It was probably just a matter of time until American ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit put Scotch whisky in the cross-hairs. Although barley has been the primary grain for Irish and Scotch single malts for a thousand years, American distilleries relegated the plant to a fermentation catalyst and flavor balancer. In the 1990s, Steve McCarthy, proprietor of Oregon’s Clear Creek Distillery/Hood River Distillers,created the first 100% malted barley American whiskey.