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Korn & Wodka made in Germany
"Whenever I'm sad,I drink a Korn.
And when I'm still sad
I'll drink another Korn." Germans, do you know it? Of course you do. That was actor Heinz Ehrhard in the 1970 film comedy "Das kann doch unsren Willi nicht erschüttern" ("That can't shake our Willi"), and with it he sang the praises of a quintessentially German drinking virtue: Korn, a brandy made from grain with at least 32% by volume, has been made and drunk in Germany since the Middle Ages. Evidence of this can be found in a document from 1507, for example, in which a tax on grain brandy is stipulated.
However, what is old is not always good: Korn did not have the best image in the last century - even if it was diligently drunk: Korn accounts for a relatively constant eight percent of German spirits consumption and is, after all, the first ingredient of Schützenfest and Herrengedeck. Nevertheless, premium-segment-at-the-end.
On the back shelf of the nicer bars, hardly ever a bottle of it appeared, Korn cocktails were never on the drink menus. And when, with gin, an old spirit experienced new momentum and an immense revaluation and "hippification" in recent decades, the Korn got stuck in the station pub and at the barn party.
Nork is the successful result of the "schnapps idea" of four friends from Hamburg and BremenRenaissance of the Korn from high quality to sexy
You guessed it: until now. Now it's his turn, too; now the quintessential German grain brandy is getting attention from the better drinkers. Up and down the country, distillers are striving to bring high-quality, crafty, and simply sexy Korn brandies to bars and specialty stores.
There are the hip ones, for example: They are called, for example, Der Lotse, a rye Korn from Hamburg, which in its presentation (from the label smiles the pretty drawing of a sailor) is in no way inferior to the fancy gins such as Knut Hansen, Siegfried or Gin Sul. Comparable: Nork, a Doppelkorn also launched by four young people in northern Germany. Or the Korn from Berliner Brandstifter, a "seven-filtered premium grain," as the manufacturer writes.
Classically, a distinction is made between Korn (min. 32% by volume), Kornbrand (from 37.5% by volume) and Doppelkorn (from 38% by volume). Rye, oats, wheat, barley or buckwheat are permitted - but the most common is Korn from rye. It is also possible to store grain in barrels, although this has been the exception so far.
Probably spurred on by the trend toward better grain, major manufacturers are also trying out new things: Berentzen, for example, which claims to be Germany's largest producer of Korn brandy with its Dornkaat brand, launched Korn2Korn in 2017, a premium Doppelkorn that aims to ride the craft wave: only organic grain is used, it says, produced in an artisanal distillery, and so on.
The winemakers Sebastian and Maximilian Schmidt continue the schnapps distilling as a family tradition and inspire with their very own full-bodied and roasty Korn interpretationNew interpretations of a traditional product
At the Schmittmann noble distillery in Düsseldorf, where sisters Sonja and Vera Schmittmann are leading the family business founded in 1818 into a new era, the signature product, Korn, has also been upgraded: The distillers store Ben's Kornbrand in oak barrels for about ten years - and won gold with it at the DLG tasting in 2019.
With "Vollkorn", two young winemakers from Lake Constance mingle with the Korn upgraders. On the one hand, Sebastian and Maximilian Schmidt are continuing a family tradition, distilling schnapps, and on the other, they are reinterpreting Korn with their roasty, full-bodied brandy, say tasting experts..
That's what the new grain brandies show: The spirit can do more than just pop. Korn can also be as aromatic as whiskey or as mild as a good vodka.
And speaking of vodka: Here, too, there are now German products that meet high standards of quality and style. The makers of the Munich hip gin The Duke, for example, have something like this on offer with Lion's Vodka. Windspiel Barrel Aged Potatoe Vodka from the Volcanic Eifel is also noble. Against the backdrop of current trade embargoes, which also prohibit the import of Russian vodka into Germany, this is certainly an area of spirits where a lot can still be done.
