Your Own Blends???

[IainB]

Now this one I can help with - I encountered the same thing with a bottle of 2004 Midleton VR. If you blend 2/3rds Midleton with 1/3 Redbreast 12 you get an excellent dram!

[varizoltan]

Now this one I can help with - I encountered the same thing with a bottle of 2004 Midleton VR. If you blend 2/3rds Midleton with 1/3 Redbreast 12 you get an excellent dram!

thanks, i will try that

[IainB]

Last night I was wondering what if Bushmills bought their grain whiskey from Cooley rather than Midleton. So I tried mixing 16yo Bushmills malt with 15yo Greenore. I tried various grain percentages between 20% to 40%. I have to say none really worked. Their was very little nose, taste was ok but a very metallic finish. I have no idea how the grain cancelled out the 16yo Bushmills nose. I had thought a strong assertive Bushmills expression was best. I'll try it again with something lighter.

[JohnM]

I read something about blending, but can't remember the details. Something about the older the grain is, the more is needed for a good blend. Maybe I have it backwards.

[IainB]

You could be right. I tried a different combination last night, 12yo Bushmills (the duty free one) with 8yo Greenore. This worked much better - it had it's own distinctive nose and taste which I can't really descibe but which I thought was pretty good. Also tried the same thing with 15yo Greenore which didn't work so well, so yes, I think you're right. The mix in each case was about 2/3rd Malt, 1/3rd Grain.

I suppose the real challenge will be to come up with a blend with a much lower malt content.

[varizoltan]

just added a bit of Powers to my Tyrconnell 17.5
it is not bad

[IainB]

just added a bit of Powers to my Tyrconnell 17.5
it is not bad

I could be wrong but I get the impression you're rather proud of your Tyrconnell 17.5. I'll bet you work it into nearly every conversation you have!!!

[John]

The red flag for me here would be if he starts using baby-talk and changing its' packaging three times a day
Enjoy it Zoli!!
J.

[IainB]

Now this one is a surprise - I deciede to try standard Jameson Powers and Paddy together for the first time in years. Powers the clear winner on nose taste etc. as usual for me, until...

I mixed the remains together. Then I tried it again and it's actually quite good. In fact, an this could be just tonight, a mix of 30% Powers, 30% Jameson and 40% Paddy was better than either of the 3 on their own. Much more assertive nose, with plenty pot still and a lovely taste. I reminded me of the single cask blend from the CWS. (DON'T TELL ALLY I SAID THAT!)

This makes no sense to me. I'll try it again tomorrow. I suppose it could be the "whiskey gets better as the night goes on" effect but I'd only had a 25ml measure ore each before I mixed them.

[varizoltan]

Now this one is a surprise - I deciede to try standard Jameson Powers and Paddy together for the first time in years.
It reminded me of the single cask blend from the CWS. (DON'T TELL ALLY I SAID THAT!)

he possibly done that and sold it for 200/bottle
what a good businessman

[IainB]

There's a new whiskey bar opening that's proposing a swap shop for open bottles - do you think I might get away with it?

[varizoltan]

There's a new whiskey bar opening that's proposing a swap shop for open bottles - do you think I might get away with it?

give me a sip of that and then we decide...

[IainB]

I know some people think it's a bit strange mixing whiskeys you've paid good money for but I've been on a little home blend buzz again. It's actually quite interesting to see the impact different combinations of malts have on grain whiskey. I've been using Greenore 8 or sometimes Compass Box hedonism lately both of which I'm very fond of on their own, and which I think have their own distinct taste etc. But if you take a strong malt and even mix 75/25 grain/malt you lose most of the grain and get something a lot closer to the malt. Not as complex certainly but when you compare the grain, the malt and the blend it's much closer to the malt. Caol Ila 12yo and Greenonre 8yo were one example.

Anyway, tonight I tried building a multu layer blend. I decided to go 50% Grain. 20% Linkwood, 15% Blair Athol and 15% Caol Ila. (Approx. - I'm such a nerd!)

I also decided to taste between each component. What was intereesting was once you added the linkwood to the grain it lost most of it's own character. The blair atholl changed little, just a little sherry colour but little taste difference. Then the 15% Caol Ila. Bang! Completely different whiskey.

I'm going to repeat this with smaller amounts of Caol Ila to see just how little peated whisky you need for a peated blend.

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Anything from 8% to 1% will be still noticeable, they don't call it parts per million for nothing. The influence of the peat smoke is very pervasive...

