The Taste of Barley

@Victor I like a good neutral scotch, it a great starting place to understand a distillery's other expressions. I grew up drinking malted milk shakes, it might have started there.

Hi Victor. I am in both camps on this one, certainly enjoy a good whisky that is reasonably uninfluenced but also appreciate many of the qualities such as peat, smoke, brine, sherry etc from the more developed offerings. The Glen Grant's Majors' Reserve is one such barley dominated whisky, its young but its a good quality spirit. If you find anyone who enjoys this whisky than you have your answer.

Let me know your thoughts

@Victor, barley is a noble grain. It definitely can be used to make delicious whisky without peat, smoke, brine or sherry wine. It is unfortunate that many whisky drinkers do not know the taste of barley. New make is indeed the litmus test for determining your degree of barley appreciation. There are tasting sessions where 'clean' barley whisky (use of oak) directly from the distillery is available. Forty Creek and Wiser's often provide their own versions of clean barley whisky when hosting master classes.

I had spent thirty years avoiding blended barley whisky before I was introduced to my gateway single malt, Bushmills 21. Granted, this had a wine influence, but it started me on my journey into single malts. My appreciation for barley has actually been shaped through my life-long pursuit of fine Canadian whisky. The special master classes and tasting sessions for Canadian whisky exposed me to 'clean' barley whisky and enabled me to develop a better understanding for all whisky styles.

My name is paddockjudge and I like the taste of barley.

@Victor

I have to admit the single malts I think of when I think of the ones I like tend to be "flavoured". The sherry bombs, peat monsters. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, and I don't think you are suggesting there is. But just as I like more than one flavoured whisky, I think it's possible to like barley malt on its own as well.

Vanilla enhances the flavour of many other flavours, but it is also great on its own. Why not Barley malt?

Problem is I, personally, am not confident that I can pick out and identify the flavour of barley malt. It might taste good, but do I know that it is barley?

I like cask strength or other full-flavoured whiskies that are well-made. Does the barley feature prominently in Amrut (unpeated) Cask strength? in Bruichladdich "the laddie classic"? If the answer is YES, then YES, I do like the taste of barley whisky.

If not, I have tasted "naked" matured unblended malted barley whisky at Forty Creek, and though I found it a little weak (it was not at cask strength), I did enjoy the flavour.

I like barley a lot. For me, it's always a bonus when the barley shines in a whisky. Unlike peat or wine finishes, barley is a flavour that comes directly from the distillate, and can speak to the quality of the whisky itself.

Of course that's not to say that a whisky MUST have a strong barley presence, or that simply tasting strong barley means the whisky's good. But I think it's fair to say that barley is an element that is often overlooked. Glad you got this thread started, @Victor. Hopefully some recommendations for barley-forward malts will start popping up.

I do like barley too.

Greetings everyone!

@Benancio, I could not agree with you more! If you want to understand a given distillery, or barley-malt whisky as a type/style, then it is best to start with the unadorned malt...new-make if you can get it. If not new-make, then best to try the whisky with the least influence other than the grain. I always used to start my big tastings with good examples of the tastes of the flavours of the main whisky grains barley, corn, wheat, and rye. I would always start the tasting with Old Pulteney 12 yo, because the barley is so tastable. Yes, there's a little salt to go with the barley, but peat, smoke, and wine have been almost non-existent in the bottles I have used. Most batches of Old Pulteney serve as very good examples of the taste of barley.

@BigJoe, I don't think that I've tasted Glen Grant Majors' Reserve. The Glen Grant 10 yo certainly features wine prominently to make its case. I've had some old IB Glen Grants which showed a lot of strong wood flavours, and usually also some wine influence. I'll look forward to tasting the Majors Reserve when the opportunity arises.

@paddockjudge, despite being more willing than most to indulge in tasting, and, yes, buying, new-make spirit, I don't think that I've ever had any new-make barley spirit. I would like to try some, from several different distilleries. We just don't see barley new-make spirit for sale around here. I have for 4 years been advocating that everyone should get an education in tasting new-make spirit precisely for the opportunity it affords to taste the grain flavours without any wood influence. And I am a big fan of the flavours derived from all of the grains used for making whisk(e)y. Some are better than others, of course. Spelt and Millet, in the examples I've had so far, do not seem to impress much. As for barley, I do like the flavours derived from barley, but clearly there is a huge range in the quality of whiskies which are strongly barley forward. It can result from the strains of barley used. It can result from the handling during malting and disillation. Some of us, including me, think that one of the two big factors separating current Scottish malts from the malts of the glory years distilled and barreled before the mid-1980s is the quality of the barley. Really delicious barley was common then. It is less common now. Less expensive larger yield barley strains are used now, compared to then. And I really do believe that commercial mass malting companies deliver a product which lacks something intangible-TLC- which is actually expressed in the flavours of the old hand malted products. (The other big factor differentiating current malts from past malts is the quality of the sherry casks being used.)

