Whisk[e]y Talk: Casks Pt1

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The significance of the use of wooden casks cannot be emphasized enough. Without the storing of the spirit in these containers, there can be no talk of whiskey, as we know it. When it comes to the public conception, understanding whiskey product and all that goes into making the stuff, casks have tended to take the back seat.

_{Casks at a Speyside Cooper}

And understandably so because the business of cask maturing has tended to be somewhat foggy to even enthusiasts themselves. Beside the shrouded nature of what goes on after whiskey's been put to cask (I couldn't resist a shabby pun... I regret nothing), one other reason for the misapprehension of the masses about cask and maturation is, perhaps, due to poor marketing and education. It is only recently, with the new growing popularity of the drink that there has been a deconstruction and empirical prodding of the whiskey maturation.

_{A 1st century roman wine barrel}

The first recorded instance of a cylindrical arched structure resembling modern casks are first seen in Egypt. Instead of using them as containers or vessels of transportation, these early kindred structures were percussion drums. We don't see anything in the records until trade and bartering between early tribes and nation states in greater Mesopotamia, most of which where made from palm. It is with the Romans, taking note of wine stored and transported in wooden casks, that there would be a corralling and development towards something that would shape up into, what is now, the modern cask. In fact there has been very little in the way of change that time and innovation has imparted to cask technology. It has stayed the preferred mode of storage for solids and liquids since then until the twentieth century.

_{Quercus alba, otherwise known as North American White Oak}

One could fashion casks from any workable wood but it is oak wood or certain species of oak wood that remain the favourite of barrel/cask makers or coopers, specifically Quercus robur, Quercus petraea and Quercus alba; better known as French common Oak, general European Oak, and American White Oak. These hardwood are strong springy and sort of tensile, lending them to distortion, rather than breaking and splitting, when force is exerted onto them. This proves advantagous because of the shape that cask are often fashioned into, being rounded and curved for better mobility of the containers when moved.

A misuse of terms is not a uncommon thing when casks are concerned, the common word often used being barrel. While this is, in part, true; not all casks are barrels but all barrel are casks. There are, in fact, several kinds of casks, distinguishable by use type wood used and the size of the cask.

_{Cask sizes vary according to the style and industry.}

For the sake of being brief, and getting and sticking to the point, our table below will only include those casks that are widely used, exclusively and/or to finish a whiskey in before bottling in the whiskey industry.

Name	Liters	US Gallons
Madeira Drum	650	172
Butt	500	132
Standard Hogshead	238	63
American Standard Barrel	200	53
Quarter Cask	125	33

The affect that the size and type of the cask has on the spirit is notable in the colour, scent and palate of the final product. Though usually aged once in the appropriate, cask it is not unusual to have a whiskey re-cask a second or even a third time- a finish. Consequently, the bottled drink post these latter finishes is different, for better or worse.

_{Sherry casks set in a solera system}

The reuses of casks is a common thing in whiskey, especially for scotch whiskeys which are aged in former bourbon casks. The latter, bourbon is aged in newly made white oak, of which some make their way abroad to places like Scotland for their whiskey. Casks used for finishing whiskey, such as butts and madeira drum are standard used to store and mature sherry and wine, though the former is questionable since sherry vintners don't part with their casks so easily, with the oldest cask being around 200 years old.