[Sca-cooks] coopering (barrel making)

[Stefan li Rous]

Simon replied to Devra with:
  >>>>
At 06:51 AM 4/28/2006, Devra wrote:
 > They have half whiskey barrels here in Brooklyn, which is a lot
 > closer than California...
 >      Devra

I'm in Oregon.  The things presumably come from Kentucky & Tennessee.

Simon Sinneghe
Briaroak, Summits, An Tir
<<<<

Uh, not necessarily. Initially they are probably from there, but they  
may have travelled further before they got to the home improvement  
store near you.

In the article "The Brillance of the Barrel" by Wayne Curtis in the  
Spring 2006 issue of "American Heritage of Invention and Technology"  
there is a section on the life of used barrels. This is the article I  
mentioned earlier in this thread, but couldn't find at that time.

"Compared with the barrels used for cargo long ago, the casks  
employed to age whiskey and wine have relatively short life spans.  
For wine the beneficial qualities of the oak are spent after about  
five years. And by law bourbon makers can use a barrel only once  
before discarding it." "We sell them to the Scotch guys," says Fred  
Noe. "And some tequilla distilleries are buying them now to age their  
tequillas." "In the West Indies travelers often see barrels from  
Kentucky and Tennessee lined up at rum distillieres. ... then they  
end up in the backyard tending germaniums...."

"Each of which had cost a bourbon distiller maybe $300, then $150  
when it went to a second distiller, and now cost about half that[at  
the Home Depots and Lowes]".

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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