By Audra Koscik
Almost 20 years ago, Natalia de Leon and Shawn Kaeppler, professors in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences, set out to bring a crop back from the dead. Their goal: meet the scientific challenge of resurrecting an heirloom red corn variety and, in turn, help a local bourbon business breathe new life into its product. It took some serious seed vault sleuthing, a deep dive into a germplasm bank, and a retread of historical breeding efforts, but the bounty of those efforts is now flowing from fine oaken barrels.
The corn variety in question, a hybrid called W335A, has deep roots in Wisconsin. Originally developed in 1939 by scientists at the UW–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), it was grown in the region for decades. But, by the 1970s, W335A had faded from farms as other varieties emerged.
For decades, W335A only existed in UW–Madison’s seed vault. That is, until 2006, when the Henry family, owners of Henry Farms and J. Henry & Sons, expressed interest in growing and using W335A to craft high-quality bourbon.
The Henry family has a long history with this red corn variety. In 1946, Jerry and Helen Henry purchased a farm in Wisconsin, where they grew and sold W335A until new, more productive varieties hit the market.
“In the late 70s, [with the new varieties], you started seeing your average yield per acre just kind of skyrocket,” says Joe Henry, Jr., owner of J. Henry & Sons. “[W335A] is still an heirloom varietal, so it doesn’t have the kind of yield potential that those more modern-day crops have. It would have gone completely extinct because nobody was going to grow it.”
After many years, the Henry family, which had continued producing other types of corn, decided they wanted to branch out into bourbon. “We wanted to take our knowledge of raising seed corn and apply that to making really high-quality bourbon. And we wanted to do something that was tied to the region and had some history with our family,” Henry says. “We started talking to the university because my dad remembered the cool, unique red color of that specific varietal.”
The Henry family reached out to de Leon, project leader of the field corn breeding and genetics program at CALS. “The variety that [Jerry Henry] used at the beginning was this very specific corn variety that had really dark red kernels,” de Leon says. “This variety is what we call a double hybrid.”
To create a double hybrid, scientists start with four parent plants. Each of the four parents is from an inbred line, which is the result of a crop being pollinated only by itself. Scientists then pair the four parents and breed them, creating two new hybrid crops. Scientists cross these hybrids to create a double hybrid.
“That’s how hybrids were produced back then,” de Leon says. “The inbred lines were so weak that in order to produce enough seed of any variety, you needed to do this double hybrid.”
De Leon worked closely with Kaeppler, a collaborator in the field corn breeding and genetics program, to bring back the double hybrid. They looked in UW–Madison’s seed vault to find the four original inbred seeds used to created W335A, but they quickly ran into issues. “In our cold rooms where we store our seed, we still only had seed for three of the four,” de Leon says.
After connecting with other sources, such as the USDA – North Central Region Plant Introduction Station, de Leon and Kaeppler found that the fourth inbred no longer existed. They were still determined to resurrect this red corn and decided to breed one of the original hybrids. Still, bringing back the hybrid was quite difficult since de Leon and Kaeppler’s team had to start with the 1930s inbred seeds.
“Old inbreds are hard to increase,” de Leon says. “The seed is very weak. We started working together, trying to produce enough seed, and we went through this cycle. We spent quite a bit of time just trying to get the volume of seed that [the Henrys] needed.” The Henry family was a supportive collaborator and provided funds to help this part of the process.
After many iterations and a lot of hard work, de Leon and Kaeppler’s team was able to give the Henry family a healthy seed stock. “We produced as much as we could, and we gave it to them,” says de Leon.
The Henrys were able to start growing their own crop, but they were still a long way from having a finished product. To begin with, J. Henry & Sons had to produce enough corn to make bourbon. The company farms all the corn, wheat, and rye used in their products.
“Once we harvest those grains, the start of the distillation process is you mill them, and you turn it into a fine powder,” Henry says. “You get, essentially, just a flour. It’s a little coarser than that. You create a mash by adding water, heat, and malted barley to get that enzymatic process of converting those starches into sugars. And then you add yeast, which is very important, because you can’t have alcohol without yeast.”
At this point, the mixture is more similar to beer than whiskey, and water must be distilled out to increase the potency of the alcohol that’s left in the solution. After this process, the mixture increases to a potency of up to 60-70% alcohol.
“So now we have this high-protein, high-percentage alcohol. It sits in a barrel for five plus years, and that’s really where all the magic is happening,” Henry says. “Sixty-five percent of the final flavor comes from just the spirit interacting with those wooden oak casks.”
Crafting with the red corn was a risky business. J. Henry & Sons is the only known company to use this red corn, and the bourbon had to mature for at least five years.
“We did a lot of research on the front end,” says Henry. “When we’re putting it into the barrel, we’re constantly tracking it so that it doesn’t provide any bad flavors. But, really, it’s a huge risk starting a whiskey company because it is truly like four, five, or six years before your actual product is ready for the market.”
Luckily, the risk paid off. J. Henry & Sons now has several flavors of award-winning bourbon that use this variation of W335A. Most bourbon companies use a bulk pool of variety nonspecific #2 yellow dent because it has high starch content. Higher starch levels offer a more efficient chemical reaction and produce greater volumes of alcohol. The red corn, however, produces a distinct flavor and is higher in protein, fat, and oil content, trading efficiency for quality and flavor.
“And that shift from where those grains are putting their nutritional value really does help improve the flavor,” says Henry. “It’s got a better texture, a better flavor, and it’s a lot more complex. So, we’re really sacrificing a little bit of efficiency for a better quality, better tasting product.”
“Early in my tenure as dean I had the opportunity to visit J. Henry and Sons and see the impact a long-standing research collaboration with UW-Madison has had on their business,” says Dean Glenda Gillaspy. “As Wisconsin’s land-grant university, we have a long tradition of partnering with farmers and other agricultural businesses to solve practical problems their businesses face. Their successful business in an excellent example of the type of rural economic development that UW research supports across the state.”
The effort to resurrect W335A also inspired de Leon and Kaeppler to launch a breeding program for developing modern, higher-yielding versions of the red-seeded variety to better serve other university partners. Helping growers and businesses have high-quality agricultural products and practices is central to the work that de Leon, Kaeppler, and many faculty do. Often, it starts with a simple email, like the one the Henry family sent to de Leon.
“Many times, I get an email, and it’s not something I can directly help with,” de Leon says. “But we always do our best to respond quickly and connect them to the right resources.”