Own wee cask blend experiment - suggestions welcomed

[ABZ12]

Long time guest, first time post...

I have bought my own 10 litre cask online from the States. It's a fresh made, American oak, medium charred beastie. After a few years, I'll probably end up using it as a "living cask", like the Cadenhead's shop in Edinburgh.

But, for the first couple of years, there is the potential to see the effect on the contents. I'm conscious the timelines will be much shorter than for a standard bourbon or sherry cask, so was planning on taking comparative tasters once a month. 4-6 months may be enough to make a difference. What to fill it with however? It will probably take 15 bottles...

I'm going to attempt to season the cask with a couple of bottles of port for 6-8 weeks initially, turning daily, drained and then off we go. Final product might come out like BenRiach Tawny Port / Balvenie Portwood, but I have already set expectations to low.

I like most malt styles, though medium to well-done sherried Speysiders (BenRiachs, Glenfiddich, Cragganmore and the like) are probably my favourites, but also really like the wee hint of peat from Highland Park. From the other side, one bottle of Caol Ila may add the kick I'm looking for, maybe Talisker. Definitely looking for some feedback on that. Laphroaig would seem over the top, for example.

I'm anticipating filling with malts only at this stage. 50-75% sherried whiskies to counter any additional vanillas from my cask, mainly Speyside / Highland, probably not add any malts that have already been finished in other styles, probably looking to add a couple of Glenfarclas 105 and some cask strength friends to raise the abv above standard 40%.

Definitely in are :
Aberlour 10, Glenfarclas 105, Highland Park 12 (and maybe the Leif that ain't all that), a spare Glenmorangie Original that's lying around, Royal Lochnagar, Cragganmore 12.

Maybe's:
Caol Ila, Talisker, SMWS 26 (Clynelish) & 76 (Mortlach)

Others: ?

Any suggestions gratefully received...

alan

[C57]

Interesting experiment! Let us know how it goes.

And, welcome to the forums. Bear with the current problems....

[Willie JJ]

Hi Alan. Interesting first post. I think from the experience of experiments done by others you need to watch out for rapid change in your whisky as the new wood will be agressive. Also losses are likely to be very high. Let us know how it goes.

[Maccy]

Interesting! and great couple of points Willie.

[ABZ12]

Thanks for the comments guys. I will assiduously measure the port in, and report back the losses. Hopefully the red stuff will fall on it's sword first, and minimise casualties for the whisky. Based on the last few winters, I am not expecting under the stairs to contribute to massive evaporative effect!

Good shout about aggression; maybe the comparative sampling frequency will need to be upped to once a fortnight...

[ABZ12]

Turns out there is still time for whisky content suggestions - the USPS tracking service report they have successfully delivered the package containing the cask.

Slight problem is that it has been delivered to China.

[Mr Tattie Heid]

My only suggestion is that you go easy on the peat--a little goes a long way, and too much tends to drown out everything else. I'd say to a lesser extent, that goes for sherry, too.

My buddy Ron flew from Seattle to Glasgow via Philadelphia, and his luggage declined to arrive for five or six days. I suggested that it might have gone to the Philippines instead of Philadelphia. How China got mistaken for Aberdeen, I cannot guess, although I suppose it's possible that there's some city over there that starts with "Abz".

[ABZ12]

There's an area in Hong Kong (which I think is now part of China) called Aberdeen - maybes that what the "thinking" of USPS was! More likely a bad hair day from someone somewhere in the chain.

Good point about the peat - kind of hard to take it out again if I overdose. I'll add that last.

I have high hopes this project shortly stops being a thought experiment and moves into execute phase...

[ABZ12]

Cask arrived, after minor detour. 2 litres of port in. Daily shoogle to coat all of the interior. 4 weeks till whisky in...

[orange_barnet]

Cask arrived, after minor detour. 2 litres of port in. Daily shoogle to coat all of the interior. 4 weeks till whisky in...

Hi Alan, an interesting and fun experiment! I too am looking forward to hearing how it goes. Good luck with it!

"Shoogle"... what a delightful expression!! "Hippy Hippy Shoogle" sounds so much better than "Hippy Hippy Shake"!

My buddy Ron flew from Seattle to Glasgow via Philadelphia, and his luggage declined to arrive for five or six days.

Was this a case of obstinacy or just emotional baggage?

[Pudge72]

Was this a case of obstinacy or just emotional baggage?

[ABZ12]

OB - thanks for the kind words - occasionally I can't suppress the Scottish phrase-ology that appears to be wanting to come out!

I have set a date for the decanting of the port, and the Filling Of The Cask. Thursday, 21st June. That's a good 6 weeks since the port went in to sook up all that it is going to, assisted with manual shoogling & rotating daily. Earlier this evening, I took the cork off for the first time in a while; I heard The Cask draw in air. It lives...

Hopefully, some of my small band of whisky loving brothers will help me with the various rituals that I feel an occasion such as this warrants. QA/QC checks on each bottle sacrificed to The Cask, measuring, toasts, etc... I'm sure we can make an evening of it.

I shall unveil the Final Selection after the event ...

alan

[ABZ12]

The first ever live filling cask update bore-athon.

And the results are in - the nominal 10 litre cask, previously bone dry, absorbed 400 ml of the port. 1.9 litres in, 1.5 litres out. Much improvement to the port too!

Whiskies next.....

[ABZ12]

First in -

Favourite drinking standard - 700 ml of Highland Park 12 yr old.
Swiftly followed by 700 ml of Singleton of Dufftown 12 yr old, cos it was on offer at the local supermarket.
Next up, Aberlour - 1020ml of the 10 yr for some sherryness, and 320 ml of Batch 25 A'Bunadh at 60.4% for some strength.

