These items are referred to collectively as chametz. The Jewish holiday of Passover, usually celebrated in March or April, presents an additional hurdle for Jewish whisky makers.“According to kosher law, a Jew may not own anything which is produced from the primary grains like wheat, rye, barley, etc., which is leavened,” says Niehaus. “If it's produced on the same lines as something not kosher, then even the equipment would pass on the non-kosher contamination.” Products that meet all these requirements will often be labeled with the symbol of a kosher-certifying organization, also called a hechsher, making them easy to identify. “Besides for the ingredients being kosher, you also have to make sure the equipment is kosher,” he says.

It just has to have a lot of oversight to make sure it's done correctly.”įor a whisky to be kosher, the distiller must ensure all of the individual ingredients, such as yeast and enzymes, are kosher, explains Niehaus. Other are more kosher-sensitive, like wine or cheese those can definitely be kosher. “Most things that come from the ground are kosher, like barley, wheat, and rye. “Many, many ingredients are inherently kosher, like water, sugar, salt,” says Rabbi Akiva Niehaus, director of kashrus operations at the cRc. To “keep kosher” is to follow the rules of kashrut (also known as kashrus or kashruth), a set of Jewish dietary laws from the Hebrew bible dictating which foods Jewish people can eat and how those foods may be prepared. Though not subject to the same rules as wine, whisky-just like any other food or drink-can be kosher.

He's the kashrus administrator at the Chicago Rabbinical Council (cRc), the kosher-certifying organization that worked with Buffalo Traceto ensure compliance of its trio of kosher whiskeys. In some ways, Fishbane had already made his mark on the bottle. A neighbor asked him to sign a bottle of Buffalo Trace kosher whiskey. Rabbis are asked to sign many things-marriage certificates, contracts, and the like-but Rabbi Sholem Fishbane never expected to be scrawling his signature on a bottle of whiskey.

Buffalo trace kosher wheat