Great beer is brewed with different malts: Why is Single malt Scotch "better" ??

Just wondering:

Many great beer recipes require various malt/barley combinations.

Why would "Single" malt Scotch be necessarily better than a Blend ?

Good Question...

There are either two different questions here or one assumption that has nothing to do with the other line of reasoning. Just because a beer recipe might be considered "great" that does not mean that a long list of grain ingredients makes it so. In most cases it is just the opposite. In most instances a simpler recipe makes a better beer IMO. The recipe for a drinking beer and a distiller's beer are probably assembled for different reasons. As for single malt Scotch whisky, whether or not it is "better" is probably a subjective decision. Please know that I am not a Scotch whisky drinker but the single malt varieties are those from specific distilleries and are unblended. Blended Scotch whisky brings together a number of single sourced whiskies mixed to create a particular set of flavors. Whatever works but as for what is "better" it might be best to ask a forum of Scotch whisky drinkers. I'm a bourbon man.

In Whiskey is refers to blending different batches, not to the different malts used in the brewing process.

Single Malt Scotch is a type of single malt whisky, distilled by a single distillery in a pot still, using malted barley as the only grain ingredient, in Scotland. As with any Scotch whisky, a Single Malt Scotch must be distilled in Scotland and matured in oak casks in Scotland for at least three years and one day (most single malts are matured longer).

"Single" indicates that all the malts in the bottle come from a single distillery. Multi-distillery malts are usually called "blended malt", "vatted malt" or "pure malt".
"Malt" indicates that the whisky is distilled from a single "malted" grain. Not all grains can be malted (rye is another grain which can be malted) but in the case of single malt Scotch, barley is always the grain used.

I've wondered the same exact thing before. My (limited) understanding of the process of blending is that it's an art of the highest degree, yet I usually see it derided as inferior to single malt. My only explanation is that perhaps the single malt stuff uses higher quality malt.

Airborneguy said:

In Whiskey is refers to blending different batches, not to the different malts used in the brewing process.

Click to expand...

What he said. totally different use of the term

The reason single malts are most often talked about and usually preferred by scotch connoisseurs is because they can change. A blended scotch is meant to always be the same flavor profile but single malts even from the same distillery aged in the same kind of barrel for the same number of years, can differ depending on being made in different years or in different distillation runs. So a laphroig 18 released this year can be different from whats released next year. which is why an old bottle can be very valuable; it doesn't get better in the bottle but it can show you what kind of whisky the distillery was producing in that year.

The way it was explained to me was that it is not one term "single malt" it is more "single" and malt". Single meaning the only variety said distiller produces and Malt meaning from malted barley.

I too thought "single malt" meant they were using one variety malt.

Blended scotch wiskys also contain a significant amount of "single grain whisky" of alcohol made from other grains, and distilled to neutral flavors kind of like vodka. This cheapens the whisky and reduces the distinctive flavors found in single malts.

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