Wee breather to get the rest of the bottles scared... Who next?

[ABZ12]

Sticking to the Speyside theme, next up the standard Glenlivet 12, 40%. A BenRiach 15 PX follows (46%), and then a bottle from SMWS that the club didn't think much of unfortunately, 35.48 at 10 yr & 59.3%.

[ABZ12]

Some stragglers I wanted to ensure got mixed in, to allow further secondary cask home maturation:

420 ml Jameson NAS 40%
420 ml Bladnoch 17 Black Sheep One, 55% (sorry Raymond, it presented opportunity for improvement.)
560 ml Glenfarclas 105, for further ooomph to the blend at 60%
1060 ml of Royal Lochnagar 12 yr, 40%, as one of the more local Highland offerings
700 ml of Glenmorangie 10, 40%

Drinking some of Whiskybroker Blair Athol 22yr old, courtesy of sample swap from Scotchio, during this creative period. Excellent dram!

The final stretch is in sight....

[ABZ12]

50ml of the Kilchoman New Make Spirit at 63.5%, for a kick of peat.
700ml of Ballantines 17 yr old - got to have some award winners in it
600 ml Fettercairn Fasque, 42%, for some E150a
330ml of Bruichladdich Rocks, 46% to complete the 5 Scottish regions representation
and the cask took 340 ml of Glenfiddich 18, 43% to the brim.

10 litres, to the nearest 20 ml.

I plan on fortnightly sampling to check progress.

[Adrian]

Have you actually tasted this blend as it stands currently? It may be an idea just to have a base of where the whiskey is coming from.

That could also give you the insight of how to improve the blend if it is not working as it stands.

Secondly if this is a bit of a disaster (i.e. the whiskey is totally dominated by the wood as might possibly happen) don't worry as you have then seasoned the wood for a more controlled maturing on your next try.

Best of luck with the experiment ...

[Mariner]

I don't know if the wood will be "seasoned". This expiriment will probably only need 2 weeks. Well, I guess so; a mate contributed to an expiriment some years ago with a 15l port cask which they filled with ardbeg (almost there if I'm right) and they bottled it after 3 weeks, because the wood was almost getting too powerful. I'd guess a strong peated whisky can bear more wood influence, so this expiriment will go faster...

Hopefully it works. It's good fun nonetheless.

[Peat]

Not a blend, but my recreation of my favourite bottling from this distillery.
http://www.ardbegproject.com/renaissancecontinued.shtml

[ABZ12]

First time I've tried attaching photos, so hopefully this works... A marked change in colour from only 6 weeks in the wee cask.

Definite mellowing of the whisky too. Thankfully it has not taken on any significant vanillins as yet, and quite a noticeable change on the nose (more raisins than before).

Monitoring continues...

[ABZ12]

Meant to clarify that this is before and after of the same whisky!

[Mariner]

Thanfully no vanillins??? I'd like that.

[ABZ12]

And the results are in….

I have created an unique secondary home cask matured whisky. Volume-weighted average age of contents is just over 11 yrs old, filled at 44.5%, with 16 weeks in the port cask to finish.

Those warning of high losses were correct. I was not taking fastidious records of the small fortnightly or bigger samples for the group, but along with the 0.4 litres of port absorbed in the wood, I estimate in the region of 1 litre of the whisky has been sucked into the wood / ether. ~15% of first fill!

Thankfully, I quite like it. The oak was beginning to show more prominence, so it was time for out. I would have preferred a product with slightly more depth of flavour, but I reckon that is a function of the relatively young whisky. There is plenty going on on the nose and palate, so can’t complain.

This has been taste-tested by one of our own. Effectively blind testing, Scotchio’s notes include:

N Medicinal bourbon oak,quite oily, some sweetish tarrysherry notes underneath , sweet vanilla brown sugar licorice berry fruit raspberry milk shake powder.
With time it seems to settle to big blousy vanilla and big orangy barley.

T a little thin gets quite spicy, citric, firm,sweetens a little before big vanilla , aniseed and watery orange juice

F sugar, spice, orange, lightly oily aniseed, dries becoming a little bitter and woody. Slightly salty

B very bourbony, a little thin on thepalate some lovely big crisp orangy barley.

The big orange barley reminds me of tomatin and refill sherry macallan but there are lotsofspeysiders that can produce that. It's a pleasant dram.has all that bourbony wood come from your cask or was there already some new wood involved? - All my new wood

So, after some gifting already, I now have 32 x 200 ml bottles of this creation for birthday and Xmas presents...

Second experiment is already underway. 2 litres of Sainsbury’s finest Madeira is in cask, with shoogling back on the agenda.

With a couple of months for the next fill, what to fill it with?

[scotchio]

Just finished the sample on a fresher palate.picked up a lot more grassy peat notes on nose, early palate and especially at end of finish,the aftertaste is oily light young peat with a little toffee. Quite a bit of bourbony new wood about it,quite enjoyed it this am. There is a point just after the peaty entry where it gets quite bitter(lemondrops/cardboard) but it settles back down.
Hadnt realised what you'd put in it so initial notes were proper blind though I had smoked a few cigs earlier in the day which always knocks my ability to pick up peat/smoke notes.
As for the new fillings maybe there will be a little less wood attack this time.No idea what I'd putin the cask though.
FWIW MoM are doing a whisky maturing kit at the moment if anyone fancies maturing their own.They are offering unspecified new make for filling.