I have a Red Bush story for you. Years ago, I emailed Bushmills to ask if they use wine casks and how they clean them out (I had heard they were cleaned with soda ash before whiskey use) due to needing to avoid whiskey from uncleaned wine casks. They responded basically along the lines of why would they clean it out when the whole point of having wine in that cask was to prepare it for their whiskey. Then five or six years later, the first Red Bush bottles hit the local shelves. (Timing seems right for production planning, testing, and about 4 years of aging.) Big thanks to Bushmills for making Red Bush!
I know a lot of folks have been against these videos or haven’t been watching them because they are so different and not as funny as the older videos with Rex. Which is fine. I wanted to say that I absolutely LOVE and ADORE these videos. As someone who wants to learn more about the details and have it more focused on that with little to no interruptions, please continue! Thank you, Daniel for taking time to do this and share your vault of knowledge.
I love your new format and needing out. I can’t wait for the opportunity to come down to Wizard Academy and the distillery. I love Rex’s shenanigans and your nerdiness. We are on the 3-5 year distillery plan. Thank you for sharing and giving me someone else to nerd out with!!
Another great episode. Love the educational content. I did laugh out loud when you said you couldn't find the difference in the red bush and black bush. 😂
I find the whiskies you are tasting in between quite ... interesting! Good on you, these should be tasted by one of your caliber ... and the best format is exactly this one! Love it!
When I talk to people who don't understand how a spirit can be sweet without any kind of sweetener, I tell them that it tastes like things which are sweet, without having that literal sweetness.
Absolutely LOVE the informational videos. As someone who began their whiskey journey about 5-ish years ago, my first step wasn't tasting. I spent about a year just learning and studying what exactly is whiskey and how is it made. So getting these lessons again is fantastic!
Red Bush was my 2020 whiskey... I bought a 1.75 of it. I enjoyed it, but I haven't gone back to it as I've gone through so many other amazing Irish whiskies since then. On the plus side, because I drank so much of it as one point, I have what I call a "Bushmills" note that I pick up on almost all of their releases. Similar to the idea of a "Balcones" note some find on many Balcones releases. 🖖😎🥃
I love that you talked about WSET and assumed everyone knew what it was. As a wine guy, it’s interesting to compare barrel usage between wine and whiskey and the terminology. Wine is primarily aged in either French or American oak and for a lot shorter period unless it’s fortified wine like Sherry. In Italy some wineries will age wines in different types of oak like Slovenian oak (I think). Unlike whisk(e)y, finishing and adding in barrels that held something almost done by mass produced wine brands. It’s all about the wine itself, not the cognac barrel, rum. I did have a wine that was aged in Sherry butts. Thanks to you, I now know that wine’s barrels are only toasted and are being toasted lightly now. With wine, heavy toasting is a no go now a days. Again, the focus is letting the wine speak for itself. Is also why most wine isn’t aged for years and years in oak. There are regions where you label as a certain ranking based on the amount of again. Gran reavera Rioja has to be aged for a minimum of 60 months and Brunello Di Montalcino needs to be aged for four years. With whisk(e)y every barrel is called a cask. While used in the wine world, it’s not so common. Sherry barrels are called butts, Port barrels are called pipes. It’s the one thing that drives me nuts about whisk(e)y BTW, Sherry is aged in used American oak. You’re not really differentiating a Sherry barrel and a bourbon barrel because they both are American oak. I get it’s about the liquid that was previously help inside it.
Excellent nerd talk on barrels. Thanks Daniel. There is always something to learn as we go down this rabbit hole on whiskey. On a side note, in the firefly verse, Shiny means beautiful/good.
Thanks for the education Daniel. As your channel's resident Westland fanatic, not sure if you know Matt Hoffman left the distillery in the last year. It blew my mind, given that he is on the Mt Rushmore of American Single Malt. It freaked me out at first, but they have a great team there and are thriving.
Wood flooring has mostly been replaced by what is called luxury vinyl, laminated plastic that mimics the look of wood well but costs less and is more waterproof. This helps free up more wood for aging barrels. Bourbon requires new barrels, and Scotland companies buy the used Kentucky barrels to make scotch. Tennessee moonshine does not use barrels for aging, with a lot of added sugar and other flavors not allowed for bourbons.
