Talk:Korn (liquor)

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Very popular ist the so called "Heino", a mix of Korn and Cola. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.96.181.183 (talk) 16:43, 3 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

corn is not a regular one in Germany ..[edit]

ehm .. never heard of it being made out of "corn" aka Maize. the quoted book reference is also rather old. maybe back in the late 80s, so far I know its only made from "real" korn, aka wheat, rye and similar. (fwolf) --217.85.139.193 (talk) 02:29, 29 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Stylization[edit]

"Korn" is a German noun and therefore is always capitalized. Shoud it be stylized Korn or something else in the entire article? --David Hedlund (talk) 08:17, 30 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Possibly. "Korn" is a German term, so should be italicized, ideally. That said, the word "Korn" is just German for "grain", and its use for the liquor appears to be a nickname. "Kornbrand" appears to be the more full and correct name; notably, the article in the German Wikipedia is at de:Kornbrand. Also, in response to the edit summary reverting you that called it "cheap vodka" somewhat mischaracterizes it; it's not distilled to neutral proofs like vodka, and is more akin to an unaged rye or wheat whiskey (indeed, the influence on the history of American whiskey is often understated). oknazevad (talk) 16:09, 30 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Korn Vs. Doppelkorn[edit]

I see some mention of Doppelkorn but it's not quite clear how they differ. Is it in the distillation process? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:C1A0:4892:1800:68FD:5CFF:AF6F:446 (talk) 23:02, 9 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Alcoholic strength, from what I can see. Getting good sources for this article is tough; Korn(brand) isn't discussed much in English sources, being popular priniciply in a non-English speaking area, and considered a lower-class drink. Which is interesting considering its influence on the historical development of North American whiskies; rye whiskey, and the inclusion of rye in most bourbon recipes, was influenced by German immigrants' traditions of Kornbrand merging with Scottish and Irish whiskey traditions. oknazevad (talk) 02:51, 10 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Reinheistgebot[edit]

Ive tagged this as dubious, if only because it is physically impossible for the recipe mandated by the law as claimed here to actually exist. One cannot use "at least" 2/3 of one ingredient and "at least" 1/3 of another. That adds up to more than a whole! The German Wikipedia article likewise has been edited. Frankly, that makes me doubt the reliability of source. It is likely in error. It may say what it says, but that doesn't mean that we should blindly copy it when it is clearly stating the impossible. oknazevad (talk) 15:20, 7 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Oknazevad: not following your math. 2/3 + 1/3 = 1. It's not at all impossible. That Kornbranntwein shall contain "no less than 2/3 rye and no less than 1/3 barley or malt" means to me that it must contain exactly those proportions. Why they would phrase it that way I don't know, but we are talking about 230 year old German legalese, so I'm not surprised if it sounds odd. Maybe that's just the way they talked back then (or still). But it's not illogical.
On the other hand, "no less than 2/3 rye and no more than 1/3 barley or malt" logically leaves the possibility open of using less than 1/3 barley or malt, and presumably making up the rest with some other unspecified ingredient. That to me is highly dubious in a so-called "purity law". I think it's safe to interpret the intended meaning as being a 2:1 ratio of rye and barley/malt, and no other ingredients. So we can probably just leave out the "no more/no less" part if it's confusing to you.
I'm going to add back the citation and updates to the German article, and remove the "no more/no less". I don't see grounds for removing the citation on the basis of it being "impossible", as explained above. Furthermore it also contains other relevant information, for example that it specifies only rye, not "rye or grain". First of all rye is grain, so it doesn't make sense, and secondly from my (limited) understanding, that fits with the practice in Nordhausen at the time, where they only used rye and not wheat or other grains. My edit also changed the implication that the 1798 regulation is still in force, as is often falsely claimed about the 1516 beer "Reinheitsgebot". --IamNotU (talk) 00:09, 8 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The other ingredients being other grains such as wheat. That was my assumption. My reading of both being "at least" was that they were allowing more of each, which would add up to more that 3/3, or 1 whole. But your reading is likely, as well. Indeed, it does sound like leagaleze of the worst variety. oknazevad (talk) 02:39, 8 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
It's of course possible that the 1916 journal article is in error. I found the "At least 2/3 rye or grain and at most 1/3 barley/malt" wording on the Echter Nordhäuser site, which may be the source for the German Wikipedia article. Anyway I'll see if I can track down the actual regulation, but it may take a while. I guess the way it is now is good enough until then. -- IamNotU (talk) 12:52, 8 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]