Quantity of Malt in Blends

[Onefortheditch]

Does anyone know how much malt is put in standard, deluxe, premium, etc., blends? Or is it an industry secret?

[corbuso]

This is a secret, but some brands mentioned their minimum malt content, e.g. BNJ, Teachers or Black Bull

[Ganga]

And it is clear that the ration of malt to grain has decreased over time.

[Onefortheditch]

I had a conversation with someone who was rather drunk and worked in the industry and he led me to believe there was more than I thought - up to a quarter in fact for the very best blends. He fell asleep before he could tell me more. Seems a lot and he was probably pulling my leg. Has anyone every experimented with mixing small amounts of malt whisky and grain whisky in order to make a premium blend? For example Strathisla with a grain to try to replicate Chivas?

[AdamMY]

Granted I do not remember where I read this, so I basically have no source to back this up, but I thought say 30+ years ago it was not uncommon to have 60-70% if not more Malt whisky in a blend. While I have heard and likely do believe that the level of malt has been dropping as there has become a larger and larger demand for Single Malt Scotch in its own right, I would personally be shocked if it was below 25% for all but the very very budget blends.

[Onefortheditch]

I heard some blending info from John Glaser of Compass Box last night. He used to work for Johnny Walker. Cheap blends have about 10% malt whisky. Premium blends have 30% to 40% malt whisky. The Compass Box blend "Great King St" has 50% malt whisky.

[Willie JJ]

And it is clear that the ration of malt to grain has decreased over time.

Evidence?

[corbuso]

I don't think that the malt content has clearly dropped over time for a given brand.
This might have occured with some brands, but not all (e.g. Haig's),since their flavor profile has not changed much over time. If you reduce the malt content significantly and taste it head-to-head between an old and a recent bottling, you should detect it.

However, there has been a trend from the 30s for some lighter whiskies with a low malt content (e.g. Cutty Sark).

In order to address the question of malt/grain ratio, comparing the ratio of malt vs grain over a certain period of time (e.g., 1980 vs 2000) could give some more "hard evidences" (or absence of )

[AdamMY]

I heard some blending info from John Glaser of Compass Box last night. He used to work for Johnny Walker. Cheap blends have about 10% malt whisky. Premium blends have 30% to 40% malt whisky. The Compass Box blend "Great King St" has 50% malt whisky.

Because different people have different definitions, what is the distinction between cheap and premium?

[bredman]

I would expect a premium blend to be around 50/50. I was told on the Irish forum that the Bushmills 1608 Anniversary blend was rumoured to be just 5% grain.

[Onefortheditch]

I heard some blending info from John Glaser of Compass Box last night. He used to work for Johnny Walker. Cheap blends have about 10% malt whisky. Premium blends have 30% to 40% malt whisky. The Compass Box blend "Great King St" has 50% malt whisky.

Because different people have different definitions, what is the distinction between cheap and premium?

John Glaser defined cheap blends as those that cost about £10 in a supermarket where the cask had been used 6 times so that the wood imparted very little flavour. He never defined premium, but I took this to mean Johnny Walker, Chivas Regal etc

[AdamMY]

Because different people have different definitions, what is the distinction between cheap and premium?

John Glaser defined cheap blends as those that cost about £10 in a supermarket where the cask had been used 6 times so that the wood imparted very little flavour. He never defined premium, but I took this to mean Johnny Walker, Chivas Regal etc

Alright that makes a bit more sense. I guess I was most unsure about say the basic offerings of some of the larger brands say Chivas Regal 12, or Johnny Walker Red, which are still in the range of more easily affordable, but come from better known brands.

[corbuso]

I would expect a premium blend to be around 50/50. I was told on the Irish forum that the Bushmills 1608 Anniversary blend was rumoured to be just 5% grain.

If you look in the literature, the values given are around 25% malt for the premium whiskies (e.g., Chivas regal) and around 10% for the standard blends.
Of note, this is an average, some might have more but some less...

[Douglas]

When Peter Currie was at Springbank he answered a related question about the Campbeltown Loch 21, 25, and 30yo blends from a few years ago. The 25 was a great whisky and knocked most single malts into a cocked hat imo. The 30s were noticeably lighter but still very enjoyable. All of them were terrific value for money.

Peter said:

"Campbeltown Loch 25 (released 2002/03) is roughly 90% malt and 10% grain.
Campbeltown Loch 21 (released 04/05) is 60% malt and 40% grain.
Campbeltown Loch 30 (released 08/09) is 30% malt and 70% grain.

The grain used for the 30 year old was 1979 Girvan (13th October to be precise). I think the other two used Strathclyde grain."