Love him or hate him, but Jeremy Clarkson’s best-selling Hawkstone beer is driving home the idea of terroir by using his barley from his farm for the brew. While not the only one, few brewers do this with barley arguably often used as a commodity. Velo Mitrovich reports on a US whiskey distiller who wants to bring back terroir for all spirits and what we, as brewers, can learn.

No doubt you’ve experienced this. You been asked to bring a bottle of ‘nice wine’ to a party. As you stand there looking at the hundreds of bottles in the supermarket, arranged by colour, age, price, region, grape variety – or a combination of any or all – you’re left wondering: “How can I ever choose?”

You know that no matter what you pick, somebody at the party will make a face at your selection and say: “I only drink chardonnay from grapes grown from this little west-facing hill near Ardèche.”

And you think “Well sacré bleu to you and your terroir,” as you pour yourself a whisky from Islay. 

With whiskies, while there are national and regional styles, it has been long-argued that the concept of terroir doesn’t exist. But where does beer stand in this equation?

The bottle in your hand might say Scotch Whisky or Kentucky Bourbon, but the grain used could come from anywhere in the world and could have even been combined with different varieties of the same grain. 

Most people can taste the difference between single estate – terroir – wines, coffee, tea, chocolate, and olive oil. Cheese and even some beef show the effect of terroir as well. Winemakers universally accept that where a grape is grown influences its chemistry, which in turn changes the flavour of the wine. A detailed system has codified the idea that place matters to wine. 

So why don’t we feel the same way about beer and whiskey, and the ingredients used to produce it?

In a paper on the ‘Relevance of hop terroir for beer flavour’ by Ann Van Holle, Hilde Muylle and Geert Haesaert et al, they observed that not only variety but also terroir may have a significant impact on the biochemical and brewing characteristics of hops and, consequently, on the resulting beer flavour profile.

Published in March 2021 in the Journal of the Institute of Brewing, they noted that, to date, in contrast to variety-specific effects, comprehensive research data on the impact of terroir on hop brewing characteristics are limited.

Therefore, through the production of single-hop beers produced with T90 hop pellets from distinct cultivation regions worldwide, they confirmed that terroir-related characteristics of hop batches affect the sensory attributes of beer and that the effects are variety dependent.

“These insights may allow brewers to account for the impact of hop terroir on the consistency and the quality of their beers, while it may open perspectives for subtle diversification in beer flavour profiles,” they added.

And from another angle, can an element of terroir come through the grain after it has been malted, boiled, combined with yeast, fermented, distilled, casked in an oak barrel, and aged?

Many brewers could learn a thing or two from Rob Arnold, who says ‘yes’. A master distiller who believes as much, based on his experience in whiskey distilling in Texas and in whisky/whiskey research around the world, including Ireland’s Waterford Distillery. In fact, he feels so strong about this subject – and message – that he’s written the most detailed study of grain terroir that exists today, ‘The Terroir of Whiskey’. And, it is a very enjoyable read. 

Besides being a journey of discovery of flavour, it is also on the science of flavour and why grain terroir does matter in beverages. And that includes beer. This, he found out, is being put into practice by a new generation of craft producers, plant breeders and local farmers who are bringing back the grain flavours that drinkers loved 100-years ago.

What happened to grain

According to Arnold, since its beginnings, the whiskey industry – and breweries – have basically been tied to the evolution of grain and the rise of commodities up until the late 1800s.

“Before then, there was there was no such thing as a seed company so every variety of grain that existed would have been what we call today ‘heirlooms’,” Arnold tells us 

Those grains would have been selected by farmers for whatever traits they were interested in. That would have obviously been things like yield and how accessible it was from a harvest team standpoint – standability, height, things like that – but also flavour.

“Remember, we didn’t used to feed grain to chickens and cows. We cared about the flavour of the grain, of the corn, of the wheat or rye, it’s what we were feeding our families, not our livestock. There were only local regional varieties of grain that were adapted to a place and handed down from farmer to farmer. And with that you had 1,000s of distilleries, dotting the landscape here in the United States and elsewhere producing spirits from local grains. There was no such thing as high-yield, modern variety hybrid grains that suppressed flavour in favour of yield,” he says.

Once we got into the 20th century and especially after World War Two, some of the world’s war industries ‘beat a sword into a ploughshare’ and turned their focus to agriculture. More efficient farming techniques in the grain producing areas of North America, the Soviet Union, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia, along with synthetic fertilisers and hybrid varieties of grain, allowed production to soar like never before, especially with wheat.

“To me, terroir is all about discovering old chemistry that we’ve lost through the modern process of plant breeding and the industrial agriculture,”

Rob Arnold

“You had this massive grain surplus, which was perfect for the commodity market, and all of a sudden we were shifting this grain to animal feed, producing meat at a level we never had before,” says Arnold.

In the 1860s roller mills were introduced first in Europe and then in the United States. Before these mills, white flour was expensive and white bread was only for the wealthy. But with roller mills, it was quick, easy, and cheap to separate out the various parts of wheat, leaving white flour behind with very little in it. Indeed, so much was removed from the flour that by law it ultimately it had to be enriched with nutrients. 