@Nozinan, certainly some of the Bruichladdich products, including, I would say, the Laddie Classic, Scottish Barley, and the Laddie Ten, all feature primarily the taste of barley. Laddie Ten has that undercurrent of peated water, but that doesn't get in the way of tasting the barley.

Amrut CS unpeated would certainly be another example, to the best of my knowledge. (By that I mean I am unaware of its having any wine influence.)

Bunnahabhain 12 and Oban 14 have some brine, but are otherwise very malt forward whiskies.

Yes, I think that you do like the taste of barley, @Nozinan.

@hunggar, after 4 months of ruminating over your suggestion that I start this Discussion, here it is. Cheers, mate!

As for suggestions, my list of favourite barley forward malts is contained in a closely related discussion, Simply Awesome Scotch:

connosr.com/wall/discussion/…

@Victor, getting back to basics, the distillation method, quality of grain, and yeast shape the distillate. Wood influence has the greatest impact on whiskey. LESS is MORE, and not just for barley. Rye is also a shape-shifter. How many bourbon or Canadian drinkers actually know what Rye tastes like...here we go again.

Based on the examples in this thread so far, I think I'm one of "those guys" who doesn't like barley on its own a whole lot. I've had some of the barley-forward malts mentioned so far, and I've found them boring. Not bad, but boring.

Basic light beer is fine, but make mine an IPA, please.

Basic barley-forward whisky is fine, but make mine a Laphroaig, please.

@ OlJas, I don’t think there’s any need to get defensive about being one of “those guys.” I think a lot of people who love barley are also “those guys” who like peat, sherry, wine, or brine. I include myself in that group. These things aren’t mutually exclusive. And as someone who also loves barley, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the best malts are naked, unfinished, or unpeated. Simply that it’s a fundamental and overlooked element in whisky that deserves its due appreciation, particularly when it’s well done. It’s not an essential or paramount flavour, and it often works best in tandem with other elements. Great barley adds a lot to a whisky, and that’s all there is to it.

@Victor Great Neutral (Bourbon Barrel) Only Scotch

Old pulteney 12y

Auchentoshan Some of them

Oban 14y

Clynlish 14y

Glenmorangie 10y. Love it.

Tomatin 15y clean

There have to be many more Highland, Lowland, Speyside that are not Sherried or Peated that are great neutral Scotch. Give me a few more to try.

When you know what a good neutral barely forward scotch tastes like, you look for that in All other Scotches. You know at the first sip it's scotch your drinking and not bourbon, rye, Irish, Canadian Whiskey.

@Victor Do I like barley? No. I love barleys. It had grow on me lately. I have families of barleys I like. When I have tasted many expressions from one distillery, with many differents finishes and I find a common denominator to all of them, I assume it is the barley. I love the Glendronach barley, I think. There is also those whiskies for which the barley is obvious: the Oban, the Clynelish, the Amrut and the Armorik. But, for me, a scotch like Te Beagh goes over the topy with its barley. A very different barley is the Nikka Coffey Malt, probably the simpliest one, maybe close to the barley in the barley soup.

Yes, I love barley. But I have trouble sometime to know what part of the core of a whisky I can associate to the barley and what one is from the water. And I am not talking about the yeast as I consider it is really the Chef presenting the barley in his own way. It is so important and at the same time almost impossible to identify.

At the end, I have a lot of questions and... My love for barley.

I've found I really like the taste of barley, but I'm bad at actually buying these "neutral" malts. As mentioned in the thread about our latest purchases, I usually buy peated or sherry influenced whiskies. I do find barley when I review these as well, but it is obviously having to share the center stage with powerful peat or sherry notes.

This year I've bought both Old Pulteney 12 and Oban 14. I finished the Pulteney in what can only be called record time, because bottles usually last from one year to another to me. Come to think of it, I finished Bruchladdich's The Laddie Ten faster than normal as well. All these three bottlings have been mentioned here as barley-malts.

I fear for the future of my Oban 14.

I will recommend the Kavalan Solist Bourbon Cask and the AnCnoc 12 Year Old for a taste of clean and pure malt-barley goodness. The Kavalan would be the heavier of the two but they are interesting examples of their style: Kavalan is heavy with a deeper heather-honey tinge, more apples. The AnCnoc is light with more citrus.

While some may disagree, the Glenmorangie Astar would be another good example to consider but I think the barrel influence on this is more pronounced.

Another that comes to mind from a recent tasting would be the Kilkerran Work In Progress No. 5 Bourbon.

Love the taste of barley! I prefer The Glenlivet Nadurra 16 yo, Deanston 12 yo and The Balvenie Single Cask 12 yo (or 15 yo). All these bottles are 100% Bourbon Cask, wonderfull stuff!

@DutchGaelisch

While I haven't had the Balvenie Single Barrels before, I think you're right about the Nadurra 16 YO being another fine example.

