My New Whisky Barrel

by **Brendan** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:54 pm

My new 25L French oak barrel turned up today from Roll Out The Barrel :happy-partydance:

Barrel01.jpg

Barrel02.jpg

Barrel03.jpg

Barrel04.jpg

I'm going to soak some Sherry in it for the next couple of months (to later impart those smooth flavours), then toss it out and fill it with some malt Whisky :dance:

Now just have to get my bubbler going :handgestures-thumbupleft:

by **Dipsomania** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:37 pm

nice barrel mate, great pics.

my barrel arrives friday but it's only 10L.

is preparing the barrel with sherry the way to go?
will soaking in cherry for a few months stop the barrel from over oaking?

by **Brendan** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:50 pm

Dipsomania wrote:nice barrel mate, great pics.

my barrel arrives friday but it's only 10L.

is preparing the barrel with sherry the way to go?
will soaking in cherry for a few months stop the barrel from over oaking?

Thanks mate, i'm pretty happy with her :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I'm just trying a little something, after reading for many months on different things involving oak aging. I went with French oak due to the tighter grain, so slower to impart flavours, which I consider a good property in a small barrel like this (obviously completely different story in a 200L+ barrel).

Although 90% of Scotch Whiskies are aged in American oak used Bourbon barrels, the other 10% are done in French or European oak Sherry casks...these are some of my favourite whiskies :dance:

So that's where my head's at...leave some Sherry in for a few months, which I assume will be shit and 'overoaked', but hoping it will remove some of the harsher early colour and flavour that I don't necessarily want in my Whisky, as I want to age it for a year or two, not a few months...and rather than adding some Sherry to the Whisky as some do, i'm hoping it will impart some suttle flavours from what has been absorbed by the oak :handgestures-thumbupleft:

by **bear74** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 8:30 am

sounds alright, i reckon the end product would be to die for!

by **Urrazeb** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:42 am

Yep sherry cask is my fave scotch too mate. Be sure to monitor it consistently as u wouldn't want to over do it. And I would set a note book next to the cask for tasting notes too

by **crow** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 10:56 am

Most Irish whiskeis also aged in sherry casks, from Spain I think

by **jasonc2861** » Fri Jan 25, 2013 8:50 am

Have to ask,what would soaking neutral vodka in these be like.?would it be worth it?only have a reflux still,doing tpw,been soaking a lot of my hooch on those American gobbler bourban chips and don't mind that.waiting to get a pot still,won't be for a few months,,just wondering.? :think:

by **MacStill** » Fri Jan 25, 2013 8:52 am

If you like vodka that tastes like a wet stick I guess it could be nice :think:

by **jasonc2861** » Fri Jan 25, 2013 7:32 pm

McStill wrote:If you like vodka that tastes like a wet stick I guess it could be nice :think:

Lol,ok.ill wait for the pot still I think. :D

by **baldoss** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 12:11 pm

Nice! How much did you pay for the barrel? I had a squiz at their website and can only find 50L or 100L maturing barrels on there. Holy fark they are expensive too!

by **Brendan** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 12:16 pm

$350 + $40 shipping = $390

The 50L one wasn't much more, think it was $450 delivered...but I just thought 50L was impractical in terms of making that much of one product, and if it doesn't work out...watered down to 40%, you'd have like 60L of stuff :shifty:

by **Hill** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 12:27 pm

Try this guys, i got a 25L one for $295 for my port.

http://www.winexstorage.com.au/port-bar ... pAodh2eVyQ

Good looking barrels as well.

by **crow** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 2:53 pm

Yes without checking ( so I might be wrong ) I think SA cooperage and Heinrichs have pretty competitive rates. 10 or so months back they were cheaper than prices I saw on the forum anyway :-B

by **bt1** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 6:16 am

Howdy,

Be rather keen to see what you think flavour wise down the track a bit.