[IainB]

True. I suppose if you add a 10ppm to something at 25% the you still have 2.5ppm. Still at 25% the Caol Ila drowned everthing else out. I think it's Diageo use it a lot for adding a whiff of smoke to blends - far more so than Laga or Talisker. Then it is a big producer, by Islay standards anyway, and I think most goes for blending.

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Locke's 8yo and Inishowen are cases in point which afaik are 1% and 8% Connemara respectively... need to check my facts tho!

[IainB]

Now there's a thought - I have greenore, connemara and tyrconnell! I have a locke's to compare it too and I think there's a miniature around somewhere.

I've heard reviewers describe Inishowen as having more or less smoke than it used to - if the peated malt % is so low you can see how even a small change might make a big difference.

[DavidH]

Locke's 8yo and Inishowen are cases in point which afaik are 1% and 8% Connemara respectively... need to check my facts tho!

My own notes have Inishowen @ 4-6%, Locke's @ 2%, Locke's 8yo @ 10%. Of course, I was drinking when I took those notes.

[Luke Gough]

On the topic of Locke's Single Malt:

With Cooley's stock reaching 18 Years old this year, as demonstrated by the 18 YO Kilbeggan in the pipeline, the prospect of an 18 YO Locke's gets closer.

How peaty would we like it? 'Soft' peat or 'Hard' peat?

Answers/Comments/Suggestions please!

[IainB]

If by soft peat you mean not overpowering then if they were to do an 18yo Lockes they should be consistent and keep it fairly light. If you want heavy peat then go for connemara. If you want somewhere in the middle, then (and I know not everyone likes this approach) with all the variety available from Cooley just blend your own.

That's the great thing about cooley. They have a huge range. We cannot expect a distillery to vat a malt exactly to each of our particular tastes, but Cooley give us a vast range of whiskeys to work with to do it ourselves.

[IainB]

I know some people find this strange but the experiments are continuing. I'm finding that the process of blending is really helping my understanding the different elements that make up the individual whiskeys. If I'm going for a particular style I'll start with a base of grain and add various element to get what I'm looking for. As I continue I'm finding I've a better understanding of what each malt or PPS adds to the mix.

Last week I was attempting to recreate something like JW Black with various Diageo Malts and my trusty bottle of Cameron Brig. I made 3 different batches with various mixes of things like Linkwood, Blair Atholl, Mortlach, Caol Ila, Lagavulin, and Dalwhinnie. Batch 3 was pretty close. The I accidentally burnt the notes of how I got there, so I've no idea what the final mix was. D'oh.

That said I think it wouldn't be too hard to recreate as I think I understand each of these a lot better. For example, to give a sherry element I found the Mortlach better than the Blair Atholl. The peated element was only about 15-18% with 2/3rds of that coming from Caol Ila. There may have been some Talisker there too which gave a nice bit of spice.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Fair play Iain ... sounds very intriguing, you may have a lost vocation there. I should try some of that crack as as you say you can learn alot and I could do with some self educating as I've really put the whiskey on the back foot of late. I suppose I should not complain too much though as I'm not exactly dry either

Thanks for posting that as it may raise some interesting experiments from others.

[IainB]

As often as not this is something I do to pass the time when I don't want to drink much - I'll put a few different blends together, have a little taste, and them put them in little bottles to try again another time.

[IainB]

A case in point on increasing my understanding. I've always found it odd that, as I've often mentioned before, I love most of Cooley's malts and single grains but have never really got their blends. I was trying last night to use Irish whiskey to come up with an approximation of JW Black - no idea why. Not only was it a complete failure, no surprise there, but I couldn't get anything I liked at all - nothing worked out right and everything was too sweet. This was at about 50% greenore 8. Then it dawned on me - the fact that I like the single grain and not the blends are not an anomaly - they are completely connected. I think Greenore is too strongly flavoured to make a good blending whiskey. By good I mean only from my point of view - this is no reflection on cooley. Grain will often acts as a canvas on which all the other elements come together. Greenore is so distinctive (and tasty) that it and the malt tend to cancel each other out.

The only time it's ever worked for me was using only 20%, along with various Tyrconnells to make a Cooley "Black Bush" type.

And that's why I never really got into Cooley blends.

[JohnM]

Iain, you can have a job as master blender at my distillery.

I remember reading about the grain you use in blends. The older the grain, the more of it you use, for some reason. Or else it's the other way around.