Home Barrel-Aging Kits

[Chris Amirault]

Several folks around here have aged spirits and bitters in barrels, and Jeff Morgenthaler is getting a lot of attention for his barrel-aged Manhattan, Negronis, Tridents, and so on. As if to tap deep into my need for such a thing, into my email inbox pops a reference to Wasmund's Barrel Kit, which has pretty affordable set-ups.

Or so it would seem. Trying to get a smallish barrel out here to RI seems quite tricky, but perhaps there are opportunities of which I'm ignorant. Has anyone tried this out? If you do your own barrel-aging, where do you get your barrels? Tips, sources, ideas, let's gather them here.

[J_Ozzy]

Up here in Canada we have these guys: Whisky Works

They don't seem to ship internationally, unfortunately.

[Dangermonkey]

Currently aging the Wasmunds Rye Spirit (white unaged) and some Finger Lakes Distilling Glen Thunder (100% corn whiskey unaged, white )in a Wasmund Barrel. Not a problem getting the barrels shipped here.

Will write back with tasting notes when they get some more age on them (like a month or so)

[evo-lution]

Several folks around here have aged spirits and bitters in barrels, and Jeff Morgenthaler is getting a lot of attention for his barrel-aged Manhattan, Negronis, Tridents, and so on. As if to tap deep into my need for such a thing, into my email inbox pops a reference to Wasmund's Barrel Kit, which has pretty affordable set-ups.

Or so it would seem. Trying to get a smallish barrel out here to RI seems quite tricky, but perhaps there are opportunities of which I'm ignorant. Has anyone tried this out? If you do your own barrel-aging, where do you get your barrels? Tips, sources, ideas, let's gather them here.

I highly recommend Clay Johnston on Ebay;

http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/arts_craftsofmexico/

They have 1l, 3l, 5l, 10l and 20l barrels. I've ordered them myself (for aging bitters, cocktails and spirits) and everything from the price, barrel and service was top drawer. Better than anything I've dealt with previously and they have no issues shipping internationally.

You'll probably have seen the pictures of the barrel/s on my bitters Facebook page, if not check it out

The added aspect is the fact they'll brand your barrel for you which adds a nice touch, plus they send you more info than you'll ever need to assist you in understanding the aging process and how best to care for your barrel/s.

Getting the knack for this aging malarkey so I'll share my results with you when I've a bit more time.

Edited August 27, 2010 by evo-lution (log)

[DJ HawaiianShirt]

Hey guys, long time reader, first time poster.

I have a 2L barrel from Wasmund's Copper Fox distillery in Virginia.

I actually started my blog with a post about my at-home aging adventures with the barrel, and I have several of the posts now. I'm about to age my 4th batch of spirits in it. Below is my series concerning aging in my barrel. I first aged rye whiskey, then rum, then brandy/pisco. I'm about to put some apple brandy in it.

Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

The most jarring thing about aging at home is the Angel's Share. While my little barrel was cheap, aging in it is not. Not only do you need about 2L for each run, but you'll end up with about half that when you're done. I age about 4-5 months, which results in a spirit comparable in maturity to most "brown spirits" you'd find on the shelves.

My barrel came pre-charred, though I don't have the means to re-toast the insides after I age something in it. The result is that anything I age in the barrel now takes on a very dry and warm "new wood" taste that I hear people talking about sometimes (I think).

[Hassouni]

So, to revive a long dead topic....

What would happen if you barrel-aged Wray & Nephew's overproof - would you get a dundery, funky, aged Jamaica rum, possibly verging on the mythical 17 year old W&N from the first Mai Tai?

[thirtyoneknots]

So, to revive a long dead topic....

What would happen if you barrel-aged Wray & Nephew's overproof - would you get a dundery, funky, aged Jamaica rum, possibly verging on the mythical 17 year old W&N from the first Mai Tai?

There are a lot of people here with more knowledge of W&N 17 than me, but my impression is that it was a Dock Rum, or something similar to that, meaning it was distilled and barreled in Jamaica, but then shipped to London and aged on the Navy (or other) docks there, the climate imparting a distinctive character to the final product. I have no idea what kind of barrel would have been used at the time--a 17 year old product in 1944 would have been barreled no later than 1927, in the midst of Prohibition, so it is doubtful that a ready supply of surplus American Whiskey barrels were on hand--which is mostly what you'll find around today. If you try it, I'd be interested to know your findings, but to me aging spirits in barrels is something best left to distilleries who have the resources, experience, and economies of scale to do it right.

[Hassouni]

Yeah, the economies of scale thing seems woefully against us at-homers.

$50-$60 for the barrel, 2 bottles of spirit per batch to produce 1 bottle due to evaporation, etc, and apparently the barrel is unusable by the 6th run, so let's say that adds $10 to the cost of each aged batch.

So we're talking a $50 bottle of W&N here......

....but I'd still love to try it!

[bostonapothecary]

http://bostonapothecary.com/?p=304

i invented an abbreviated technique that may help a bit.

you basically put some aged spirit in a dehydrator, dehydrate, then reconstitute with un-aged spirit. it abbreviates a lot of the process, but the results are fun and can be done on the nono-scale. the post explains better.

Edited May 10, 2012 by bostonapothecary (log)

[ZombieAddict]

I think I might have gotten this link from egullet itself but anyone tried this:

http://tuthilltown.g...cktail-kit.html

or on a slightly larger scale:

http://www.babybarrels.com/barrels.html

Edited May 10, 2012 by ZombieAddict (log)

[turkoftheplains]

Wigle Whiskey here in the 'Burgh sells home barrel-aging kits (pictured here) to go with their white wheat and rye whiskies. They say aging in this tiny barrel will take about a month. Prices are more or less the same as the baby barrels at the link above.

This seems like a bad bet for the home bar financially, as others have said, but it immediately got me thinking of all sorts of bizarre and unholy applications of oak-- Campari, Cointreau, gin (?!) I also contemplated using vodka to create a kind of barrel extract (oak-infused vodka?)

Since I am not that creative and perpetually late to the party, I assume that somebody has tried any or all of these things, probably in 2006 or earlier. Any interesting experiences with the creative misuse of oak?