Here’s Why You Could Soon Be Drinking Whisky Made With Grains That Have Been Extinct for Hundreds of Years

In this March 2, 2016 photo, Dennis Nesel turns malting barley in a kiln at Hudson Valley Malt in Germantown, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, are working on reviving extinct heritage barley varieties, which could be used to make whisky, BBC reported this week.

“There’s increasing interest within the malting and distilling industries to explore a role for older barley varieties,” Heriot-Watt’s Calum Holmes told BBC. “There’s hope that using these heritage varieties of barley might allow for recovery of favorable aroma characteristics into distillate and some have also displayed potential resilience to stresses that might be expected in a changing climate.”

Over the next six years, the scientists plan to test at least eight heritage barley varieties and want to find out whether old species of barley could create “distinctive new whiskies,” according to BBC.

Among the varieties of barley they will test are a 200-year-old Chevallier, which is said to have once been the most popular barley in Britain; Hana, which was used to make the fist blond Pilsner lager in 1842; and Golden Promise, which The Macallan used in the 1960s.

According to BBC, the scientists are hoping the research will be helpful for Edinburgh’s Holyrood Distillery to create new single malts.

“We think there are clear sensory differences with using heritage barleys, but we wanted to back it up with science,” said Marc Watson, head of spirit operations at Holyrood Distillery. “It’s using innovation to bring back characteristics that have been lost by switching to newer varieties of barley… flavours and aromas that haven’t been present in whisky for decades, if not longer.”

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