Grains in blended scotch?

[Zak]

Forgive me if this answer is obvious, although i cant seem to find it any time i google it. When they refer to the grains in a blended scotch, what grains are those? I know that in bourbons and such its grains like rye and wheat, but what about scotch?

[blenderm]

I think the grain you're talking about is Grain Whisky as Blended Whisky is a mix of Single Malt and Single Grain whiskies. Malt whisky can only be made from malted barley while Grain whisky can be made from any grain but must have a percentage of malted barley added to the mash, it's normally wheat but one still uses some maize although it's more expensive.

[Zak]

Originally Posted by blenderm

I think the grain you're talking about is Grain Whisky as Blended Whisky is a mix of Single Malt and Single Grain whiskies. Malt whisky can only be made from malted barley while Grain whisky can be made from any grain but must have a percentage of malted barley added to the mash, it's normally wheat but one still uses some maize although it's more expensive.

that is basically what i was asking. If you read about bourbon, a lot of discussion goes into the different mashbills, and how much rye vs wheat vs corn and barley. I was wondering what these Scottish grain whiskeys were made of, because it seems like most of the discussion goes into just the malt. When i tasted hankey bannister, JW, Chivas, and all those blends, even black bottle, i was able to taste the grain whiskey, and it had a somewhat unpleasant taste to me. So far the only blend i havent tasted it in is Islay Mist 8, although that may just be my palate not being developed enough. So its safe to say that the "grain" whiskys are primarily combinations of malt and wheat, and sometime corn?

[blenderm]

I should have explained a little better, one single grain whisky is made from maize and malted barley all the others use wheat and malted barley. The reason the barley is used [apart from it beng specified in the Law on Whisky production] is that they need a source of the enzyme zymase to allow the starch extracted from the "grain" to be converted to a sugar. The grain whiskies all have very different flavours but are no where near as powerful in flavour as malt whiskies.

I doubt that you tasted the grain whisky as such as the blends you quote between 35 and 40% malt and I know that 3 of the brands use different mixes of grain whisky. It may be that the flavour you don't like is coming from some of the malts as they normally use anything between 25 and 40 single malts in standard blends. The cheaper blends usually use between 10 and 25% malt, it's back to you get what you pay for.