Submitted by OrneryGringo t3_yik1bn in explainlikeimfive
Or how do they prevent it from rotting for such a long period of time.
I cant imagine that they use multiple wooden barrels during an aging proces of 30 years or so. Because it would interupt the proces, I geuss?
Not only do they not replace the barrels but they can even reuse the barrels even after 30+ years. Firstly they are stored in very dry and dark places. Life needs water to survive, even bacteria and fungi. There are technically water in the content but this is mixed with a lot of alcohol which is lethal in those concentrations. So bacteria, fungi and insects could not survive from it. Secondly wood contain very little nitrites. These are extremely important for all life to build proteins and for the chemical processes in the cell. Especially for bacteria they need a lot of it. But the cells in wood do very little chemical processes and are mostly just structural so they contain a lot of carbon and very little nitrogen. That means that even when fungi or bacteria is able to start attacking the wood it quickly runs out of nitrogen compounds and need a secondary source. This is why wood often rots from the bottom as the fungi can bring nitrites from the soil. But these barrels are stored in stone basements and even then are stored off the floor.
This is actually very insightfull, thanks.
Great explanation but I'll only add a small asterisk - Bourbon barrels cannot be reused per the definition of bourbon. They can be reused for things like whiskey, beer, or as trailer-park garden planters, but bourbon must be aged in a new oak barrel.
I was thinking of adding this but I feel it distracts from the answer. It is not just Bourbon but a number of other drinks which needs to be aged in new barrels. But the barrels can be reused and as you mention is reused for various things. There are indeed recopies for beer, whiskey and other drinks which specifically requires old barrels that have been used for other things. Some of the taste from the original use will be stuck in the wood and come out again for the next batch.
This comment only made me that more interessted in to know how bacteria did not "knew how to decompose wood". Is this like a evolution theory kind of story?
> But when those trees died, the bacteria, fungi, and other microbes that today would have chewed the dead wood into smaller and smaller bits were missing, or as Ward and Kirschvink put it, they “were not yet present.”
> Where Are They? Bacteria existed, of course, but microbes that could ingest lignin and cellulose—the key wood-eaters—had yet to evolve. It’s a curious mismatch. Food to eat but no eaters to eat it. And so enormous loads of wood stayed whole. “Trees would fall and not decompose back,” write Ward and Kirschvink.
I would like to be distracted into this topic a little more. I drink whiskey and i know that some whiskey have the selling point of "aged on cherry barrels" or something like this. Can every barrel be reused for this purpose?
Does this mean, that with the bacteria today, the ground isn't able to "make" coal any more?
It certainly wouldn’t form the same way to the same level as it did in that period.
I’m not sure if there is none being formed or whether, meteor, nuclear winter, biblical flood could result in the formation of new layers of coal.
Many, yes! It mostly depends on if it’s toxic. I have friends who homebrew/distill and we visited a distillery together recently and did the whole tour, it’s pretty interesting stuff. Some places are taking traditionally “clear” alcohols and also “finishing” them in re-purposed barrels. So for example, gin, by definition, has to contain juniper berries and must be at least 37.5% alcohol by EU regulations (which I used as an example since london gin is a staple) Traditionally, aged gin wasn’t really a thing but there’s a trend now of aging gin in re-purposed bourbon barrels. This gives the gin both color and flavor, while still following the legal requirement. Every country has different requirements on what process you must follow to sell an alcohol under that name, and some require certain alcohols to only be aged with certain types of wood. In short, it depends, but the creativity is getting wild.
On a somewhat related note, found this distillery on a business trip to Vermont, they make all their stuff in old maple syrup barrels.
They make bourbon, which is what I was thinking at first, but the rye I snagged makes an excellent manhattan
Becouse there is the chemical balance tilted, so only bacteria that are needed to make alcohol out of it will live through that. Things that would usually take over and do the rotting can't live there. Things don't rot by themselves, there is fungus and bacteria doing it, and they need usual environment to live. There is ton of CO2 created in that process, that taxes O2 away, that's main cause of death of things in this kind of basement, including people.
At a recent wine tasting in Serbia, they said the barrels are burned on the inside and that provides protection against rot (as well as adding flavours). They also said they can only use the barrels for 2 years before the wine has extracted all the compounds it needs from the wood, at which point they sell them to whisky distillers.
Barrels are rotted by microorganisms, which cannot survive in alcohol, especially on in the concentrations of any alcohol you would want to age. Take whiskey for instance. Whiskey can be as much as 60% or 70% alcohol while it's aging, which is plenty to kill any microbe.
To be labeled as “bourbon” it must be in a new barrel.
aquavit are often made on aged barrels, this is what gives them the yellow/brown color. When they tap from differing barrels, they use coloring to make them all have the correct color.
If the aquavit isn't made on old barrels it is blank in color.
For more distraction: Appleton Estates use American Oak Bourbon barrels to age their rum. They have ~6000 aging at the factory and double that in their Kingston warehouse, iirc.
Okay, this is very interesting actually, thank you for this distraction! But Im wondering now. Recently I was in a small whiskey shop looking for a specific whiskey and the owner told me that whiskeys from time to time get "washed" by letting it flow trought oak shivers or coal or whatever after the aging proces. Does this have a purpose in regards to the re-purposed barrels you descripe?
I tried a red wine (Cabernet, I think) that was aged in bourbon barrels a little while ago (nothing fancy, it was from Costco) that was really quite good. Per my usual, I forgot to write down what the name was, so I will likely never find it again. :)
It's probably Sherry not Cherry.
Sherry barrels still have some of the Sherry soaked into the wood and add that flavor to the whiskey.
Many beers are aged in Bourbon Barrels to add the flavor.
Additional aging in certain barrels is all about adding flavors that would not be there otherwise. Sherry, barrels, wine barrels, bourbon barrels, French oak, American oak, maple, Hungarian oak, etc.
I think it could still form in places like peat bogs or salt marshes that have a lot of organic matter but little oxygen.
You right, it was supposed to be Sherry!
It very well could! That’s a little beyond my knowledge level, I did some googling because I like the topic but couldn’t tell you. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some method to get rid of sediment after aging, it’s a very different grade but I’ve had aged cinnamon and rose petal mead and I bet coal filtration would have made that a much better experience.
I've read that Bourbon barrels are getting a second life maturing artisanal beers.
And maple syrup!
Perhaps we are in the same age regarding plastic
PsychologicalDebts t1_iuj1epr wrote
Alcohol kills any bacteria that would eat away at the barrel. Also barrels aren normally treated for it and air tight, not allowing foreign substance to be introduced.