Whiskey is for drinking!
If ethanol is a good thing, then it may be made more cheaply and efficiently from a fraction of natural gas, ethylene (C2H4) when reacted with H2O in the presence of a catalyst.
Reaction proceeds nicely, very high yield, and not one acre of food-production ground is used for motor-fuel production.
Somehow, the efficiency of the process is not a consideration. But high grain and foodstuff prices are.