"Sherry Cask" and "European Oak Cask" are often conflated. Sometimes, casks made of American Oak that have been seasoned with Sherry are also used. And, not all European Oak casks were necessarily seasoned with Sherry. Could also be virgin Oak, or STR, etc.
Oooh man I love Whiskey Nerd Hour! Daniel, I have a question for you. Totally unrelated. If someone were to see you in the wild wearing a T-shirt from a band...what band would it be? Who's merch would you rock in a normal day? That's it, Thank you for another great conversation 🥃
Very instructional Daniel! Thanks! Have any of you tried the Teelings’ Wonders of Wood series? It seems like a very interesting exercise on different oak (region) types.
Great informative episode, and it honestly gives me more questions! Have you heard of other countries with less regulations using other types of woods? I am asking because I just got back from a trip to Italy. While searching for Puni, I actually found another Italian whisky from Silvio Carta in Sardinia. It was a very intriguing whisky to me and our group, so I tried to look it up and learn more about it. Long story short, I found that they age it in Sardinian Chestnut previously used for aging Vernaccia di Oristano wine. There were notes and qualities of the whisky I had never experienced (and enjoyed) before, but I had no idea if it was coming from the chestnut, wine, terroir, etc.
Am I correct in assuming imparting oak flavor using chips in a glass carboy is not quite the same process because it doesn't allow for the same oxidation to occur over time?
I gotta finally get something off my chest about the new vault format…. Does it bother anyone else that the curvature of that barrel top always makes the bottle neck tilt off to the right? It’s literally all I can look at when they shoot the bottle and today that bottle be wildin’ 😅😂
So do bourbon distilleries hold individual relationships with other distilleries in Scotland / around the world thru which they sell their bourbons? Or are there barrel brokers / leasing agents who operate a barrel marketplace to help facilitate the transfer (and handle the necessary paperwork) of these barrels overseas? If the latter is the case, who are the main players out there doing this?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge 😊 bushmill is a big brand I never tried it. Maybe i should try it out, it doesn't look like breaking a bank. Any suggestions where to start?
Nerd Question: Has a whisky producer had special blended oak barrels (Multiple species of oak for a barrel) to produce a whisky? Crowded Barrel next project? 😊
Something I'm a little curious about that you may be able to cover would be why some producers using non-virgin oak will specify what the barrels held before they use them, and some will just say ex-whiskey, ex-bourbon, etc. Is it an NDA thing? Are they getting less recognized brands that might not drive sales? Or do they think it just isn't that much of a difference?
To make a barrel stay tight and have structure, they need to have that shape. An arch is strong, but a straight wall will bend and thus leak (also there is an interaction in the tension of the curved wood against the band to hold everything in place). This is why steel barrels are straight (they are way over built, but still have that rib) but plastic barrels are rounded, so that when they are on their side, they are still strong. There are older barrel styles that are tapered, that allows them to create a tight seal, but you cannot put those on their sides. With wood barrels a part of that factor is that the tension on them is always changing and so the bands need to have a bit of room to move (and be tapped in the thicker direction to tighten them) For example, I had a mini bar-top port keg that eventually swelled up enough to pop the bands. If I'd had the ability at the time, I would have been able to repair that, since it would have been easy to install a new band and force it along to a point in which it was applying tension where I wanted it. I hope that explains a couple of reasons why they end up with that shape, but there are other reason's I've missed, and as I said not all wood casks need to follow those rules if they have other supports.
What did Scottish and Irish distillers use for aging whisky before used bourbon barrels became available in huge numbers? "Tannins - which everyone in Texas is bitter about." 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Sherry industry uses American oak, I think, and for a long time. They are not using European oak. I don't think it matters anyway. Because the casks that are used to make sherry are tens or even hundreds of years old. Those are not the same casks that the whisky industry uses. The casks used for whisky are "seasoned" even though most distilleries will not tell you this. There is something like sherry put in those casks for a few years. Later that juice is not sold as sherry, but it is turned into vinegar. Same with port. Port casks are even worse actually. Many whiskies matured in ruby port, even though actual ruby port making doesn't use any casks at all!
