How To Age A Whisky Mini Barrel
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- Опубликовано: 4 янв 2018
- Are you wondering how to age your new mini whisky barrel? I walk you through it, step by step. Follow my simple guide here to start aging your own whisky in your house!
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Great video, thanks Bill! Very informative.
Got one of these for my grandfather-in-law for Christmas! Great video.
This video just came up on my feed. I did the same thing with an "age your own" kit that I was given for Xmas one year. After aging the raw spirt - (cooper fox raw, which was too much like scotch for my tastes), I filled mine up with bottom shelf Old Crow, and let it age 6-8mos. When I finally poured that out - WOW! It was fantastic. I eventually tried the absolute cheapest bourbon in the liquor store. (Bankers Club) Tried it at 6mos, 8mos, and 1 year. No amount of aging would make that swill any better. The consensus was that the unaged was better than the aged - but all in all pretty bad. I definitely enjoyed that barrel.
Thank you for this video, it has definitly inspired me to take my whisky journey to a next level. What brand was your barrel from? Do you have a recommended source to order this product from? Cheers!
Definitely need to invest in one if these
Awesome video Bill. I still need to try one of these!
+The Malted Man Cave so far it's fun!
I was only thinking about this lately Bill-Have to check this out at Dan Murphy’s in Australia-A must have!🥃
Really excited to see this vid!
+SheFlungDung Glad to hear it!
Great video. thanks for the help :D
Dude, I got the exact same one for Christmas. You're awesome
+rh fd So are you!
rh fd how did this work out for you?
Let me share a thought or six, I have 4 one liter mini-barrels and have been experimenting for about two or three years. FIRST AND FOREMOST, most whisky producers know how to make whisky better than you do. If you try to make their whisky better by putting it into a virgin oak barrel, good luck. SECOND, if you are still up for it after rule number one, season your barrel. Buy some sherry, even something simple like Harveys Bristol Cream, or port, or Madeira, or, well you get it, and fill your barrel with it. Let it soak in for a few weeks. Then dump the sherry back in its bottle and add whisky and let it go for a month or so. Just taste a bit and go along, until you think it's hit its prime. Bottle and label. THIRD, you will learn a lot about whisky by just tasting the sherry, port, madeira, etc. you buy to season the barrel. FOURTH, log everything and of course number your barrels with a sharpie or whatever if you have more than one. Trust me, after a while if you don't have a log and numbered barrels you will forget time in barrel and which barrel holds what. FIFTH, these things are GREAT for cocktails. Manhattans and Negronis really shine. Let em sit for a month or so. SIXTH, remember that barrel (oak) influence is strongest on the first fill and wanes after that. If you take care, you can refill you mini-barrel several times. SEVENTH, remember this is all about fun, you will learn A LOT about barrel management with these little babies. Cheers Whiskey Dic.
+Triplecap I'm starting to wish I had seasoned this one with Sherry
Great points, especially the First.. I personally cringe when youtubers put terrific whiskeys into these barrels! Don't ruin the Bookers, lol! But to each is own.. I prefer to use these barrels to age "moonshine" spirits, or to have fun with a CHEAP bottle of whiskey ($10) to see if it can be improved (heaven hill?).
I have ordered one of these for my partner as a wedding present - but since I ordered it from Ukraine, and given the situation with the war - it’s only going to arrive less than three weeks before the wedding now. I was hoping to have something ready to go in it to serve at the wedding (it’s a 3L). I don’t expect it to be anything spectacular - I just know he’ll appreciate the thought, and it’ll be a fun novelty.
In anycase - I’d like it to not taste like trash.
Have you any advice, on how to achieve anything a little better than a travesty in such short time? Advice on seasoning/ageing/swelling (whatever it’s called) the barrel, what to season it with - to which whiskey to age in it?
I’m a total novice with this - so if you could oblige me with any advice it’d be very much appreciated. You sound Iike you’ve been to a few rodeos 😂
That product NEEDS to be in a list for next Christmas gifts for a whisky lover
+Nico Juarez it is. I made a list last year!
