Never underestimate the trade barrier when you're looking at business. They're into barley in Scotland, they grow it there. But we grew rye, here on the East Coast, and it was a very successful grain. Not for some legal authenticity reasons or possibly even not for trade barrier reasons, probably because you had to use all malt. The barley wasn't very good and the malt wasn't very good.
Technology is a very recent thing.
Then we malt it in wonderfully modern and efficient, careful ways that create great enzyme strength. Lo and behold, we can now make a beer, which means we can make a whiskey, with a brew that's maybe only half malted barley. The other half could be any starch. Because the malt has extra enzymes, but that's very recent. So I think whiskey was made from all malt beer, because that's the way it was.