Lagerkorn — the historic German grain Whisky — barrel aged corn distillate from the Münsterland

The paper first looks at the history, the origins, and the distillation details of the “Lagerkorn” (“trademarked: barrique matured for at least 3 years in the area of Schöppingen, regional products, distillate with around 32% once bottled") and other related distillates of the SASSEKORN distillery in the German Münsterland region.
The Lagerkorn / Cigarmalt (Fig. 1.) is aged for 4 years in ex Cognac barrique oak casks (350 litre) / american oak (made in France) casks (320 litre). The Lagerkorn Special (Fig. 1) is aged for an additional 4 years in Bordeaux Barrique ex - Chateau Latour oak casks (225 litre - only useable once for that).
Using small spirit samples (2 different casks each from Lagerkorn + Cigarmalt, plus several additional “specials”) for different maturation times (from New Make to 6 years in cask plus finished product), the uptake of wood components (phenolic aldehydes, vanillin, color), pH change plus the development among some of the distillates more relevant compounds (higher alcohols (propanol, butanol, isoamyl alcohol, …), various esters and trace congeners) were analysed using a gas chromatography system.
The data confirmed that the general climatic conditions in this part of Germany allow a much faster maturation, but they also show the limits of the distillation process and cask maturation with respect to observed changes of the product over time.
This lead to recommendations that should have a positive economic impact on the distillery operation while maintaining the destillate quality.