Why Casks Matter: Bourbon cask vs Sherry cask
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 พ.ค. 2020
- In this video, we explore whisky casks and how different methods of maturation and types of barrels/casks can impart different flavours to your whisky.
We look at whisky sizes (hogshead, sherry butts, etc), first-fill barrels vs refill barrels, where the whisky was previously aged - like bourbon barrels and ex-sherry casks, how scotch is aged and how that affects the whisky (why age statements are important).
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Love these videos, very clear, no bullshit, just quick facts with examples! Nice!
Thanks so much! Glad you like them.
There is just 'that' something about your videos that is enchanting. I love what you do. First Phil - first class! Sláinte from Northern Ireland.
Thanks Al! Good to you have you watching from Northern Ireland! My mother is northern Irish, so it’s a special place for me.
Its incredible how much one can learn from your vids Phil! Another great one! Thanks for putting so much effort in these!
That really means a lot and is exactly why I made the video. My pleasure, grateful to share!
These things are hardly ever explained for newbies. Thanks Phil
Great job Phil! I just opened a lovely store pick bottle of High West's Double Rye which was finished for 8 months in a French Banyuls wine cask. Thanks for helping us learn about whiskey
Another really well made and informative spot. Excellent and thank you.
Great content, Phil. You do a good job of packing a lot of information in a short and engaging video. Keep up the good work.
I appreciate that!
Straight to the point, excelent video, finally found my favorite whisky channel, underrated channel, hidden gem
Thanks Don! Great to have you watching! Appreciate that
Great summary of a lot of topics which could be delved in for an hour. TOP!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks!
Hello Phil, thank you a lot for this video which helped me a lot for my job interview in a liquor store specializing in whisky 😊
Happened upon this video, really like your style. Gonna be watching a lot more!
Very informative content! I just initially like the taste of whiskey before, drinking them neat. I only prefer the taste and no idea about it. Now I started collecting premiums and this is a good start to learn more about them. Subscribed!
Great information, thanks !Greetings from Amsterdam!
Properly done informative video. Definitely helps. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks mate
On the button Phil. Thanks for sharing your information: really enjoyable 👍
Great as ever, wonder what other whisky treats you upload 🤙
Thank you! Cheers!
Excellent presentation!
Glad to share!
Thanks, Phil!
Cheers 🥃
Good to see u Phil 👍
Good to have you here! Cheers 🥃
I just bought a bottle of green spot finished up in a Zinfandel barrel from California very interest color smell and taste… me likey!
Great Phil, keep it coming
Thanks! Appreciate the support
Great channel! New to whiskey and enjoying learning about it. Keep it up
thanks Tadd! I started my channel for people like you. Glad it’s helpful!
Very well done..very informative 😊👍
Thanks! Glad it was helpful!
Great video sir… keep em coming 👏👏👏
Hi Phil. Thanks for sharing such informative videos. Really enjoyed watching them, and the information is super easy to digest. I had a question on the several Johnie Walker labels and how they differ from one another. I mean, is it just the aging time or do they also differ in terms of cask type, ingredients used, etc? If you’re ok, could you shed some light on the topic?
Brazil is starting its whisky production. We are using ex-cachaça barrels of brazilian woods, like Amburana.
Really good, thanks!
No worries. Thanks Tim! 🥃
This video is really good mate! I’ll subscribe your channel straight away
Thanks Hugo! Great to have you here
currently sat in a hotel room in inverness, drinking a bottle of single malt whisky, watching your videos 👊
Amazing! Slightly jealous 😅 - make sure you go to lots of distilleries!
Great video, Phil. It took me so long when I started drinking whisky to understand casks. At first I thought sherry cask meant it was matured in a barrel made of the wood of a sherry tree. Only when I visited a distillery I understood it was an oak barrel which previously held sherry. Keep up the good work !!!
Thanks Raul. Yeah I was super confused by it initially too. Glad it's helpful! Thanks 🥃
Just to confuse matters further, the Irish have recently been experimenting with different wood types in their cask construction!👍
Great video. Thank you 🙏🏻
No thank you for watching!