I'd argue "shiny" in my opinion, is everything in a foreign country with a foreign language. Go try for a fun ride, but don't EXPECT them to speak English, that's just bad manners
Go on these nerdy rants as often as you want… loving it!
I have a Red Bush story for you. Years ago, I emailed Bushmills to ask if they use wine casks and how they clean them out (I had heard they were cleaned with soda ash before whiskey use) due to needing to avoid whiskey from uncleaned wine casks. They responded basically along the lines of why would they clean it out when the whole point of having wine in that cask was to prepare it for their whiskey. Then five or six years later, the first Red Bush bottles hit the local shelves. (Timing seems right for production planning, testing, and about 4 years of aging.) Big thanks to Bushmills for making Red Bush!
I’m probably in the minority here but I find it really interesting/nerdy how much of a difference the barrel makes.
In this channels audience, you are in the majority.
I know a lot of folks have been against these videos or haven’t been watching them because they are so different and not as funny as the older videos with Rex. Which is fine.
I wanted to say that I absolutely LOVE and ADORE these videos. As someone who wants to learn more about the details and have it more focused on that with little to no interruptions, please continue! Thank you, Daniel for taking time to do this and share your vault of knowledge.
I love these nerdy episodes. So cool and amazing to get that insight. Always more to learn and enjoy with a glass of whiskey. Thanks
I love your new format and needing out. I can’t wait for the opportunity to come down to Wizard Academy and the distillery. I love Rex’s shenanigans and your nerdiness. We are on the 3-5 year distillery plan. Thank you for sharing and giving me someone else to nerd out with!!
Another great episode. Love the educational content.
I did laugh out loud when you said you couldn't find the difference in the red bush and black bush. 😂
I love these nerd videos! And I am really glad YOU are here!
I find the whiskies you are tasting in between quite ... interesting! Good on you, these should be tasted by one of your caliber ... and the best format is exactly this one! Love it!
When I talk to people who don't understand how a spirit can be sweet without any kind of sweetener, I tell them that it tastes like things which are sweet, without having that literal sweetness.
Absolutely LOVE the informational videos. As someone who began their whiskey journey about 5-ish years ago, my first step wasn't tasting. I spent about a year just learning and studying what exactly is whiskey and how is it made. So getting these lessons again is fantastic!
I really love the new style of your channel Daniel!!!
Thanks for the technical details on oak. The oak essence is the main thing I enjoy about whiskey.
I love a HighBall! ✌️💚
Welcome all Whiskey Vaulters to a very woody Story Time with Daniel!
I really have been enjoying learning more about what goes into making the whiskey I enjoy with my friends
Thanks for the video!
Fantastic video! Thanks for the info
Awesome video. I was apprehensive about the spilt, but this is starting to make sense. Thanks for the great video.
Loved the plastic wrap stops the aging bit…another great video
Red Bush was my 2020 whiskey... I bought a 1.75 of it. I enjoyed it, but I haven't gone back to it as I've gone through so many other amazing Irish whiskies since then. On the plus side, because I drank so much of it as one point, I have what I call a "Bushmills" note that I pick up on almost all of their releases. Similar to the idea of a "Balcones" note some find on many Balcones releases. 🖖😎🥃
I love that you talked about WSET and assumed everyone knew what it was. As a wine guy, it’s interesting to compare barrel usage between wine and whiskey and the terminology.
Wine is primarily aged in either French or American oak and for a lot shorter period unless it’s fortified wine like Sherry. In Italy some wineries will age wines in different types of oak like Slovenian oak (I think). Unlike whisk(e)y, finishing and adding in barrels that held something almost done by mass produced wine brands. It’s all about the wine itself, not the cognac barrel, rum. I did have a wine that was aged in Sherry butts.
Thanks to you, I now know that wine’s barrels are only toasted and are being toasted lightly now. With wine, heavy toasting is a no go now a days. Again, the focus is letting the wine speak for itself. Is also why most wine isn’t aged for years and years in oak. There are regions where you label as a certain ranking based on the amount of again. Gran reavera Rioja has to be aged for a minimum of 60 months and Brunello Di Montalcino needs to be aged for four years.
