Whisky Forum - Homemade blend

Acksboy · Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2016 10:16 pm Post subject: Homemade blend

Whilst scurrying through the dusty remains of the back of the whisky cupboard I've found a few long-opened and low in volume bottles. Safe to say they're far past their best days but I thought this might be a good opportunity for some homemade amateur blending!
Anyone recommend some combinations? For info I have the following:
Laphroaig 10
Auchentoshan American Oak
Jura Superstition
Inchgower CC 14 year old
Glenlivet Founders Reserve
Highland Park 18 (a bottle I'm ashamed to have forgotten about but I estimate has been open for about 4 years)

A fairly varied collection I think. My first instinct is to mix in some peaty Laphroaig with the Glenlivet but maybe these are too far polar opposites.

TheWM · Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2016 10:23 pm Post subject:

I'd mix age with youth. Founders reserve with HP18 jumped at me straight off. 70:30 mix I might then add some inchgower and toshan to pad it out.

Quaich1 · Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2016 11:03 pm Post subject:

I would try the HP18 with the Inchgower with an 80/20 proportion, respectively which would be a unique vatted/blended malt for sure.
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Samson · Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 1:42 am Post subject:

I would be tempted to add a little Laphroaig 10 to the Highland Park 18 a little at a time to see what works best.

pedrox · Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 5:58 am Post subject:

I have small charred oak barrel (2,5l) which I recently used to mature my own blend.

4 portion Glenfarclas 105 (60%)
4 portion Aberfeldy 12 (40%)
2 portion Finlaggan CS (58%)
1 portion Glenlivet 16 Nadurra (60%)

Result was actually very nice!
One month in that oak barrel nicely stiched flawours together and added a lot of spiceness.

2/3 bottles will be delivered by Santa. One for myself..

Acksboy · Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 8:41 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the suggestions!

For now I've just decided to blend Auchentoshan with Laphroaig to a 70:30 ration respectively. I've no idea if this is a wise move but I'm intrigued by the sweet smokey contrast. I'm going for a poor man's Ardbeg Uigeadail!

Danners · Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 6:08 pm Post subject:

ralfy legend · Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 11:01 am Post subject:

How can you leave so many bottles open and not emptied you naughty person so you are hahahaha

Acksboy · Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 2:39 pm Post subject:

I often have trouble finishing off a bottle knowing that I won't have that lovely liquid stocked away in my cupboard should I want it. Of course this brings with it the unfortunate truth that you can eagerly return to that bottle months later only to find it a pale shadow of its former self.
All I'll say is I know how the little boy in The Snowman felt on Christmas morning Crying or Very sad

lincoln imp · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 12:13 am Post subject:

I currently have a living bottle Islay malt which has all the open distilleries plus some Port Ellen Pe5 and Old Bothwell Port Ellen, in the mix and its pretty decent.
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Acksboy · Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2016 10:56 pm Post subject:

Have tried the first blend after letting the whiskies marry together for a couple of weeks. The Auchenphroaig is going down well!

cdn_dram · Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2017 3:36 am Post subject:

For fun I tried a 50/50 mix of Laphroaig quarter cask and Craigellachie 13 tonight.

Wound up with a malty sweet and oily dram with subdued smoke. It's quite good.

Debrain · New Member Joined: 17 Feb 2017 Posts: 1

jwbassman · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2017 10:12 pm Post subject:

I have a Solera bottle that has been going for a few years now and contains a mix of many different bottles I've had in that time, it's evolved over time and at points has been very good ðŸ˜Š

Last week I 'blended' small amounts of the 3 Laddie MP5 PC bottles, that was fun Laughing

hotshothamish · Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 3:28 pm Post subject:

In one of his whisky reviews Ralfy comments on how well Caol Ila and Talisker blend together and I've thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with relative amounts of each to get the right balance. 2/3 Talisker and 1/3 Caol Ila seems to work well for me.

I've also just put together a combination of 1/3 of each of the following Caol Ila expressions:

12 yr old, 18yr old, G&M Cask Strength, this seems to have knitted together well, I may well add it to my list on the Whisky Sample Exchange page