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.
received my kit today and filled the cask with port to add a port finish to the whisky. My first thought was that the cask was smaller than I expected, but when I added the port it ended up taking 3 750ml bottles of wine. Almost twice what it claimed! I am going to need more new-make, or perhaps I will blend something to top it off with? I get the impression jura 16 would work great but I'm not sure I want to sacrifice such a fine whisky to a first time experiment...
Received this gift as a birthday present. A novel and quirky idea but the proof of the pudding will be in the drinking so these are my initial comments: Kit arrived without any form of instructions. Had to phone and was told to access the site. Could do with a simple card referencing the web-site. The "instructions" on the web-site are rather poor eg states that leave in barrel for days or months. It could advise what to expect as time goes on eg the colour changes, the taste, when to sample. Further feedback in due course, and looking forward to sampling.
Which distillery does the new make spirit originate from?