The Whiskey Dic you surely did, and I surely forgot about it. My apologies. By the way, I loved the buffalo trace video
+Nico Juarez Thanks! I got some funny looks from people while walking through the woods with a Glencairn
I got a barrel last Christmas! I was fun experimenting with. But it came as part of a "whiskey making kit" that I put vodka in and "whiskey essence." It basically became aged, flavored vodka (which wasn't terrible, but wasn't good either lol), but was a fun experiment. I have a 5L barrel ordered to try some blending and aging with multiple kinds and brands of whiskey!
+Adam Farnsworth The first step to becoming a craft distiller!
Some day!
I’d say the first step to becoming a “craft” distiller would be learning to distill then owning a still. Then actually distilling. This is more of hobby blending and aging. This is the easy part... actually make your own mash wait for it to ferment, filter it, distill it, filter it again, then age it... NOW you have a craft and something you will truly be proud of and appreciate the work it takes to be a distiller.
So just or of curiosity how did this work out for me? I just finished a months aging and it's super oaky(is that a word? Lol) wondering if I should leave it longer or waste it and start over? Also thinking about aging so e Rum in the barrel I just aged an Irish Whiskey in for a month just to experiment lol.
I know this is year old comment, but I'd set up multiple barrels and run a 1 year TEST on varying protocols/whiskys/blends/barrel brands/etc or whatever I want to explore, then pick the first 3 I liked with the best results and concentrate on repeating/improving the results with a longer timeline.
Find more to fill it Bill! PS: I've yet to try a single sample of these projects that turned out well 😝 still, it's great fun and look forward to the results! Save some empty bottles and get your hands on some dry sherry to season it for the next fill! 👍
+Aqvavitae That's a fun idea. I could see soomg that for sure!
Truly fascinating. Found out about these barrels at the bourbanite. So my first big query is, has anyone tried charring one of these since it's virgin oak? How difficult would that be? I just may get in on this!
If imagine these aren't the best put together little barrels. Taking them apart may not be a great idea. That being said, if you got them apart I'm sure you could char them
Sir Nigel Gaunt put it in the bunghole !!! Nice bunghole, pretty bunghole!!!!!!
The ones I bought online come charred. Not sure how well, or how much, because I can't see inside. Even with a flashlight its hard to see into the bunghole. Maybe I'll get one of those snake cameras, lol.
feel like they should already be charred
I ordered a 1 litre whiskey barrel without the spigot drilled, the barrel came with a bung and spigot but when my barrel is done aging I’ll pour it into an actual bottle. Nice video, thanks for the tutorial.
What do we do with the barrel after the aging process os completed? Rinse? Fill with water till next use?
It depends on what you want to do. You could rinse it out or if you like what was in it before you could use it "seasoned"
You should do a video about infinity bottles, I'm going to start one once I get home from holiday.
+Eri Lassila Its in the queue!
Ive been working in the whisky industry for over a decade, in a filling store you dont put water inside to expnd it as if its charred you are getting rid of what your going to use to mature it you only need to soak the outside to expand it if you have slack hoops that you can move by hand then you need to drive them tight before soaking
Might be a dumb question here but I got one of these for Christmas. Once you clean it and cure it do you just use normal whiskey? Like put some Jack Daniels or John Barr in there and let it sit for couple months? Or is it to make/age your own whiskey?
I'd suggest buying some white dog (clear) whiskey and seeing what happens
Where did you order this barrel from? Any suggestions on what website has the best deals?
My wife actually got it for me. I see it on amazon quite a bit
Got my 5 litre barrel being seasoned with sherry wine currently. Cool experiment.
+Whisky In The 6 that's a huge barrel!
I just got one of these barrels for this Christmas 2018. I am going to buy some shine snd age it for 3 - 6 months to see what I can come up with. I have some its called wonder tucky shine. I want to make into aged whiskey. I have heard that in s small barrel like this it will Mock age a 2 yo in just a couple months. Because of the wood to whiskey ratio. But I believe it's going to taste young. I'm going to taste it once a month to get the best quality until it's close then it will be a once a week tasting. This is going to be a great journey. Thank you for shairing.