Subscribed. Learnt something today👍
Glad to hear! Thanks!
Hey thanks man for your amazing share on whiskey💕
My pleasure. Thanks for watching!
pleasurable video to be watched
I find whiskey very interesting. Currently I am gathering a nice collection of different single malts brands. I found Lagavulin 16 awesome
great conent. keep up the amazing work. Cheers Alex Hustle.
Appreciate it Alex!
Could you make a video on American whiskey. Maybe it is not your expertise but your good at explaining these things.
I just so happen to be drinking an Ardbeg Blaack, made with Pinot Noir casks from your wonderful homeland! It’s great to see distilleries experimenting more and more with different casks, it looks like we’re entering an era where age statements are less important and taste and is the biggest factor.
My most coveted bottle is a Port Charlotte Valinch because I poured it out of the barrel myself (so purely sentimental), it’s great but it certainly isn’t the tastiest. It’s interesting to see the premium put on single cask releases when for my money the nicest is when the master distiller can blend from a selection. Then again I do like a unique expression every now and then so there’s room for both in my world.
That’s a really interesting point about single casks. I guess they are probably a bit more hit and miss.
Fantastic! I haven’t had that Ardbeg and didn’t even realise they were using NZ Pinot Noir! If you ever visit NZ, make sure you go to the central Otago wine region near Queenstown. It’s the Pinot Noir capital for NZ wine.
@@FirstPhilWhisky Last years Longrow Red was aged 8 years in ex-bourbon casks then 3 years in NZ Pinot Noir barriques from Central Otago. It is spectacular!
Thank you for the video! What I don’t understand is why the whisky industry speaks of refilling Ruby Port Casks, because first of all they are huge 1000l+ and they never get sold off. Only old Tawny Casks (so-called pipes) actually get sold. So do you think they just „season“ barrels with low quality „ruby“ port and then send them to scotland like they do with sherry sometimes?
Good info
Glad it was helpful!
My question is this, besides finishes which takes up to a couple of years in a secondary barrel, and solera where the whisky goes through several barrels as it ages; does anyone start with say a few dozen quarter casks for 4 years, then transfer that whisky into A.S.B for 5 years, then put it into butts for 6 years and ultimately put it all into gordas for 7 to 10 years? expensive? yes; does it need adjusting and monitoring of very well-chosen casks? yes; but will it not come up with some really complex profile?
And of course, it should be bottled at cask strength.
Great videos.. deserve more subs 👍🏻
Thanks Rob! Yeah just gotta get the word out.
Love your video. Can you make a video on barrel charring and toasting? Thanks
Great idea!
Nice video. I would like to add that there are two different types of cask bottled whiskies. Both are bottled straight from a cask, but with a cask bottling, you don't necessarily know if that whisky spent the entire period of maturation in that one cask or if that cask was just used to ACE/finish it. A true bona fide single cask whisky would have spent the entire maturation period, from the point where it was new make spirit, in that one cask. That's just my opinion.
Great video mate! What was the BBC video that you were showing clips from? I’d like to watch it if possible. Thanks!
Scotch! The Story of Whisky. A few of the episodes are on TH-cam!
Yesterday opened Teerenpeli Kaski, a Finnish whiskey finished in sherry cask and it is lovely. Teerenpeli Savu is waiting its turn, it's a blend of smoky bourbon and 20% sherry cask finished. Sounds exciting. I also loved Kavalan Sherry Oak, so unfortunately for my wallet, looks like I got a pretty expensive taste :D
If I fall in love with Glengoyne Pedro Ximenez Sherry, then it's confirmed.
Where’d you hear the 6L of wine left in the barrel? Interested
What are the differences between cask strength whisky and barrel proof whisky?
Just had this video recommended. Enjoying it very much. That said, 3:53 - where did you get this 6L figure from?
Hey Keith, thanks for watching. A few places. Ralfy has talked about it as has whisky.com too "after emptying between 2 and 6 litres of liquid can remain in the pores of the oak staves of a cask." I haven't worked in a distillery however so can't verify if it's true. Thanks for watching!
