Hokkaido Liberty Whisky in northern Japan is going to take advantage of the country’s corn crop – normally going to animal feed – to make whiskey, according to the South China Morning Post.

Although nowhere on the bottle will it say ‘bourbon’, this will be the first whiskey made in Japan using the ‘bourbon-method’, says owner Kidekuni Hayashi.

Hayashi is working with two other distilleries and a research organisation in Japany’s northernmost prefecture to make the whiskey, using corn, a bit of barley, and the region’s noted water.

“The only bourbon that is sold in Japan is made in the United States, and I believe this will be the first whiskey ever made in Japan using the bourbon method,”  Hayashi told the SCMP. “We will not be able to use the name ‘bourbon’, so in that sense it will be a completely different drink, but if it is good, I think it will catch on.”

The first distilling equipment – imported from Forsyths in Scotland – has been installed in Hayashi’s distillery in Naganuma, just to the east of Sapporo, and is capable of producing around 10,000 litres a year.