Over the falls in a barrel

[bourbonv]

We know that the government regulations required the use of a new charred barrel when making straight whiskey other than corn whiskey after 1 March 1938. Before that time there was used cooperage being used to make straight bourbon. Early Times is often maligned because there is used cooperage, but the fact is 100 years ago it would still be called bourbon and nobody would have cared that it was aged partially in used cooperage because it was not an uncommon practice.

In the 19th century bourbon was created by aging the whiskey in charred barrels. The use of new charred barrels was found to make the best bourbon quicker. New barrels were common at the distillery because the barrel was the main package of sale. A barrel of whiskey was sent to the customer, often as far away as New York, New Orleans or even California. When they emptied that barrel they ould dispose of the empty and purchase a new barrel of whiskey. But was thet barrel always new or was just the whiskey new? To answer that we need to look not at distillers, but cooperages.

E H Taylor, Jr. bought his barrels from a cooperage in Louisville. He paid top price because he insisted upon a good looking barrel made with brass hoops and polished wood. He wanted OFC to stand out behind the bar. The interesting thing is the few times he had complaints about his whiskey it was because the cooper repaired a leak in a fauly manner. In one instance Augustus Labrot of Cincinnati complained about a bad barrel and shipped it back to Taylor who dumped the bad whiskey and took the barrel apart. They found the cooper has repaired a leaky head with some leather and iron tacks. How did the cooperage know the head would leak? Most likely because it was a used head that showed the signs of a leak.

Cooperages in Louisville will make barrels. The two of well known fame today are Bluegrass and Independent stave. They are not the only cooperages in Louisville. There are a couple of others that purchase used barrels abd ship them to customers either whole or in parts. The same was true in the 19th century. Cooperages would make barrels or they would buy your old barrel for resale. Sometimes they would clean up the old barrel, re-char the inside and simply resale that barrel. Other times they might take a barrel that leaked badly apart and reuse the staves. What would you call a barrel amd with 60% new staves and 40% used staves that was then charred? Is it new or used? This was a practice that probably happened more than you think in the 19th century. Why not? As long as the distiller received a barrel that did not leak and would age his whiskey, he was happy. There were plenty of saloons, drugstores and hotels in Louisville and the surrounding area, emptying barrels of whiskey every day and it would be a waste just to throw the barrel into the dump or break it apart for fire wood. Cooperages need barrels and these could often be purchased, cleaned up and re - sold for a profit at the same price as making a new barrel.

In the early 1900's the Jounal of American Chemistry had an article on barrels and the aging of whiskey. They did not test just new barrels for this article, they tested new and used cooperage. They also teasted uncharred barrels and toasted barrels. They would not have done all of these different types of barrels if they were not being used to age American whiskey at the time.

[gillmang]

What did the Chemistry Journal article conclude, Mike?

Gary

[EllenJ]

It was a scientific journal.
The most likely conclusion would have been that more study is needed.
Scientists love to remain employed.

[bourbonv]

Gary,
I will be glad to send you a copy of the article. I did so for Linn and I think he has managed to wake up after reading every other page! It is mostly chemistry- speak and really does not draw a "conclusion" as we know it. I think John's summation is a very good one.

[rickduff]

If a used barrel is taken apart and the staves shaved down, then it is re-toasted (charred) you basically have a "new" barrel, just not as sound as the previous, or as capable of soaking in as much liquid.

Mike,
would you like for me to bring a sample of my barrel experiments I'm doing with 1 litre barrels to Bourbon Academy this weekend (24-March) ?

I used to do a lot of oak playing in my winemaking (ok, I still do) but have also started playing with it in spirits of late.

[bourbonv]

Rick,
That would be great. I would love to taste it.

[rickduff]

Rick,
That would be great. I would love to taste it.

I will be sure to bring some. It is an interesting experiment.
I have very greedy angels in my house.

[bourbonv]

Rick,
Thanks for sharing your barrel experiments with me. They were interesting. The next time you are in Louisville, let me know. We need to go to the Bourbon's Bistro and have Jason pull out his experimental product.

[bourbonv]

I have a theory that the smaller the barrel, the lighter the char level. I have tasted RickDuff's re-barreled whiskey and some other product that was made by adding charred staves to a container of Georgia Moon. The one thing they both have in common is a certain amount of creosote flavor that I think comes from too much char on the wood.

[rickduff]

Thanks Mike! I agree... the little barrels (1 litre) suffer from too thin of wood and too much surface area. With staves as thin as they are.. how can it possibly be charred correctly.. certainly no room for error.
I will definitely take you up on the offer of going to Bourbon's Bistro.
I'm looking for good excuses to get me to Louisville.

