Apparently, it all began with a Scotch and a beer chaser.
“Master blender David Stewart was at the pub with the chief chemist,” says William Grant & Sons global brand ambassador Danny Dyer. “They ordered a whisky and a beer each, then looked at each other and said, ‘You’re thinking what I’m thinking?’, and both nodded.”
Whisky and beer are intrinsically interlinked. Not only may they chase each other on the bar, but whisky itself is essentially unhopped beer that is run through a still. But what Stewart had conceived over that dram at the pub was a previously unheard-of interaction: the deliberate use of beer-seasoned casks to finish a batch of Grant’s whisky.
Stewart tapped Edinburgh’s Caledonian Brewery to source the beer needed for cask seasoning. Unlike wine and other spirits, most beers spoil easily in wooden casks. It is also not as efficient at transferring flavours onto the wood, so the master blender’s initial trials were aimed at identifying the beer