With whisk(e)y every barrel is called a cask. While used in the wine world, it’s not so common. Sherry barrels are called butts, Port barrels are called pipes. It’s the one thing that drives me nuts about whisk(e)y
BTW, Sherry is aged in used American oak. You’re not really differentiating a Sherry barrel and a bourbon barrel because they both are American oak. I get it’s about the liquid that was previously help inside it.
Very educational. Gaining knowledge watching whiskey videos. Who'd have thunk it!!
I love my single malt Balcones!
13:24 -- a very subtle dad joke!
Excellent nerd talk on barrels. Thanks Daniel. There is always something to learn as we go down this rabbit hole on whiskey. On a side note, in the firefly verse, Shiny means beautiful/good.
Heck, here in Australia we can use any type of wood that will make an effective barrel, a few different red gum cask whiskies going around
I'm really glad you did this video! Just nerdy enough! I know things now. At least for a little while.
Method and madness released a Garryana finished potstill and it's amazing , one of the best I've had and the best M&M release so far imo
Thanks for the education Daniel. As your channel's resident Westland fanatic, not sure if you know Matt Hoffman left the distillery in the last year. It blew my mind, given that he is on the Mt Rushmore of American Single Malt. It freaked me out at first, but they have a great team there and are thriving.
Thank you. Was amazing :)
Thanks for the review 🥃
Wood flooring has mostly been replaced by what is called luxury vinyl, laminated plastic that mimics the look of wood well but costs less and is more waterproof. This helps free up more wood for aging barrels. Bourbon requires new barrels, and Scotland companies buy the used Kentucky barrels to make scotch. Tennessee moonshine does not use barrels for aging, with a lot of added sugar and other flavors not allowed for bourbons.
Not really, oak flooring is red oak, not white. It’s too porous for barrels.
Also another rarely used wood is Quercus Muehlenbergii (Chinquapin)
You had me at Quercus.
3:33 -- that's probably going to be in stores 6 months from now, now that Daniel has mentioned it. :)
8:57 😆
*I have no idea why this makes me laugh hysterically.
"Sherry Cask" and "European Oak Cask" are often conflated. Sometimes, casks made of American Oak that have been seasoned with Sherry are also used. And, not all European Oak casks were necessarily seasoned with Sherry. Could also be virgin Oak, or STR, etc.
Talking about hard wood and bushes
I just bought a bottle of this . Cheap but not too bad
Oooh man I love Whiskey Nerd Hour!
Daniel, I have a question for you. Totally unrelated.
If someone were to see you in the wild wearing a T-shirt from a band...what band would it be?
Who's merch would you rock in a normal day?
That's it, Thank you for another great conversation 🥃
Man, I don't wear shirts with things on them :-) Haven't in over 20 years. But maybe radiohead?
@@WhiskeyVault 😆 Well I guess art does imitate life. Solid color tees. Radiohead is cool. Thank you again 😁
Every time I see used wine barrels for sale, I want to make some smaller barrels out of it and do my own finishing.
Very instructional Daniel! Thanks! Have any of you tried the Teelings’ Wonders of Wood series? It seems like a very interesting exercise on different oak (region) types.
Great informative episode, and it honestly gives me more questions! Have you heard of other countries with less regulations using other types of woods? I am asking because I just got back from a trip to Italy. While searching for Puni, I actually found another Italian whisky from Silvio Carta in Sardinia. It was a very intriguing whisky to me and our group, so I tried to look it up and learn more about it. Long story short, I found that they age it in Sardinian Chestnut previously used for aging Vernaccia di Oristano wine. There were notes and qualities of the whisky I had never experienced (and enjoyed) before, but I had no idea if it was coming from the chestnut, wine, terroir, etc.
Am I correct in assuming imparting oak flavor using chips in a glass carboy is not quite the same process because it doesn't allow for the same oxidation to occur over time?
I gotta finally get something off my chest about the new vault format….
Does it bother anyone else that the curvature of that barrel top always makes the bottle neck tilt off to the right?
It’s literally all I can look at when they shoot the bottle and today that bottle be wildin’ 😅😂
Oh no. Now I can't unsee it
I still have been asking any meadary I come across if they have barrels to sell 🤣🤣
I’m curious. What is your favorite Irish whiskey?
mornin MB'S
So do bourbon distilleries hold individual relationships with other distilleries in Scotland / around the world thru which they sell their bourbons?
