-
Barrel Finishing Whiskey
Can anyone give me advice on topping off whiskey barrels? Do you most of you top off?
Help.
thx
p2c
-
10 Replies
-
What are you considering “topping off”? Filling all the way to the bung hole? Adding more new make as the angle’s share evaporates? If its the latter, I think you would have issues with age statements.
-
Yeah I would think the same, I know you can do that with wine but say 1/4 of your barrel evaporated over 6-7 years and when you open it and top it off to get a better harvest I couldn’t imagine that Bourbon could fly as a 6/7 year old Bourbon
-
You can always advertise solera method.
-
There is a bit of tradition in doing what you are discussing. Many moonshiners or home distillers would do this. They would take a bit from a barrel and add a bit of new stuff. I agree the age statement is a bit of question mark if you are planning on that.
-
If you empty one barrel to top off 10 of the same age then theres no issue with age statement.
-
I believe that whenever whiskies of different ages are blended–in the barrel or out, the age statement needs to reflect the newest made whiskey.
-
I would think that the other issue here is that topping off may not meet the type designation depending on what you are making. For example. New barrel, bourbon. If you were to top it off with new make, that new make ain’t bourbon, because the barrel isn’t new. So now you’ve turned your barrel of Bourbon into a Barrel of Whiskey Distilled from Bourbon Mash. Am I off the mark here? And this would be in addition to issues with the age statement.
-
I agree with you jamesbednar. I wonder though if you merely combined bourbon’s of the same age to consolidate barrels. If you did that though, not sure how you would report angel’s share stuff to the TTB.
-
Thank you all!
-
You would not get proper aging if you top it up. You need that air space to create esters etc that make whiskey taste right.
Log in to reply.
English 
Spanish 
German 
French 
Russian