Benromach Contrasts: High Enzyme 2012

Time to get geeky with this Speyside distillery’s latest experiment! High enzyme barley – or ‘High Diastatic Power (HDP) Malt’ – is usually reserved for grain whisky production, where the enzymes (amylases) from a small proportion of malted barley are still necessary to convert the starch in the corn or wheat into fermentable sugars. Similar high enzyme malts are used in large-scale brewing and the production of many American whiskies.

“But what would happen if you used 100% high enzyme malted barley to produce a single malt”, you say? Benromach is here to answer that question. Distilled in 2012 and bottled in 2024, this is a limited edition unpeated whisky from this usually lightly peated distillery. It was matured in first-fill bourbon barrels and bottled at natural colour.