@@FirstPhilWhisky no worries! Wasnt being critical either - just a very interesting tidbit of info that I am totally going to steal for chats among friends but was hoping there might be a citation haha. Cheers
Haha yeah all good. Yeah good point. I should of mentioned who said it.
In your video here, you used the prefix "ex" rather loosely, pretty much on the bourbon, sherry, and port casks. If I'm not mistaken, you will ONLY see the prefix "ex" on "Ex-Bourbon Cask" whisky. From what I understand, it's because bourbon makers, although willing to sell used casks to "an island where people speak funny", are not willing to lend the name "bourbon" to whiskey makers' labels; whereas the port makers and sherry makers don't mind. So, legally, whisky makers put the prefix "ex" in front of the word "bourbon" to satisfy contractual limits / requirements they have with bourbon makers when buying those used casks.
Do you know if the sherry is only added in the beginning and this their a time separation from when the sherry goes out and they put the whisky in?
Depends on where they get the cask from. Some distilleries but the cask and it gets taken apart and rebuilt in Scotland, but the essence of sherry is still baked into the wood
All modern sherry casks are made to order, almost always from American oak, and “seasoned” with sherry for 6 to 18 months, depending on how much money the distillery owners want to spend. The amount of time they are in storage before being filled with whisky varies - a few months usually. The best casks are shipped without being dismantled.
Ralfy's in trouble xp
❤️
Good content some Innacruraces
So can you put the spirit in a cask for "*x*" amount of time to extract "*x*"amount of flavor? So for a 30 year old whiskey you could do 10 years in a first fill, 10 years in a sherry, and 10 years in a mizunara. If anybody has a book thats the end all be all of information that'd be nice as a start. The is just very interesting.
Which one would you pick to mature spirit in your own house? :)
How do you know if a wood is good for a cask? Does gmo already play a role in this or is it forbidden?
Hi phil
You are doing a great job..please upload vedios freaquently at least 2 vedios per week.
And i noticed your little fingure on right hand what happend ??just curious to know.
Ha my finger is a long story. Short story is people were breaking into my house and I put my hand through a window. But lots of twists and turns. Maybe I should do a video on it.
so both cask and barrel are used to age whiskey but the difference is that casks shape the whiskey ?!
Which casks were used to age whisky before bourbon existed?
Bourbon cask maturation only became so prominent after prohibition when they made that rule that bourbon needs to be matured in new oak casks.
Before that there were a lot less casks floating around and producers generally used whatever they could get their hands on. That's also a reason for sherry cask maturation, because back then people drank a lot more sherry. Like heaps more! So there were a lot more of those available.
Also, aging spirits in barrels wasn't common the first couple hundred years after grain distillation became popular.
So what do they do with all the Ex-Scotch casks?
Once they have been used by the distillery two or three times, it normally exhausts the cask so they sell it I guess. But also it they can be sold between distilleries. There are some Glen liver expressions for example that finish their whisky in ex-Islay casks to had a very subtle hint of smoke.
@@FirstPhilWhisky Hm. Maybe the market for decorative casks is big enough, I guess there isn't that much scotch on the planet.
Ex-Islay aged whisky sounds pretty cool. Have you tried them, can you recommend any?
Anyway thanks for answering. Great video!
Yeah it’s much easier to find ex-wine casks than ex-scotch casks for decorative purposes. I’ve had a couple of ex peated scotch finished whiskies. I think one of them was the Glenlivet Nadurra peated cask finish expression. I remember loving it.
@@FirstPhilWhisky Cask Strength, you like to see that! I'll put it on my to-buy list :)
I'm not used to being called: "Beauty".
🥝 Kia Ora
Kia Ora! Chur
First Phil Whisky please do some reviews, if you need samples I could send you some
“Butts are actually the most common type of cask used in the sherry industry, and they're often made from spinach oak...”
Me: mhmm interestin-wait WHAT?
What's going on with your pinky?
I was wondering the same
Me too
Hi there are we doing this
As I understand it, whisky can not legally be matured in anything larger than a butt. I may be wrong though
Hi
casks were invented in australia
Do you mean cask wine? The cask barrel was invented in 350 BC by the Celts.
the quality of your content is almost bothering to me. congrats!