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Wi' tippenny, we fear nae evil;
Wi' usquabae, we'll face the Devil!
Tam o' Shanter
Robert Burns
Grain is seen as the quiet companion in blended whisky, a spirit that some consider pales into insignificance against the characterful collection of malts.
This is not altogether true. Grain whiskies, elusive to obtain bottled, have a character of their own and can differ quite widely.
Allied Distillers has a grain distillery in Strathclyde, but Ballantine's traditional base single grain whisky is distilled at Dumbarton - the distillery built by Hiram Walker on the site of a disused shipyard in 1938. Dumbarton grain whisky is bottled only extremely rarely, for presentations and special occasions. Obtaining a bottle is viewed by collectors as quite an achievement.
Alex Simpson, manager of Dumbarton's huge grain distillery complex, has a commemorative bottle of 20 Years Old, with a distinctive character. 'It is a very acquired taste with a brightness you do not find in malt whisky,' he says.
Grain whisky is widely produced in the industry for blending, mainly from wheat in Coffey-style stills. However, the grain whisky in 17 Years Old is unique, produced exclusively from maize, by a special process, in a continuous still which is a variation of Coffey's original.
'We separate the mash from the wort before fermentation, which is not normally done in the industry,' Alex Simpson explains. 'We believe we get a cleaner, lighter spirit by not fermenting the wort with the grains in. It's a process which has always been carried out at Dumbarton and goes back to the old Hiram Walker days. They were a North American company and maize was a natural choice for grain spirit.'
As one of the world's most highly individual blends, it is not surprising that some methods used to produce the whiskies of 17 Years Old are in themselves distinctive. Quality at any price is a company tradition reaching back to George Ballantine himself, using techniques which not only broke with convention, but also broke new ground.
'Maize has a different flavour to wheat and the spirit you obtain from it is much cleaner,' Alex explains. 'It does not have some of the oils you find in wheat and is therefore not as heavy. When you distil with wheat, you get more phenols in the spirit.'
Unmalted maize is used to make the most important grain whisky in 17 Years Old, but a small proportion of high-diastase malted barley is used to kick-start the process and convert the enzymes. A certain percentage of malted barley is also required by law in all Scotch whisky.
When Aeneas Coffey built his patent still in the 1830s, the wash, or beer, flowed over copper plates housed in a tall wooden column. Although used primarily for whisky, in the early days a large proportion of the distilled spirit was shipped to London to make gin.
Today, the casing is made from copper and grain distilling has become more precise and sophisticated. Coffey-style stills are also used in California to produce brandy and in Jamaica for distilling light-bodied rum.
For most of this century the industry had 13 grain distilleries. While demand has remained high, numbers reduced to eight ten years ago through amalgamation and consolidation. Most are situated in the Lowlands, with easy access to important road and rail links. Ballantine's 17 Years Old draws on a core of five foundation grains, sometimes less.
One of the advantages of the continuous distilling system is speed. A grain distillery the size of Dumbarton's will probably produce as much whisky in a week as the entire annual output of some malt distilleries.
Although many variations have now evolved, the system, like all good inventions, remains brilliantly simple. A typical distillation column is a vertical cylinder, divided inside by horizontal plates. The wort boils and the vapour rises from plate to plate to the top of the column. There are many variations in design in continuous stills, depending on the quality of spirit required or what purpose it is destined for.
At Dumbarton, the rectifying column uses around 50 per cent more plates, or 'trays', than the traditional Coffey still to produce a whisky of finer quality. Otherwise the principle is the same as that developed by Coffey: the liquor passes down the column and the vapour rises.
'As the vapour ascends through holes in the plates, the liquor tries to pass it on the way down, causing a stripping action which removes the alcohol,' Alex explains. 'This is taken off at the top of the still and condensed into spirit. By the time the liquor gets to the bottom of the column, it is basically water.'
Unlike pot stills, where the foreshots and feints are discarded while the stillman selects the heart of the run, spirit can be taken much more precisely at specific points in the column. Grain spirit is distilled at a much higher strength than malt, around 90 per cent compared with, say, 67 per cent in a single malt.
The continuous still also has a more efficient rectification - removing the 'nasties' that distillers often refer to - and has a greater fuel economy. The price of progress, however, is a whisky of lighter character than malt.
Having said that, grain whisky is far from a neutral spirit. Recent tasting notes from a range of single grain whiskies contain adjectives such as 'perfumy', 'woody', 'sherryish', indicating a distinct but softer style. As connoisseur Michael Jackson puts it: 'There is much about which to be curious in Scotch whisky, and its enigmatic nature is its joy.'
After distillation, young grain spirit destined for 17 Years Old is matured in American oak casks for 17 years to emerge the colour of palest gold. While the continuous still method removed the necessity for a distillery to be located in a particular area, apparently, it still matters where the spirit is matured.
'There have been various arguments about this over the years,' says Alex, who has installed whiskey plants in Spain, Canada and Mexico. 'In my opinion it matters very much. The whisky should be matured in the area where it is distilled.
'In the past we have moved whiskies from our malt distilleries in the Northern Highlands down to the central belt of Scotland for maturation and found that the product was slightly different. All our grain whisky is matured near the distillery in the central belt, partly because of the huge volumes involved.'
One of the problems of a continuous still is that it has to be checked for wear and tear while it is in operation. But they often have a remarkable life span. Dumbarton's rectifier, built in 1938 when the plant was constructed, was replaced only in 1990.
The company has another grain whisky complex at Strathclyde, which uses wheat and a whole mash process - fermenting the grains with the liquors, rather than separating the wort, Dumbarton-style.
'Dumbarton's clear wort process using maize is unique in the industry,' Alex Simpson says. 'Apart from producing superior whisky, it is also better for the environment. By removing the grains before fermentation we reduce the biological oxygen demand on the watercourse when it is discharged. The spent grains and evaporated spent wash are made into a dry animal feed compound which has 27 per cent protein. Demand for it is very high.'
Dumbarton's single grain whisky has always been used as the base for 17 Years Old. Quality is carefully monitored by Alex and regularly checked by Master Blender Robert Hicks in his legendary nosing sessions to maintain the high standards he demands for blending.
It is not neutral alcohol, Robert stresses. 'It has a flavour in just the right amount. If it were too strong, it would not be the flavour we are looking for.
'Dumbarton supplies us with a perfect grain whisky - a spirit that comes off the still light, fresh and with a slightly sweet background.'