On 4/27/2015 1:17 PM, Paul Braun wrote:
Quite a few of them find their way to the Caribbean and are used for aging
tequila and rum as well.
Interesting how complex a tiny area of knowledge can be.
They are also used to produce Canadian Whiskies and by a few micro breweries,
to age beer.
I had a great uncle who had a career as a 'revenooer', a Federal agent searching out and destroying stills and
prosecuting their operators.
He told us that the flavoring effect of the barrel was determined by whether it was newly charred or used, the surface
area of the charred portion relative to the volume and the time in the barrel. To get the expected flavor profile of a
five year aged Kentucky Bourbon, you have to start with a new, freshly charred barrel of a certain size.
OR, you can use any sort of container, put in a lot of charred wood chips and your fresh moonshine, set it on a rocker
powered by a car battery and leave it to age a few weeks out in the woods. Huge surface area of fresh char and gentle
agitation apparently equals several years lying still aging in barrels.
He told many tales, including the one of the ersatz Canadian Club that was so good, and pervasive in the South, that
they had to send samples to the SF office for analysis, to be reasonably sure it was being compared to the real thing.
Used barrels are particularly suitable for making mild whiskies or for Whisky that gets it's flavor elsewhere, as from
drying the barley with peat fires. (Extra credit for knowing the difference between the way this is done for Irish and
Scotch Whisky.)
Unless my memory is playing down, I believe I had a winery tour many years in the Napa Valley where they used really
well used ex-whiskey barrels for aging some of their wine. Apparently even after they can't be used to make even very
mild whiskey, the barrels may live on before becoming planters.
Whiskery Moose
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What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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