My best advice would be to make sure you fill the bottle completely. My barrel absorbed all of my whisky
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary oh thank you I actually did because the shine is bottled at I believe 110 proof. And I proofed it down which made the barrel completely full. Snd have you tried to put your barrel in a cool place to release your whiskey? Or did you re fill with another whiskey?
I havent reattempted yet
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary I was just looking for the follow up video, assuming you haven't posted one because there wasn't anything left in the barrel? Do you think this is worth trying? I am thinking of getting one of these, filling it with a sherry for a few weeks, then putting something like an Ardbeg 10 in it for only a short time so its really more of a light sherry finishing instead of "aging"
I think it's worth doing... but I did a bad job
Wait , what happened in the end? I can't find a second video! Just got one and appears to advise after filling the barrel with water, to have a period with high ABV alcohol such as vodka or something to leech out the excessively oaky notes before seasoning.
I got one for my Birthday. I've filled it up with Buffalo Trace. I tried it after and I didn't really notice a change in color or taste.
I'm waiting another month to test it out. I did not rinse it out...thinking that distileries I'm sure don't do that and mine is full to prevent any air space......still waiting for the magic to happen ;)
+Frank Wilson Distilleries likely dont, but they have better filters!
how many times can i use this for spirits? home brew.
thanks
I havent personally found the answer... I see no reason there should be a limit
Take a look at the Four Roses and Peerless whiskey dump. What’s the black stuff they dump the whiskey onto? Looks like coal
Can I use pure grain alcohol then dilute it down with water and age it in barrel to make whiskey since in my area no one sells moonshine, will it taste as good?
That entirely depends on your climate and what barrel you use. A good channel to watch to learn about this stuff is "Still It". But short answer is "yes"
Just got a barrel for early Christmas gift myself
Wondering how the Bookers turned out?
I left it in the barrel too long and it disappeared :(
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary Not quite a surprise.
I think you left it enough filled with water, but my guess is that the barrel was poorly crafted. I heard about 40% to even 80% of the liquor lost, but in all the cases was about a poorly crafted barrel.
Anyway, nice experiment. Would like to try with a really good barrel!
In your case, angels were happy! :)
Nice Bill. Good luck!
+Scotch Test Dummies Thanks Scott!
I can’t believe you poured that bookers in there!!!
Bookers is awesome right out of the bottle!!
That particular one was less so!
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary
I have a 2019 and a 2020
They are both good
The 2020 is a bit nutty tho kind of like my Bakers 107.
Good barrel video tho. I just picked one up and I have 2 bottles of BT #1 to put in mine.
Check us out at Kansas Whiskey Drinkers here on the RUclips.
Now I’m gonna have to go binge watch all of your videos!
Have fun!
Will do!
my suggestion is more like 4 weeks rather than 8 weeks - maybe you will want to try a tiny sample half way through to make sure it is not over - oaked
+WhiskyJason Will do!
Hi, where can I buy one of those mini barrels?
They're available on Amazon
What about trying a white whiskey?
To achieve similar effect to what you find bottled on store shelves you might have to age some other spirits in there (bourbon, sherry or even ale) charr the barrel inside and then fill with white whiskey. Otherwise you'll get something between bourbon (fresh first fill barrel) and whiskey (mash bill differs between bourbons and whiskeys)
Help please!!!!!! I have a question i have a 1 liter barrel with a spigot. If i turn the spigot nothing comes out, unless i remove the cork in the bung. Then the liquor flows from the spigot. Is that how it is supposed to be?
Makes sense from an air pressure point of view. Of the air can't enter the barrel then it can't come out thr spigot.
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary It makes sense thanks. However if i open a bottle of water laid on its side, The water comes out just fine.
How many liters is the barrel
Should you wax the wood before or after the water???
I wouldn't wax the wood at all
How did it turn out? Couldn't find an update video
I failed. The whole bottle absorbed into the wood
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary Lol! Wow. You gotta do another one...
