Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
On the face of it, this looks like a niche topic; a deep dive into the impact of one kind of malting versus another. But it's not that; it can't be. It's just me and I don't have the knowledge or expertise.
What I do have though, is whisky.
Some of which I know to have been made with a very specific - and comparatively rare - type of raw ingredient; barley that has been malted on a traditional malt floor.
There was a time in whisky’s past where every distillery used their own in-house malt floor. It was everywhere. Gradually they disappeared and a far more efficient and a less labour-intensive, centralised model was adopted, usually using modern pneumatic drum maltings to dry the sprouting barleycorns.
These days, believe it or not, we still have a few holdouts who are determined to maintain their floor-malted barley as their preferred ingredient. They feel strongly that it makes a difference and for some, they’ve found through trial and error that it can help them maintain their desired spirit character. Some of them retain the floor maltings for partial contribution to their spirit, but this session will focus fully on those who use 100% floor malted barley for their production.
And interestingly this practice - a return to tradition if you like - is on the rise once more.
How many can you think of?
I’ve managed to accumulate more bottles than I can probably share in a single vPub session, but I’ll give it a go. I need to be clear though; all of these bottles feature 100% floor-malted barley as their core ingredient, and I have a suspicion that it makes an appreciable difference.
Let’s get them opened and see.
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On the face of it, this looks like a niche topic; a deep dive into the impact of one kind of malting versus another. But it's not that; it can't be. It's just me and I don't have the knowledge or expertise.
What I do have though, is whisky.
Some of which I know to have been made with a very specific - and comparatively rare - type of raw ingredient; barley that has been malted on a traditional malt floor.
There was a time in whisky’s past where every distillery used their own in-house malt floor. It was everywhere. Gradually they disappeared and a far more efficient and a less labour-intensive, centralised model was adopted, usually using modern pneumatic drum maltings to dry the sprouting barleycorns.
These days, believe it or not, we still have a few holdouts who are determined to maintain their floor-malted barley as their preferred ingredient. They feel strongly that it makes a difference and for some, they’ve found through trial and error that it can help them maintain their desired spirit character. Some of them retain the floor maltings for partial contribution to their spirit, but this session will focus fully on those who use 100% floor malted barley for their production.
And interestingly this practice - a return to tradition if you like - is on the rise once more.
How many can you think of?
I’ve managed to accumulate more bottles than I can probably share in a single vPub session, but I’ll give it a go. I need to be clear though; all of these bottles feature 100% floor-malted barley as their core ingredient, and I have a suspicion that it makes an appreciable difference.
Let’s get them opened and see.
🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 streamyard.com/pal/d/5188931899359232
