What's Grain Whisky all about then?

I've recently tried quite a few Grain whiskies, and been impressed by some of them, so much so that I've crossed out the word malt in my blog description!

So I thought I'd try and find out a bit more about Grain Whiskies and what makes them different from Malt Whiskies.

Let's start with the basics - the Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 formally define five categories of Scotch Whisky. The relevant category description must appear clearly and prominently on every bottle of Scotch Whisky sold:

• Single Malt Scotch Whisky : A Scotch Whisky distilled at a single distillery (i) from water and malted barley without the addition of any other cereals, and (ii) by batch distillation in pot stills. (From 23 November 2012, Single Malt Scotch Whisky must also be bottled in Scotland).
• Single Grain Scotch Whisky : A Scotch Whisky distilled at a single distillery (i) from water and malted barley with or without whole grains of other malted or unmalted cereals, and (ii) which does not comply with the definition of Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
• Blended Scotch Whisky : A blend of one or more Single Malt Scotch Whiskies with one or more Single Grain Scotch Whiskies.
• Blended Malt Scotch Whisky : A blend of Single Malt Scotch Whiskies, which have been distilled at more than one distillery.
• Blended Grain Scotch Whisky : A blend of Single Grain Scotch Whiskies, which have been distilled at more than one distillery.

For me there are a number of key points:

• Malt or Grain : a whisky is either 100% malted barley or not.
• Single or blend : a whisky is either from one or more than one distillery.
• A blend can either be of just malt whisky, just grain whisky or a combination.

Some examples of the five types are:

• Single Malt Scotch Whisky : Lagavulin 16yo. Tomatin 10yo
• Single Grain Scotch Whisky : Strathclyde 25yo. Haig Club.
• Blended Scotch Whisky : Famous Grouse, Johnnie Walker Black 12yo.
• Blended Malt Scotch Whisky : Compass Box Spice Tree, Monkey Shoulder.
• Blended Grain Scotch Whisky : Compass Box Hedonism, .

So how is malt whisky made?

There are loads of good diagrams (Wolfburn) and videos (Kilchoman) describing the process but basically barley malted by being steeped water, then allowed to germinate, when the maltster thinks it's ready the germination is halted by drying the malted barley in a kiln, sometime including the use of peat, the dried malted barley is then ground (grist) and mixed with hot water (mashing) a process which converts the starch in the barley into a sugary liquid known as wort, this is then fermented using yeast converting the sugary wort into crude alcohol called wash, distillation then separates the alcohol from the wash (malt whisky is distilled twice, once in a larger wash still, and secondly in a, usually, slightly smaller spirit still) during the second distillation the middle cut of the spirit flow is collected as clear new make spirit, which is then matured for a minimum of 3 years in oak casks.
This is a batch process.

So how is grain whisky made?

William Grant & Sons have a great video but basically in a similar way to malt whisky a mash of barley mixed with cheaper cereals like wheat or maize (corn) is made, this is then fermented and then distilled in a Patent or Coffey still. These stills look nothing like the beautiful copper stills we see in a malt distillery - they are usually made of steel and look more like a petrol refinery.

Photo : www.thegirvanpatentstill.com

Currently no grain distilleries have visitor centres! Each still is made up of an analyser and a rectifier.

Diagram and explanation : www.scotch-whisky.org.uk

The wash is pumped in at the top of the rectifier where, as it flows down a coil, it is warmed by the heat of vapours rising up the still. Once heated, the wash enters the top of the analyser. The how wash then descends the column through perforated plates. As it does so, low pressure steam rises up the analyser extracting alcohol vapours, taking them back to the bottom of the rectifier. These alcohol vapours then start to rise, and are gradually condensed by the cool wash coils, with the grain spirit extracted from the column.
This is a continuous process.

So why grain?

Grain whisky tends to be milder in flavour and aroma than malt whisky, cheaper cereals and the continuous process makes grain whisky cheaper and quicker to produce. usually it is matured for the minimum 3 years then blended with one or more malts. Currently 80% of whisky sold is a grain / malt blend.

There are currently six grain only distilleries working in Scotland:

• Cameronbridge (Diageo  - built in 1824, the oldest & largest grain whisky distillery) 
• Girvan (W. Grant & Sons - build in 1963) 
• Invergordon (Whyte & Mackay - built in 1959) 
• North British (Lothian Distillers Ltd (50:50 Diageo and the Edrington Group) - build in 1885, the second largest Scotch grain distillery) 
• Starlaw (La Martiniquaise - build in 2010) 
• Strathclyde (Pernod Ricard - built in 1927)

Loch Lomond produces both malt and grain whiskies at it's distillery.

If you are lucky you can still get grain whisky from some now closed distilleries : Caledonian (closed in 1987), Cambus (closed in 1993), Carsebridge (closed in 1983), Dumbarton (closed in 1988), Moffat (Garnheath) (closed in 1985), Port Dundas (closed in 2009) and Strathmore (closed in 1980).

You can buy bottles of single grain whisky from a number of retailers including Douglas Laing.

After my recent samplings I'd recommend you try some single grains it will surprise you how good they can be!