I checked out sources of barrels.
A good site is: http://www.distilling.com/resources_2007.html
Gibbs is who Chris pointed me too.. and they seem to have the best product and price. Smallest is 1 gallon. I have a 1 gallon and 5 gallon I bought from the same place as all of my 1 litre.. and the bigger ones are much better quality. I certainly wouldn't go higher than 1 gallon barrel for doing bourbon re-aging... just too expensive to buy all of that finished product. I am pretty sure my 1 gallon and 5 gallon barrels I had just toasted though, as I bought them for wine. The 5 gallon has done great for my wine.. but the 1 gallon is tough to gage the time correctly. It over-oaks very quickly.
Next experiment may be with a product I used for wine.. french oak sawdust.. from actual toasted french oak barrels. It imparts taste very quickly (3-5 days) and falls to the bottom so it's easy to rack off of. It's also nice because you can add just a little, try it, then add more as you like.
My birthday wish this year though is 2 one gallon charred barrels from gibbs, and 1 15 gallon toasted. I always do one batch of 15 gallons of a red blended wine every year.. and it would be nice to store in a 15 gallon barrel, instead of rotating it with my 5 gallon barrel and carboys.

Oh, what fun this all is.

Toasting the barrel at the academy was great this weekend.. a lot of fun!

[Mike]

Oh, what fun this all is.

Toasting the barrel at the academy was great this weekend.. a lot of fun!

Interesting stuff Rick, I admire what you are doing.........keep it up and keep us informed!

[NeoTexan]

It was a scientific journal.
The most likely conclusion would have been that more study is needed.
Scientists love to remain employed.

I had Mike send me a copy thinking I had the skills to understand and review. Well .... after a few weeks of trying to remember things long gone from my school days I turned to my brother-in-law who was a chem eng for Monsanto for many years. I quote him here:

This will be a short installment on what may become multiple emails on the subject.
The first comment I would make is that this work was done in 1906! If the project were being done today, the analysis would be very different. Since the 1940's, Gas Chromatography has made the analysis of organics much more accurate and faster. These guys worked their butts off with titration, color wheels and wet chemistry.
Not that I would throw stones at these methods. Modern chemists could use some of them to confirm stuff that they miss.

One of my first thoughts was, Wow! Look at all these recipes for bootleggers. The only thing missing is which recipe belongs to which company. It doesn't really matter if your purpose is to make good booze. One of the recipes includes molasses. Sort of making rum and bourbon at the same time. I wonder what that tastes like.

It seems to me that they missed the main point of all their work. For Lots 2689 , the distillate was run through leach tubes filled with charcoal. If you look at the results in Table X, you immediately see that the fusel oil was in the 40 g/100liter range instead of the 140 to 240 g/100 l. range of most of the others. Fusel oil is mostly 5 carbon alcohols that are rather toxic and are the cause of headaches and hangovers. The article reports them as amyl alcohol ( C-C-C-C-C-OH ) but there are many isomers. GC would have analyzed them separately.

Let me give a side lesson on alcohol. Methyl alcohol is very poisonous. Drink it, go blind and die. One carbon. Ethyl alcohol is the good old drinking alcohol. Drink it and get drunk. Two carbons. Do it too often and your liver suffers. I didn't say it is completely nontoxic. As you continue to add carbons to the alcohol chain, they shift from toxic to not so toxic. In other words, the odd no. of carbons are deadly while the even numbers are not so bad. Note that Fusel oils (5 carbons) fall into the toxic category, but I didn't mention that as you add carbons the longer chain alcohols become less toxic than their short chain daughters. Once more, proof that God has a sense of humor.

The other thing unusual about Lot 2689 was high ash. This means it contains metals leached out of the Charcoal. Probably Sodium. I hope not Mercury or Lead.

[bunghole]

NeoTexan,

Is your B-I-L a bourbon lover?

If he is, would he consider signing on and letting us know the chemistry side of life?

ima, for one, would love to know more about fusil oils and also what happens to whiskey aging in the barrel.

He needn't be a shear genius, a regular smartass will do.

saintima

[NeoTexan]

NeoTexan,

Is your B-I-L a bourbon lover?

If he is, would he consider signing on and letting us know the chemistry side of life?

ima, for one, would love to know more about fusil oils and also what happens to whiskey aging in the barrel.

He needn't be a shear genius, a regular smartass will do.

saintima

He's not much of a drinker of any kind. In fact as I sit here I do not recall seeing him drink anything with a punch. Maybe a beer? Don't recall.

I do not see him signing on, but I am sure he would be happy to answer any questions we might have. I would just pass them on.

Another problem is that he is now retired and a BIG sailing fan. Quite often, when my wife calls her sister, he is off sailing somewhere. It could be as little as around the bay or as much as a few weeks to the Bahamas.
(They live in Seabrook, TX)

As far as genius or smartass ... more like tightass. Very educated and very profesional and very religious. One of those overacheivers (along with his son who just got his PHD and MD. As a side note, the sons wife also just got her PHD and MD. How would you like to be a kid in that family dynamic?)

Anyway, I am sure he would help.

[bunghole]

NeoTexan,

Is your B-I-L a bourbon lover?

If he is, would he consider signing on and letting us know the chemistry side of life?

ima, for one, would love to know more about fusil oils and also what happens to whiskey aging in the barrel.

He needn't be a shear genius, a regular smartass will do.

saintima

As far as genius or smartass ... more like tightass. Very educated and very profesional and very religious.

Anyway, I am sure he would help.

Well NeoTexan, ima will take tightass! Just as long as he will talk to us.

ima is quite religious. ima Free Methodist & a good solid Christian.

The fact that ima has been declaired a Saint just makes me sweet!

saintima