What’s all this then? It looks like lots of fun! (Because it is...)
In this kit, you’ll find a 1 litre (well – one and a bit litres) freshly toasted American White Oak barrel of medium to heavy char, and 2 x 50cl bottles of new-make spirit (made entirely from Malted Barley).
Directions: Put the new-make into the barrel (using the dinky little stainless steel funnel provided), wait for a few days or weeks (don't forget about them - the rate of evaporation is quite high), and enjoy! You'll get about three uses before the oak influence wanes, so you can fill 'er back up with more new-make, or something completely different, such as your favourite cocktail!
A few pointers:
First – you’ll need to give the tap a good old whack to ‘seat’ it in the barrel. Don’t go nuts and break the barrel, but ‘pushing it in’ isn’t enough.
Second – if the hoops around the barrel feel a bit loose, or there’s a bit of seepage from the cask ends when you fill it, you might want to bung a bit of hot water in before you fill it to help the wood expand and become watertight (liquor-tight?). Barrels are constructed without the use of any glue, and rely on the tension/compression of the staves against the other staves/hoops to keep them watertight.
Third – The fact that these barrels are made from Fresh Oak means that the first fill will be incredibly powerful in terms of Oak influence. You’ll be able to re-use the barrel at least two more times before the oak influence wanes.
Finally – The rate of evaporation from these puppies is quite large. The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, the surface area to volume ratio of the barrel is very high, and secondly, you’re probably not going to keep it at as low a temperature as you’d find in a warehouse in Scotland. You can expect to lose a fair old percentage per month if you’re keeping them at room temperature so keep an eye on them!
If you ever find yourself in need of some more new-make, you can simply buy more here.
Hey there! You can buy the new make separately (http://www.masterofmalt.com/spirit/new-make-malt-spirit/), and there barrels in a variety of sizes (http://www.masterofmalt.com/distilleries/kentucky-oak-barrel/) so yes, you can mature your own in bigger sizes! --The Chaps at Master of Malt
HELLoooo. I'm curious. Do you have any larger sizes of cask which you'll be putting to Market? Thanks
I filled the cask with sherry to season it first and give a big sherry hit to my whisky which I love. After putting the new make in I tasted it after a week out of sheer curiosity. Very very powerful oak flavour but surprisingly smooth. On the nose it already has a strong vanilla note as well as hints of fruit most likely from the sherry. Can't wait to try it after it has been in a few months. Some may think £100 is a bit pricey but I still think its good value, you will learn a lot about whisky and it's a very enjoyable experiment.
This is very well made, the wood alone smells lovely and the new make spirit already has a certain character. Thought it would just be like a strong vodka but is certainly has a malty taste, its very nice by its self actually.
I bought one of these kits for my Father as a Christmas present as a change from buying his usual bottle of whisky. We sampled the fruits of the first maturation last week (6 months after putting the new-make in the barrel) and I was very impressed and surprised at the quality of the Whisky! It was obviously very oaky as it was the first maturation in the barrel, but that wasn't the first thing hit me when I tasted it. It was sweeter and smoother than I expected and had a caramel flavour first before the woody oakiness came through. I would've loved to have tried more but Dad wanted to leave it for a bit longer to mellow out. As well as the quality of the whisky, the kit itself is brilliant. Dad managed to get it together without any help from me and there has been no leakages or problems with the barrel, although I think that he did have to visit the website to double-check the setup method, so maybe some more detailed instructions would be useful? Overall though, this is a great piece of kit that is brilliant as a gift or for the whisky enthusiast (or even novice!) looking to try something new. The anticipation of how your whisky is going to turn out adds to the overall value of the kit, plus having your own little whisky barrel around the house is just damn cool.
