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What’s the Difference Between Bourbon and Rye Whiskey?

Published November 26, 2025 by John Fegan

Contents

  1. Legal Definition of Bourbon
  2. Legal definition of Rye Whiskey
  3. The legal differences
  4. Additives
  5. Similarities Between Rye and Bourbon
  6. Differences between Bourbon and Rye
  7. Flavour
Bourbon and rye whiskey are two major American whiskey styles defined primarily by their grain composition. Bourbon must be made in the United States from a mash of at least 51% corn, aged in new charred-oak containers, distilled below 80% ABV, and entered into the barrel below 62.5% ABV. Rye whiskey must contain at least 51% rye grain and follows the same distillation and barreling limits. Both must be bottled at a minimum of 40% ABV. Their differing grain makeup leads bourbon to taste generally sweeter and fuller, while rye tends to be drier and spicier.

Bourbon is a whiskey made in the United States from a mash that is at least 51 percent corn and aged in new charred oak barrels. Bourbon must also be distilled below 80 percent ABV and enter the barrel below 62.5 percent ABV. These are not guidelines or friendly suggestions. These are Rules. Hard limits. The sort written down by stern individuals who believe the universe would fall apart if people were left to their own fermenting devices. They carry clipboards. Their spectacles glint ominously.

Why 51 percent? It feels oddly specific until you remember there are committees involved. Committees whose sacred mission is to prevent bourbon from drifting into chaos and becoming “Corn-ish Whiskey.” No one wants that, because such a whiskey would immediately demand cultural autonomy, a flag, a revived ancestral language, and strict immigration checks at the border of the mash tun.1

Rye whiskey is a much more worldly creature than bourbon. Globally, “rye” can mean almost anything with rye in it, sometimes that means a lot, as often than not it means barely enough rye to provide emotional support. Countries outside the United States treat rye with a kind of relaxed philosophical shrug, slap the word label on and move on with their lives.

But step onto American soil and the mood the mood shifts in that special way things do when certain kinds of officials get involved. To legally be called rye in the United States, the mash bill must contain at least 51 percent rye grain, the whiskey must be distilled below 80 percent ABV, and it must enter a new charred oak barrel below 62.5 percent ABV. Presumably because someone, somewhere, believes that if the mash bill slips even slightly, the entire whiskey cosmos will implode out of sheer pedantic indignation.

There is only two legal differences between bourbon and American rye, one is the grain used in the mashbill and the other concerns spirit caramel.

  • Bourbon must contain at least 51 percent corn
  • American rye must contain at least 51 percent rye

Rye grain is responsible for flavors described as “spicy,” “dry,” and “whoa, someone turned the volume up on this sip.” Bourbon tends to hit the palate with notes of vanilla, caramel, and “ah, that’s nice,” the sort of flavours that make you feel briefly convinced the world is fundamentally kind. Anything with less than 51 percent of the proper grain is not really rye or bourbon at all, just an overeager apprentice hoping that if it stands close enough to the real thing, nobody will notice the difference.

Bourbon has no minimum aging requirement, but straight bourbon must age at least two years. Rye follows the same rule: no minimum unless it is “straight,” in which case two years is the price of admission. This means you can legally age bourbon or rye for the duration of a sneeze, as long as the bourbon, the barrel, and the universe all agree that time technically passed.

Everything else, maximum distillation proof, barrel entry proof, new charred oak barrels, and minimum bottling strength is the exact same. They are siblings forced to wear identical uniforms while insisting they are entirely different creatures.

Additives

Bourbon may not contain additives of any kind. Rye is split:

  • Straight rye: no additives allowed.
  • Non-straight rye: may contain up to 2.5 percent harmless spirit coloring

Similarities Between Rye and Bourbon

Bourbon and rye must obey the same legal production rules. Both must be distilled below 80 percent ABV, enter new charred oak below 62.5 percent ABV, and be bottled at a minimum of 40 percent ABV. Both age in identically toasted barrels, gaining structure, depth, and the faint aroma of a forest that made several regrettable decisions but would prefer not to talk about them.

Their mash bills can even overlap. High-rye bourbons and low-rye ryes sometimes taste confusingly similar, leading to blind tastings where experts lean in with great solemnity and announce notes of caramelized walnuts making a break for the exit only to discover they’ve been praising the wrong whiskey entirely. A humbling moment for everyone except the walnuts.

Differences between Bourbon and Rye

Bourbon must be made in the United States; rye can be made anywhere. Champagne must come from the Champagne region of France or it becomes sparkling wine with trust issues, and Sherry can only come from the Jerez region of Spain. Move it ten miles in any direction and it turns back “fortified wine that would like a word with your geography teacher.” Bourbon has a similar preferencial postcode, while rye roams freely across the globe buying questionable bus tickets and making friends with strangers.

Additives

Bourbon may not contain additives, while non straight rye may. This occasionally results in rye that tastes suspiciously as though someone leaned over the vat and whispered the word flavorant in a conspiratorial tone. Spirits are very impressionable at that age.

Flavour

Bourbon usually tastes sweeter, fuller, and more corn-forward. Bourbon is a friendly handshake. Rye is spicier, drier, and tends to behave like a handshake delivered by someone intent on establishing dominance. Think of bourbon as the friendly neighbor who brings you pie with a smile. Rye brings you pie too, but also asks a series of questions about your tax records that make you wonder if you filled in line seven correctly.

Both are perfectly acceptable in cocktails like the Old Fashioned, the Manhattan and the Whiskey Sour. Many cocktails can use either spirit, while some insist on one or the other. This is why bartenders often ask bourbon or rye in exactly the same tone a parent asks, “And do you really want to wear that?” There is history in the question. There is judgment. There is also the resigned knowledge that you will pick whatever you were going to pick anyway.

After that the universe expresses its preferences. Rye gives a cocktail a brisk, authoritative quality and sometimes delivers unsolicited advice about your posture. Bourbon makes the same drink smooth, comforting and completely willing to go along with whatever improbable chain of events follows.

  1. In the UK, Cornwall the far southwestern tip of England has a distinct cultural identity, its own revived language (Cornish), a unique flag (St Piran’s), and occasional tongue-in-cheek or semi-serious independence/autonomy movements. So “Corn-ish Whiskey” jokingly implies the whiskey might start behaving like a miniature nationalist movement. ↩︎

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