You can take inspiration from these dishes and preparations when looking at how to work with corn in drinks. The smokiness of mezcal would be a natural fit, as would the spicy rye whiskey notes.

“Basically, we custom distill whiskey for farmers from their own corn,” Knobbe explains. Head distiller Devon Birchem says it’s very personal. He starts with 15 to 20 pounds of corn.

While authentic Kentucky bourbon is off the shelves in Alberta, just minutes outside of Edmonton a distillery is using Alberta corn to make Alberta bourbon. Alberta announced earlier in the week that ...