Blending at home

Vatting your own single malts

2 minute read · The Blending School

Blended malt, once called vatted malt, is what you get when you combine single malts and no grain whisky. Home blenders have been doing it quietly for decades, and it is one of the most rewarding corners of the hobby.

Why malts blend so well

Single malts are all 100 percent malted barley, so unlike bourbon and rye there is no grain contrast to manage. The variables are region, cask, age, and peat. That makes the blending more about texture and aroma than about sweetness versus spice, and the results can be seamless in a way bourbon blends rarely are.

Pairing by cask

• Bourbon cask plus sherry cask. The classic. Vanilla and orchard fruit from the bourbon-matured malt, dried fruit and spice from the sherried one. A 2 to 1 ratio either way is a good start.
• Two bourbon-cask malts from different regions. A Speyside and a Highland, say. Subtle, and a good way to learn what "region" actually contributes once cask influence is held roughly constant.
• Anything plus a peated malt. See below. Handle with care.

Peat: measure in drops

An Islay malt is the loudest voice in whisky. In a blend, start at one part in ten and taste before going further; many blenders find one in twenty is plenty. Peat also changes with resting more than most flavors, softening and integrating over weeks, so judge it after the blend has married. If you overshoot, the fix is volume, and it is expensive. Go slowly.

Age and proof

Mixing a young, lively malt with an older, softer one often produces something better than either: the young one brings energy, the old one brings depth. Most single malts sit at 40 to 46 percent, so a cask-strength component is the tool for lifting the blend's proof if it feels thin. Run the math first.

A note on the word

If you make this and want to describe it accurately, it is a blended malt. "Vatted malt" is the older term that the labeling rules retired, and the vocabulary guide covers why the words shifted. What you should not call it is a single malt, since it no longer is one.