The bread industry loved this white flour. With the wheat oil and other parts removed, milled flour could be stored much longer and white flour was easier to use in automated bakery machines, allowing for the huge, mega-bread companies we have today. 

According to Arnold, you were left with two huge markets for grain – animal feed and baking companies – and neither cared about the flavour of grain. Plant researchers worked on creating high-yield varieties for these markets which is where we are today.

None of this really crossed Arnold’s mind until in 2014 when Arnold was visiting Sawyer Farmers, a large farm which supplied all the barley, rye, wheat, and corn used to make spirits at TX Whiskey where he worked. 

While watching corn being harvested with Sawyer, the two men got into a discussion about this specific corn, what were its uses and the whole idea of flavour – which John Sawyer sidestepped. Arnold didn’t let up, however, and asked him at what point was grain flavour considered. Sawyer answered: “Us farmers don’t get paid for flavour. Grain is a commodity. We get paid for yield.”

That was the catalyst for Arnolds’ world journey to find out what happened to grain flavour, does it affect a drink’s taste, and what would it take to reintroduce terroir into the spirits industry. 

What is terroir?

As Arnold says, it is not nearly as complicated as some make the concept out to be. In a nutshell, terroir is how the variety, the genetics, and the growing environment impact flavour.

“To me, terroir is all about discovering old chemistry that we’ve lost through the modern process of plant breeding and the industrial agriculture. This discovery will lead to diversity of flavour, new flavours and flavours we’ve forgotten. It’s connecting to the land and who you’re working with; it’s knowing where your grain comes from,” he says.

While this might sound very abstract and airy-fairy, Arnold lays down scientific evidence for this in his work with Ale Ochoa from Texas A&M and with his own doctoral thesis research work.

“Through my PhD studies, we found that a lot of the aldehydes which are derived from oxidation of lipids in the grain during mashing and distillation, and during high temperature processes are impacted by terroir.”

But, despite all the scientific research, Arnold admits it’s not a straight line when it comes to whisky flavour. “It’s this very complicated tapestry, whiskey flavour, and you pull one thread and you can shift that tapestry. So how much does terroir matter? This is it’s a debate that will never be answered because it depends on how much you want to highlight it in your process,” says Arnold.

“If you are segregating grain varieties and the farms where they come from, and distilling them separately, you’re going to find some distinct differences in the whiskies that are produced from them. So, to me It depends on how you pursue it. 

“In the end, we’re not bringing in unknown rare flavour compounds, whether it’s whiskey or wine or beer. In most cases, we’re talking about the same set of 50 to 80 compounds that are important for flavour across all these beverages. What impacts flavour is the concentration of those compound. Different terroirs will play a role in the concentration,” he says.

To quote from the book: “Before making efforts to capture and highlight terroir, large distilleries would need to be convinced it’s something real and worthwhile and something that commodity grain elevators can’t deliver. To be honest, even most small distilleries would take some convincing. Although grain identity preservation is much easier in two-thousand-pound bulk bags, there are still the financial and logistical issues of finding the right farms, harvesting the identity-preserved grain separately, and storing the bulk bags between harvests.

“In addition to these challenges, most grain farmers have spent their lives selling solely to the grain elevators that serve the commodity market. For farmers to grow, harvest, store and sell grain that maintains the identity of terroir and is destined for whiskey as opposed to a commodity grain elevator, distillers would have to reward them for their efforts.”

More sales?

So, the question becomes – for both small and large distilleries and breweries – is it worth the effort?

“It’s a personal decision that each distillery and brewery is going to have to make. There is a logistical effort when it comes to highlighting terroir and whiskey and there is a financial burden that’s going to be there because it’s going to cost more than just buying grain from the commodity market,” says Arnold. 

“Even if you’re buying from specialty grain brokers that deal with whiskey distilleries and breweries – and especially specialised food producers – you’re still going to pay more than you would with any of the more proven systems. 

“It comes down to a lot of things. Is there a market? Is this where you’re going to hang some at your marketing power because it if you’re not going to talk about it, don’t do it, because it’s not worth the effort. 

“But if you’re trying to tap into it, you need to look at the new distilleries and especially this whole new movement of craft distilleries. You have this explosion of the number of distilleries that exists now. If you’re going to succeed you have to first in own your own backyard.

“At TX Distillery, we did a great job connecting to the community of Fort Worth. We could tell them that not only are they drinking local because it’s made in this place, but also because the ingredients came from here too.

“It’s a really powerful message and it’s obviously a flavour application. But it also goes beyond that, you have the connection to your local region, you have the ability to create relationships with farmers and use that in your messaging. You have the ability to really focus on sustainability to your area and also tell that story.”

In the end, will that lead to more sales for your brewery or distillery?

“I don’t know but the whole story together is a powerful, powerful message and it’s an authentic message,” says Arnold.