barley (Hordeum vulgare) is the base for a variety of whiskies because of the same qualities that make it the best grain for brewing beer. It is relatively easy and reliable to malt, so much so that malted barley is simply known as “malt,” while other malted grains are called by name, such as “malted rye.” Malted barley has high levels of the enzymes needed for converting starches to sugars in the mashing process. It has fairly low gluten content and is not as doughy as other grains when mashed (this also means it is not particularly good for bread production, meaning less competition for alcohol production uses). It is hardy and grows in a wide variety of climates. It also has a husk that serves as a natural filter after the mashing stage of brewing. All of these have led to barley being the grain of choice for brewing, and thus for spirits production.
Russia is the top producer, with Germany, France, Canada, and Spain in a dead heat for second place. Barley grows in both temperate and tropical climates but is not as well adapted to truly cold climates as rye is. There are two major types of domesticated barley: two-row and six-row, named for the numbers of rows of kernels on the ears. The six-row has higher protein content and is the preferred type for animal feed. Barley is the primary feed grain in Europe, Canada, and the northern United States. Agronomists are constantly creating new barley cultivars with improved traits for both feed and beverage use.
The origins of barley are deeply embedded in the historical and archaeological records of the Fertile Crescent, the area comprising what is considered the cradle of human civilization in modern-day Iraq, Syria, southeastern Turkey, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, and Egypt. Wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum) is still found in these areas. Barley has been domesticated for about ten thousand years, one of the original crops from the dawn of agriculture. Humans have been turning it into beer for almost as long; indeed, some scholars have speculated that the demand for beer may have driven the start of agriculture.
It is not known precisely when or where distilling from grain—from beer, in effect—began in Europe, but the practice was widespread by the mid-1400s, documented in Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Scotland. In Germany, some varieties of korn are still made from barley malt, while Dutch jenever was traditionally distilled from a mash of barley malt supplemented with malted or unmalted rye (for that matter, until the mid-nineteenth century English gin was made from rectified barley malt spirit). See korn and genever. Scotch whisky is still centered on malt, especially in the single malt and blended malt varieties, which are, by law, made from 100 percent malt. (The same can be said for Japanese whisky, which took the scotch whisky model as a starting point.) See whisky, scotch, and whisky, Japanese. The malt may be simply pale malt, or it may be peated, with smoke from smoldering peat introduced during the kilning process, imbuing the distillate with a distinct smoky, iodine-like aroma.
Irish whisky also uses a large percentage of malt, but there is a type of Irish whisky called “single pot still” (formerly known as “pure pot still”) that uses a mixture of malted barley and unmodified barley in the mash, which gives a fresh and fruity character to the whisky, along with a certain oiliness. See whisky, Irish and single pot still. The practice became widespread in Ireland after the imposition of a tax on malt in 1785, but it appears to have been used before, presumably for reasons of flavor rather than costs.
whisky, bourbon and whisky, rye.See also whisky.
Badr, A., et al. “On the Origin and Domestication History of Barley (Hordeum vulgare).” Molecular Biology and Evolution 17, no. 4 (2000): 499–510.
Bamforth, Charles. Beer: Tap into the Art and Science of Brewing. New York: Insight, 1998.
Buxton, Ian, and Paul S. Hughes. The Science and Commerce of Whisky. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2013.
Hayden, B., N. Canuel, and J. Shanse. “What Was Brewing in the Natufian?” Journal of Archaeological Method Theory 20 (2013): 102.
O’Connor, Fionnán. A Glass Apart: Irish Single Pot Still Whiskey. Mulgrave, Australia: Images, 2015.
By: Lew Bryson