So how did it turn out?? I can’t find the update video.
Long story short... I let it sit too long and all the whiskey evaporated
Where can I get one of these? I’m turning 21 in 3 months and I would love to own one of these to decorate my little man cave area and age my own whiskey see how it turns out
This is the part where I wish I had an affiliate link. You should be able to search for mini keg and I would guess you'll find a dozen websites that'll do it for you
George washingtons mount Vernon shop online has one!
so was there ever a part two.
i can not find the video of the finnished aging??
Unfortunately, all of the whiskey in the barrel totally disappeared. It was weird but it never finished
is the barrel charred or toasted? without that it's not aging, it's wasting :)
I'll note that the barrel I was given (by my wife, bought from 1000oaksbarrel.com) does indicate on the web site that it's a medium char.
What sized barrel is this?
Looks like a 1L to me.
Is there a part 2 or 3 to this? what was the result?
Long story short... it all evaporated. I havent tried again
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary woah, Bill. Talk about burying the lede. Might you consider adding a card or pop-up to the front (and the description) to warn folks about this (and the brand)? That's just terrible to hear that it happened.
My wife just bought me one also (from 1000oaksbarrel.com) and was so proud of it as a gift for me, as one so *hard to buy for". She even wanted to put in the Van Vinkle 12 we bought (per a local pappy lottery), hoping to age it a bit more. Yeah, won't be doing that, given your news!
But I was thinking to (and still will) make a mix of some bourbons, and like you saving some outside the barrel to compare later to what comes out. If it's nothing, we'll of course that'll suck.
Hope others might chime in. There may well be differences in barrel vendors. For instance, mine didn't leak when I filled it with the water to cure. But as others have said it needs to not be air tight, either.
All this should make folks appreciate all the more what a real and time-tested process it is to make and ship even basic bourbon.
To be fair... I could have elaborated. It evaporated because I forgot about it aging and also didn't fill it completely.
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary thanks, and yep, reading the instructions for it now. It warns of things like that...but we know so few folks do that. And I see now it's like a plant, has to stay watered and be checked every month even after use, or it will dry out. Probably not something most will do, of course, so soon just a nice table topper.
Anyway, perhaps a good follow up video would be to share such lessons learned (from you and others), if you're interested.
Thats a really good idea. This video does well around this time of year every year. May make sense
how long can you age it ? like years ?
I'm honestly not sure. Mine all evaporated
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary after how long?
Only a couple of months. But I didnt fill it completely
Very cool. I had never heard of this before, other than Beavis and Butthead "I need t.p. for my bunghole." lol
+Ralph Stewart hah! That's why I laughed a little when I said bunghole
Huhuh....huhuh.... he said Bunghole...huhuh...
Can you add sherry chips to this?
I don't see any reason why not
I actually just rinsed it and filled it with another (Mt Logan 15 yo). Fingers crossed. Did I just see your replies on the Scotch Test Dummies BOOM?
Not recently but I have been watching and commenting over the day
2:34 You literally just did. LOL
If there not chared oak barrels then its kinda not worth it. Liquor wise.
Not true. A lot of scotch and Irish whiskies use uncharred oak, which has a different taste which isn’t necessarily unpleasant.
You can drop in some charred chips if you want to. There are nor rules tbh.
My instructions clearly say to fill the barrel completely with your spirit of choice to eliminate excessive air in the barrel.
Mine had wood chunks inside
Definitely worth rinsing out. Did you get it for Father's day?
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary yes sir
Well, Happy Father's Day!
this is a cork for the bunghole there
what was to outcome of this video??? UPDATE
I failed miserably. I let it sit too long and all the bourbon was absorbed into the wood.
Don’t watch this with others nearby. They all thinking that I’m watching some freaky shit
Hah! Glad I could contribute to your bad reputation
I would not let it sit for 2 months on a first fill, taste it every 2 days or so.
If I were to taste every 2 days, it would be empty before aged.