Again, building on my point of barley and peated/sherried whiskies not being mutually exclusive, here are some examples of some of my preferred barley-forward whiskies atm that aren't "naked:"

-Port Charlotte (pick one) - Barley + peat, obviously.

-Highland Park (pick one) - Barley + peat + sherry.

-Glen Elgin 12 - Gently sherried, with kind of a roasted barley flavour.

-Benriach Arumaticus Fumosus 12 - The barley shines through the heavy peat and rum finish.

I've got an Edradour 2000 natural cask at cask strength which is another good example of a barley forward whisky. I wasn't that impressed when I first opened it but it's starting to open up nicely with a bit of time and air.

Linkwood Malt. I forgot to mention either here or on 'Simply Awesome Scotch' how much I love the 'house style' of the malt made at the Linkwood distillery. It has a great depth and richness, while remaining almost completely within a medium range of pitches.

Sadly, I've never seen the standard Linkwood 12 yo offered for sale in my locale. Usually if I run into Linkwood at all it is the occasional independent bottling, or a very old bottling at a much-above-average whisky bar.

Yes I love the taste of barley. Recently I have been seeking "malty" whisky and searching (in vain) for virgin oak expressions.

Of fond memory: walking around the grounds of the Kavalan distillery and the smell of malt in the air. Like a malt milkshake scent. No wonder they use so many flavoured casks in their expressions.

As I mentioned on another thread, before Victor pointed me over here, I do like the 'malty ones'. Cragganmore is another I'm looking to get my hands on.

For me, it's the beery notes that come from the barley that really appeal. I like the odd craft ale and like to drink them side by side with a good malt. If you get the right pairing it really does elevate both.

I recommend a peaty whisky e.g. Talisker, with an English style IPA (not too hoppy though) or a lighter blonde ale with something like Clynelish - awesome!

I think what i really like is how a whisky develops the natural flavour of the malt and how this then integrates the barrel flavours and maturation effects. If I can't taste the core malt I always feel a little let down - a lot of sherry bombs do this (masking the malt) and is why that style of whisky isn't my preferred option. Some get it right though - my early dalliances with the 'farclas 15 are proving to be very, very enjoyable!

In short, it's all about the balance but the malt should be the driving force - the one pulling the reigns, as it were.

@RianC I think this is the criticism I had of the Deanston 10 YO PX CS. It tastes like Sherry. It's sweet, and actually quite nice. But it has so much sherry influence (you almost think the casks were half full when they poured in the spirit) you almost forget it's whisky.

@RianC, you have a good bit of company in your appreciation of the subtleties and nuances of malty whiskies, but I would say that this interest still puts one into a relatively small minority of Connosr whisky lovers. If I were to take a guess, I would say that no more than 20-30% of the people in this club take a strong interest in the subtleties of unadorned barley-malt whisky. And that guess includes people like me who love the subtle, but who still usually strongly prefer the not-at-all-subtle.

@Victor my problem is that I don't often have the capability to detect all the subtleties...

@Nozinan, certainly kick-you-in-the-head whisky requires less active attention to make an impression.

@Victor absolutely. That is why I like a Sherry monster or CS bourbon like OGD 114 when I have a lot of charting to do...

@RianC @Victor I let a bottle of Glenfarclas 17yo and one of 105 rest for a year as I foumd the alcohol was not integrated. Last week, I visited them and find them way better then they were and with a big malty flavor very different from some previous Farclas I had that were more winey and all about sherry. To be honest , I like both style, but it is a real pleasure to discover the real nature of Glenfarclas. If the malt was more forward in most Glenfarclas, I would probably visit it more often.

@Nozinan Me neither. That's why I have avoided doing reviews. All I really know is that I either like it or don't like it, and beyond the more obvious characteristics and flavour notes I have difficulty articulating exactly why.

As to @Victor's point, I find there are a lot of 40-43% standard issue whiskies that have very little to distinguish themselves from each other. I like a good whack in the taste buds so that I know I am drinking something other than the multitude of very ordinary offerings of the big distillers. I have quite a few of those languishing half full in my cabinet.

@Robert99, I am not at all surprised that you found the Glenfarclai 17 & 105 better and more interesting with time to integrate. When in doubt, let the bottle sit a few months.

@Victor - It's just something that the more varieties I drink, the more that malty feature appeals.

I still like a good peat forward whisky and the 105, which was a sherry bomb for the most part, was still very enjoyable.

I think that's part of the appeal of bourbon, you clearly taste the base grains. You get a lot of oak also but I guess that's the art of bourbon, getting the balance just right.

@Nozinan @BlueNote - What's that old art appreciation cliche 'I don't know much but I know what I like'. I'd say that sums me up with whisky (and art). I find I get lots on the nose but am much less able to discern flavours in the way someone like Ralfy does. Form is a big part of a whisky for me also.

The great thing about Scotch is that there's something for every taste, mood and array of sense perceptions.