping in one place?
Like, say, an Iowa liquor store.
Keeping in mind that not all liquor outlets are
alike and don't carry identical inventories, we put
together a shopping list and test-drove it in
Southeast Iowa.
Here are suggestions for everyone from
grumpy Grandpa to your sweetheart, all of them
found in some form or another in liquor stores
across the state.
First, a general guideline: Giving back to the
state of Iowa by purchasing local products is a
worthy goal and easy to accomplish when buying
alcoholic beverages, but a few items had to be
ignored:
In Iowa, corn is king; here are just a few of the
unique corn-based spirits your family and friends
will appreciate.
Iowa's native distilleries are defined as those
which produce less than 50,000 proof-gallons
of distilled spirits annually. A proof-gallon is one

liquid gallon of spirits 50 percent alcohol at 60
degrees Fahrenheit. 80 proof spirits-40 percent
alcohol-are 0.8 proof gallons.
Grandpa deserves whiskey younger than himself, and John Broadbent cooks corn liquor on
a homemade still in his barn. It isn't moonshine.
It's country-style Iowa corn whiskey from Two
Jays; their Broadbent Distillery is the smallest
legal whiskey maker in Iowa.
Broadbent and his son John, Jr.-the two Jays
on their product labels-began their operation
in 2009 on their farm near Norwalk, when John
Sr. hand-built their first still in a barn.
Ethyl alcohol is clear, and so are most whiskies
when first distilled. The color comes from aging
in oak due to the sugars and caramelized tannins. Corn whiskey must be made of at
least 80% corn. Broadbent's clear Iowa
Corn Whiskey uses 100% locally purchased corn.
Grandma not only needs hugs from her
grandchildren, but might also well appreciate a Mojito Muddler stainless masher by
Rabbit in her stocking.
A vodka lover on your list?
Johannes Van Leeuwen developed a process for creating vodka with zero impurities
using Iowa-grown corn at Iowa State
University. He founded OZ Spirits LLC in
2012 with James Eason of Raleigh, North

FALL 2019 | WINTER 2020 17
2019 Q4 Iowa Spirits

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