![]() It finished with egg custard tarts and spicy wood. To taste it had Crunchy Nut Cornflakes and Cadbury’s Caramel, combining to make an interesting Chocolate Cornflake cake vibe, lemon, crème brûlée and a little bit of the menthol from the nose. The second whisky had a nose of wax and honey, milk chocolate, green ferns, jelly strawberries, cinnamon toast, solventy glue and a hint of menthol. He ‘selflessly’ tried some of his when he got home and reported that the bottle at the tasting was not as good, so Cameron Brig remains on cheap whisky recommendation list. ![]() This bottle seemed a little off, with a bit more bitterness and some unexpected sulphur, with Cameron Brig fan (and Squad vet) Dave Haste rather dismayed that he disliked one of his usual favourites when tasted blind. This was revealed to be one of the two big company grains available on the market, and the one that’s drinkable – Cameron Brig. It finished short and sweet with a little bit of woody spice. To taste it was quite oily with toffee, sugar syrup, sweetcorn, butterscotch and some dark woody flavours. The first whisky had a nose of gold syrup and bitter wood, with a touch of egg custard and a baked bean meatiness underneath. We were at the Squad home venue of the Gunmakers and we did things as usual, other than not having Jason present due to him playing away in Australia, wrapping up the bottles and tasting them blind. As I said in a tweet tasting the other day:Īnyway, the tasting. That said, Douglas Laing recently released a pair of 50 year old North British whiskies for about £300, so the days of cheap old grain may be on their way out. ![]() That said, you can still get a 45 year old grain whisky for under £130 with many under £100, which is quite impressive – the cheapest similarly aged malt at work is over £200. ‘Unfortunately’ it seems that companies are starting to realise that the grain whisky’s bad reputation as a filler for blends is starting to fade and the prices of older single casks have started to rise. Generally this is still the world of independent bottlers, with Clan Denny (aka Douglas Laing), Signatory and Scott’s Selection (aka Speyside Distillery) putting out a good number of reasonably priced single cask single grain whiskies, but there is also the long running Cameron Brig and the generally reviled Snow Grouse (made to be drunk from the freezer…) from Diageo and Edrington respectively. While almost all grain whisky production is focused towards making blended whisky a small, and increasing, proportion is now going towards single grain whisky – whisky that is vatted from grain whiskies that are all made at the same distillery. Grain is generally distilled to a higher ABV (much closer to the 94.8% ‘the character of the raw materials is still detectable’ limit that stops it being vodka) and is thus generally a lighter spirit that relies more heavily on the flavours extracted from its cask than malt whisky. So, malt whisky made in a continuous still and a malt/wheat/maize mix made in a pot still are both grain whisky – the former much to the distress of distilleries like Loch Lomond who have been experimenting with what they make in their various different stills for years. ![]() On top of that, any whisky made using a mash that isn’t 100% malted barley is also grain. That’s a little simplistic, but the simplification of the cateegories over the year has now prescribed that anything coming out of a non-pot still is grain whisky. ![]() I approve.įirstly – what is grain whisky? It’s, from the SWA regulations, any whisky that’s made in a continuous still. He’s also the reason I’m a grain whisky fan, ‘forcing’ me to try some Port Dundas at a Compass Box blending school, and since then filling my head with knowledge and my hand with random grain whiskies almost every time I bump into him. He’s an almost constant fixture at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in London, comes along to many of our tastings at The Whisky Exchange, and has photographed both those tastings and The Whisky Show for a while. An evening of grain whisky with occasional whisky photorgrapher and evil tempter Philip Storry – The Storry of Grain. Since I’ve started helping out with Whisky Squad I’ve not had the chance to contribute a session’s title, but with #48 I dropped a bad pun and the chaps for some reason went along with it. ![]()
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