Big fan of the sherry soaked timbers currently so a barrel might be next best step.

bt1

by **Micklum`** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 11:23 am

I got my 25L from ROTB on Friday really good quality. I was going to get the 50 but post is a killer from QLD so ive got a 100L new American Oak coming from AP John and Sons in SA. $723 landed here in WA $605 just for the barrel. Not a bad price at all, i called most of the coopers i could find Aus wide but the are in the middle of vintage so getting anything is asap is pretty hard.
Cheers Mick

by **baldoss** » Tue Apr 16, 2013 2:04 pm

bt1 wrote:Big fan of the sherry soaked timbers currently so a barrel might be next best step.

bt1

Me too mate - the bloke at my local good bottle shop had two bottles of the Overeem 40% open under the counter that he let us sample. They aged one in port barrels and the other in sherry barrels. I definitely liked the sherry notes in it more than the port (both are fantastic - would definitely recommend Overeem to anyone... if I could afford a bottle of the cask strength I would love to try it!)

by **cap73n** » Wed May 08, 2013 10:47 am

jasonc2861 wrote:Have to ask,what would soaking neutral vodka in these be like.?would it be worth it?only have a reflux still,doing tpw,been soaking a lot of my hooch on those American gobbler bourban chips and don't mind that.waiting to get a pot still,won't be for a few months,,just wondering.? :think:

Hey, I filled a 10L american oak barrel (medium charring) with a neutral spirit that had been carbon filtered at 55% about 4 months ago. Sampled some of it last week... and every day this week haha. Its friggen delicous! It tastes like the smoothest whiskey ive ever had and the smell is intoxicating. Its sweet with hints of caramel and vanilla but not overpoweringly sweet.

My only dilemma is that I dont know how much longer I should leave it in there. Because when I dilute it to 40%, the flavour is not as good, so I figure that means I need to leave it longer. But I dont want to risk over oaking. Or mayb I should just keep it at 55% :D Any pointers?

Also, what type of spirit would it technically be called? (It was from a full sugar wash)

by **Brendan** » Wed May 08, 2013 11:34 am

cap73n wrote:Hey, I filled a 10L american oak barrel (medium charring) with a neutral spirit that had been carbon filtered at 55% about 4 months ago. Sampled some of it last week... and every day this week haha. Its friggen delicous! It tastes like the smoothest whiskey ive ever had and the smell is intoxicating. Its sweet with hints of caramel and vanilla but not overpoweringly sweet.

My only dilemma is that I dont know how much longer I should leave it in there. Because when I dilute it to 40%, the flavour is not as good, so I figure that means I need to leave it longer. But I dont want to risk over oaking. Or mayb I should just keep it at 55% :D Any pointers?

Also, what type of spirit would it technically be called? (It was from a full sugar wash)

Technically, it would be an oaked neutral ;-)

Mate it you love it now at 55%, why dilute it? The whole idea is to make something you like, no?

:handgestures-thumbupleft:

by **Sam.** » Wed May 08, 2013 11:51 am

Oaked vodka?

by **Ryno** » Wed May 08, 2013 12:35 pm

Brendan wrote:
Dipsomania wrote:nice barrel mate, great pics.

my barrel arrives friday but it's only 10L.

is preparing the barrel with sherry the way to go?
will soaking in cherry for a few months stop the barrel from over oaking?

Thanks mate, i'm pretty happy with her :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I'm just trying a little something, after reading for many months on different things involving oak aging. I went with French oak due to the tighter grain, so slower to impart flavours, which I consider a good property in a small barrel like this (obviously completely different story in a 200L+ barrel).

Although 90% of Scotch Whiskies are aged in American oak used Bourbon barrels, the other 10% are done in French or European oak Sherry casks...these are some of my favourite whiskies :dance:

So that's where my head's at...leave some Sherry in for a few months, which I assume will be shit and 'overoaked', but hoping it will remove some of the harsher early colour and flavour that I don't necessarily want in my Whisky, as I want to age it for a year or two, not a few months...and rather than adding some Sherry to the Whisky as some do, i'm hoping it will impart some suttle flavours from what has been absorbed by the oak :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Nice Barrel Brendon.

I have done just done something similar. I found my dads old port barrel (5 litre 20 years old barrel) and have filled it up with port. I was going to leave it for a few months then use it for my whiskey. Will let you know who it turns out.