# Help Re Oak Barrel



## leeboy (12/11/09)

Hi guys, my father in law does his own spirits and wants to get a barrel 5L or so to age whiskey in. Anyway know anything about this. are they oak, I don't even know where to begin to source something like this. On ebay there are a heap of oak ones but they are all for wine/port? I'm not a whiskey drinker and have no clue about any of this.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Cheers
Lee


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## brettprevans (12/11/09)

well the first thing to note is that only single year whisky/whiskey improves with age. a bottle of johhny red will (well should) taste the same whether its 1 year or 40yrs old.

so make sure he's actually wanting to age the right stuff. (and now that i re-read the topic i see he makes his own).

you can buy oak barrels from quite a few places. wine makers sell them quite often. I recently saw an aussie places selling various sizes, but cant remember where. have you done a search of recently topics 'barrel'


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## bigfridge (12/11/09)

leeboy said:


> Hi guys, my father in law does his own spirits and wants to get a barrel 5L or so to age whiskey in. Anyway know anything about this. are they oak, I don't even know where to begin to source something like this. On ebay there are a heap of oak ones but they are all for wine/port? I'm not a whiskey drinker and have no clue about any of this.
> Any help would be greatly appreciated
> Cheers
> Lee




Lee,

There is a Cooperage in Melbourne that does small barrels.

Like all other things brewing you should give MHB a call. He organised a buy of 20 litre ones which were quickly snapped up. Mine is getting rid of some oak flavour right now by aging some wine.

I would caution about the effect of such a small size though. 5 litres would be very small and would have a massive surface area to volume ratio - which means that you will not get the same effect as normal sized barrels.

You may be better off aging in glass or plastic and using some oak chips or sticks.

HTH,
Dave


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## leeboy (12/11/09)

thanks guys. Have contacted a cooperage in adelaide that helped at mhb's reccomendation. 20L looks the goods. Most of the ebay ones are waxed lined which is no good.


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## reviled (12/11/09)

bigfridge said:


> Lee,
> 
> 
> I would caution about the effect of such a small size though. 5 litres would be very small and would have a massive surface area to volume ratio - which means that you will not get the same effect as normal sized barrels.
> ...



SOund advice there, ive read that if youre using a smaller barrel you need to reduce your ageing time accordingly...


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## frogman (12/11/09)

This guy
http://www.rolloutthebarrel.com.au/html/products.html

Dose spirit barrels in various sizes.

No connection Blah blah blah.

Cheers FROGMAN.


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## kabooby (13/11/09)

When whiskey is aged in barrels it goes in clear. The colour it picks up is from the oak, the char level of the barrel, and the amount of time in the barrel.

I think that whiskey barrels are only used once, so make sure you get a new barrel or re char the barrel before putting your whisky in. Not sure why they only use the barrels once. Maybe it is so they have a consistant product each time.

I have tried some whisky that was made by a friend. He basically aquired some base alcohol h34r: and then watered it down and aged it in fermeters with oak chips for about 8 weeks. It was great.

Maybe a glass fermenter and oak chips is the go. The oak barrel will lose it's oak character over time and will need to be rechared or replaced. Might work out more expensive.

Kabooby


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## Kingy (13/11/09)

hi i use these guys for the barrels, i have port in them tho. You need to let them know if your using spirits in them as they have to adjust it according as they manufacture. Good prices to, cheers :beer:


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## Tony (13/11/09)

You forgot a link Kingy.

from what i know.... bourbon uses new chared oak barrels and Scotch Whiskey uses pre used barrels from bourbon production. The whiskeys are sometimes racked into barrels that were used for sherry, rum, port etc to add complexity to the spirit. This is why they are generally aged for a lot longer than bourbon to get the required flavours. 

so it all depends what you want to make.

I plan to use 5 liter glass demys and add oak chips.

here a few places i found on the net recently. havnt tried this yet so im no expert but i did try some of the spirit mark had maturing this way on different timbers a while back and it was good.

cheers

http://www.ibrew.com.au/html/equipment/oak...oakbarrels.html

http://www.winediva.com.au/supply/supplyTa...20South%20Wales

one at the bottom is in Rutherford, website is broken

http://www.winediva.com.au/supply/supplyTa...20South%20Wales

http://www.oakin.com/prodchips.htm

This one has a great range of chips.

http://www.smugglers.net.au/index.php?p=1_8

just google american oak chips and you will get lots more options.

cheers


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## Kingy (13/11/09)

woops thx tony. This place here


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## komodo (13/11/09)

mate of mine uses http://www.thekegfactory.com.au/ oak barrels. 
American whiskey is made in charred oak barrels which are used once. 
These barrels are then sold to irish and scottish distillerys who use them 3-4 times over. Scottish distilleries generally use a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-wine barrels. Apparently single malts only use bourbon barrels.

Kabooby is right - top wine is white (clear) when it goes in the barrel and cant be called whiskey until its at least 2 years old.


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