Or are there barrel brokers / leasing agents who operate a barrel marketplace to help facilitate the transfer (and handle the necessary paperwork) of these barrels overseas?
If the latter is the case, who are the main players out there doing this?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge 😊 bushmill is a big brand I never tried it. Maybe i should try it out, it doesn't look like breaking a bank. Any suggestions where to start?
Nerd Question: Has a whisky producer had special blended oak barrels (Multiple species of oak for a barrel) to produce a whisky? Crowded Barrel next project? 😊
Oaky Smokey Bullwinkle
Something I'm a little curious about that you may be able to cover would be why some producers using non-virgin oak will specify what the barrels held before they use them, and some will just say ex-whiskey, ex-bourbon, etc. Is it an NDA thing? Are they getting less recognized brands that might not drive sales? Or do they think it just isn't that much of a difference?
Red Bush is bourbon barrels and Black Bush is sherry barrels
I believe all entry level bushmills is aged in bourbon barrels. Blackbush is finished in sherry casks and aged up to 8 years.
100!
Why are the barrels bow shaped, meaning the middle of the barrel is wider, rather than a straght cylindrical barrel?
To make a barrel stay tight and have structure, they need to have that shape. An arch is strong, but a straight wall will bend and thus leak (also there is an interaction in the tension of the curved wood against the band to hold everything in place). This is why steel barrels are straight (they are way over built, but still have that rib) but plastic barrels are rounded, so that when they are on their side, they are still strong. There are older barrel styles that are tapered, that allows them to create a tight seal, but you cannot put those on their sides. With wood barrels a part of that factor is that the tension on them is always changing and so the bands need to have a bit of room to move (and be tapped in the thicker direction to tighten them) For example, I had a mini bar-top port keg that eventually swelled up enough to pop the bands. If I'd had the ability at the time, I would have been able to repair that, since it would have been easy to install a new band and force it along to a point in which it was applying tension where I wanted it. I hope that explains a couple of reasons why they end up with that shape, but there are other reason's I've missed, and as I said not all wood casks need to follow those rules if they have other supports.
❤️👍
Very much appreciate your evaluation, Daniel ... I'll never buy this one ... I've never been a fan of the "flavored" whiskey's ... 🙂
Isn’t black bush an older age statement than Red Bush?
I wonder if anybody's tried using other type of wood to make barrels, like pine or teak or fir or ash or anything...
Bring back the intro music
Let's talk about wood
I wonder what no bush Bushmills taste like.
Quercus alba is also called white oak. Yes Hungarian oak.
What did Scottish and Irish distillers use for aging whisky before used bourbon barrels became available in huge numbers?
"Tannins - which everyone in Texas is bitter about." 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Mostly wine barrels
@@WhiskeyVault I expect things tasted somewhat different in those days...
51👍
you are bitter about tannins... I respect your dad humor sir
"its not wrong,,," it's just not right..... :)
Sherry industry uses American oak, I think, and for a long time. They are not using European oak.
I don't think it matters anyway. Because the casks that are used to make sherry are tens or even hundreds of years old.
Those are not the same casks that the whisky industry uses. The casks used for whisky are "seasoned" even though most distilleries will not tell you this.
There is something like sherry put in those casks for a few years. Later that juice is not sold as sherry, but it is turned into vinegar.
Same with port. Port casks are even worse actually. Many whiskies matured in ruby port, even though actual ruby port making doesn't use any casks at all!
aren't the "new American oak" specifically *white* oak? I think red oak is too oily or some such thing **edit: confused red oak and black walnut
No, just oak. No requirement for White Oaks specifically
Why we haven't found an expert on oak yet that calls himself professor oak baffles me
I'm a BushMills guy through and through and i don't really like the red I think it was made for the export market.
Red bush is curlier than black bush.
MORE NERD RANTS
I'd argue "shiny" in my opinion, is everything in a foreign country with a foreign language. Go try for a fun ride, but don't EXPECT them to speak English, that's just bad manners
Actually, it's pronounc.....oh. Ok. Sorry.
It's okay, it's actually pronounced chimera, (and for the two people who got that cross reference, no, thank you.)