Yea... I made a mistake on this one. Didnt fill it enough and most of it evaporated
If you turned 21 you must have hard a hard life😄
I have done very similar with Woodprix designs.
Rs
Tu?
I'm India (Punjab) MRP Price (Barrel)
Ah gotcha. No idea what it costs there
If you buy a decent barrel it won’t leak much
Booker's not very good?. :O... I'm offended.
Its been a long time since I filmed this... did I say bookers wasn't very good?! Im shocked! Hopefully it was a joke. Bookers was a cornerstone of my channel for years
I found some amazing plans for Woodglut. Just check them out.
In my first work I always used Woodprix plans.
If you reuse the barrel multiple times, I would think that each batch would taste different. Double oaked. Triple oaked. Agree or disagree?
Unless you took a lot of time to rinse it and let the water sit then yes. Absolutely
I know this video is a year old and probably wont get a response but arent these barrel's intended purposes to age a non aged "white" whiskey? Of course anyone could do whatever they want but I think your suppose to use a non aged spirit and completley fill the barrel.
First you need to season the barrel with something. That's what I was trying to do. Then i was going to add some white dog
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary
Oh ok I see. Did you ever do it? Is there a follow up video? I've been a sub for a while but admittedly havent gone back and watched all the older videos yet.
It was an epic failure I ended up waiting a little bit too long the barrel absorbed all of the whiskey and I never really went back to doing it I should probably do it though
Hehe hehe....bunghole
Uh huhuhuhuh
Did you really just say that Bookers was not very good? Wow, Bookers is awesome.
That particular bookers wasn't very good
Had he tasted this yet?
This was a failed experiment sadly.
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary why did you fail? I'm going to try it, so i'd like to read your feedbacks about this experience
I didnt put enough whiskey in the barrel. I should have completely filled it
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary thank you! I'm going to season my barrel with some sherry, then I'll fill it with 2 liters of the undrinkable (for me, obviously) Glen Grant 5yo and I'll see. I'll let you know if you like!
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary what's the issue as a result of not filling it completely
You just washed out the coloring
Fucken ruined it with unfiltered tapp water good one
It’s a home aging kit, it’s not that temperamental. Also my homes tap water is filtered
While you are doing this I strongly disagree with you about Booker's. Bookers is the best bourbon
Totally depends on the batch
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary explain please
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary fyi not trying to argue just trying to.stay informed. Hard to find Bookers here in northern ky
I actually stopped reviewing bookers batches for two reasons.
The price increase felt artificially inflated and they had a few pretty bad batches. 2019-01, 2020-02, 2018-03. I haven't had any from 2021 personally. I got burned a few too many times spending 70-80 dollars a piece for a mystery. Given, I'm in a unique situation where I try to drink them before others can and thus don't get the warning about bad batches, so fair... but ultimately the price is what turned me off more than anything
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary thank you and good sipping
He giggles when he says bunghole. American's can't help but laugh at this. Not as funny to Brits.
Christmas is stupid.
Buddy Alcohol doesn’t age more after it was took out of the barrel and bottled it doesn’t age longer the taste will be the same
Once whiskey is in a bottle it doesnt age, however if I use one of these mini barrels and fill it with whiskey I'm "finishing" it or aging it depending in what type of barrel it is.
If I were at a distillery and I did something like a double cask or triple cask you can call it 12 years if its aged 6 years in American oak and 6 years in French limousine.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you?
my god, just put tape or blur out your name instead of going through all the trouble of trying to hide it. We want to see what you are doing.
Funny part is at this point I totally don't care. But I do think you're overreacting a bit
Maybe so. Regardless, have you had any issues with this barrel to date?
The one thing I would suggest is to fill it up to the top, fully. Mine ended up evaporating and the whole bottle disappeared.
@@TheWhiskeyDictionary Got it. I'm going to age some when I get my barrel next week I'll definetely keep that in mind. Thank you, and sorry if I sounded like a prick.
No problems at all :) I'm happy you chose to watch the video! Sorry if I sounded defensive.
What are you going to age?
My adventure with woodworking started with Woodglut.