TimT
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Fresh from the genre of historical fiction that takes a lot of time to say a lot about a very small thing (boxes, shipping crates, whatever) comes a book that may be of interest to brewers.... Wood, Whiskey and Wine: A History of Barrels.
Wood, whiskey and wine provide a snappy alliterative title and happen also to be Work’s own direct experience; he is a cooper who has worked in the vineyards of Napa Valley, Kentucky whiskey distilleries (he knows to spell it without the ‘e’ when talking about the drinkable stuff) and in New Zealand.
Almost every conceivable commodity has been transported and stored in barrels, though: beer, of course, but also cereal crops, grains, tobacco, molasses, cement, fish — New England cod was shipped to Europe and Chesapeake oysters to the Pacific coast — even linen and crockery. The development of petroleum products led to a huge expansion in barrel production, while the phrase ‘scraping the bottom of the barrel’, rather unexpectedly, comes from the days when they were used to transport coins.
Wood, whiskey and wine provide a snappy alliterative title and happen also to be Work’s own direct experience; he is a cooper who has worked in the vineyards of Napa Valley, Kentucky whiskey distilleries (he knows to spell it without the ‘e’ when talking about the drinkable stuff) and in New Zealand.
Almost every conceivable commodity has been transported and stored in barrels, though: beer, of course, but also cereal crops, grains, tobacco, molasses, cement, fish — New England cod was shipped to Europe and Chesapeake oysters to the Pacific coast — even linen and crockery. The development of petroleum products led to a huge expansion in barrel production, while the phrase ‘scraping the bottom of the barrel’, rather unexpectedly, comes from the days when they were used to transport coins.
