WHEN BEER MEETS WHISKY

That barley should be the de rigueur – indeed, the only permitted – grain in the production of Scotch malt whisky boils down to a combination of two factors: it’s easily grown in Scotland, and its high enzymic content makes it perfect for malting. To paraphrase The Bard, while a malt by any other grain might taste as sweet, when it comes to Scotch, barley is apparently best.

It is all the more surprising, then, that malt whisky producers haven’t done more with malted barley than the regulations permit – for while malt whisky can only be produced using malted barley, there is nothing in the regulations to prevent producers from using barley that’s been malted to varying specifications. Distillers are constantly exploring the boundaries of the form by experimenting with wood, and, more recently, yeast has also become an area of interest. But barley has barely been touched. Until now.

Malting is a controlled germination of grains; the process makes accessible the starches within the grains and develops the enzymes