Founders KBS

I got a sample of Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout two months ago, and finally got to it last night. It was one of those "on the deck in the dark" nights, and the KBS made it a good one.

Black as the night around me, and densely opaque as a good heavy pumpernickel.

Richly aromatic, even when cold, and almost explosive as it warms up: dark, oily coffee; roughly sensual chocolate/cocoa; oaky-sweet bourbon.

Rolling heavy in the mouth, full but easily teased into separate chocolate/vanilla/coffee notes, the bourbon/wood rolling around everything. Surprisingly light finish, didn't hang unctuously in the mouth.

Drank so easy I was shocked to see I'd finished it.

Mongolian Oak at Buffalo Trace

I visited Buffalo Trace last year in June, working on a piece that's finally going to see light in the next issue of Malt Advocate (don't worry, it's timeless). While I was there, I talked to Warehouse Supervisor Ronnie Eddins, a true master in bourbon warehousing, the man behind many of the interesting experimental whiskeys that distillery has been working on. In the early stages of the interview, mention was made of barrels, and how they have to be made of oak. Not white oak, as many people think, but...oak. And either Ronnie or Angela Travers -- memory fails me -- mentioned something about barrels made of Mongolian Oak -- and I was immediately asked to keep that under my hat. It was painful -- that stuff's heavy! -- but I did.

And here it is.

The mad scientists at Buffalo Trace Distillery are at it again! This round of unique experimentation involves the type of oak barrel used in the aging process. Any guesses? If you said Mongolian Oak, you are correct!

Master Distiller, Harlen Wheatley, has reached deep into his bag of tricks and is ready to see what interesting things will happen by aging his precious spirit in Mongolian Oak barrels.

Why Mongolian Oak you ask? “It’s a really unique proposition and something that hasn’t been tried before,” commented Wheatley. “We love to try new and innovative things and this one was on our list. We can’t wait to see how it turns out eight or ten years down the road.”

Not only are these barrels new and innovative, they are also expensive. Ten barrels have been put away for aging at a cost of $530 each—about four times the cost of an American White Oak barrel. It also took more than a year to coordinate production of these barrels.

The Mongolian Oak barrels are an industry standard 53 gallons. A cooperage in Spain supplied the Mongolian Oak to the Independent Stave Company and they crafted the barrels. The barrels received a #4 char—about 55 seconds—and will be filled with Buffalo Trace mash bill #1. This is the same recipe which is used for Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.

Look for more of these types of experiments to be conducted. Also on the list for trial are Japanese and Canadian Oak.

You'll notice that the outcoming spirit has not been called "bourbon." But as I read it, the regs only say that the barrels must be new, charred, oak barrels. Nothing about what kind of oak, or where it was grown. We'll see. $10 a gallon just for wood!

More on bourbon barrel size...

In reference to the earlier post, Larry Kass (of Heaven Hill) forwarded this from a contact at Independent Stave Company, the big barrel-making outfit in Lebanon, KY:

I found in a circular, distributed by the Treasury Dept., dated 1968, the information concerning the 53 gallon barrel. It was proposed to the Treasury Dept. that the 53 gallons should be the maximum capacity of a whiskey barrel. This petition was rejected, but their conclusion was that they would not set the maximum size for whiskey barrels. The selection of the size of the container suitable for maturing a product may continue to be left to the distiller.

So 53 gallons appears to be a quasi-standard. My only question: who proposed that to Treasury? Distillers? I do think Treasury was smart to turn down the job of setting a max size of barrels. Thanks, and thanks to the folks at ISC.

Why's a bourbon barrel 53 gallons?

That's what Tom "Yours For Good Fermentables" Cizauskas asked me last week. Is there a legal standard for the size of a bourbon barrel, or are they all right around 53 gallons (little more, little less because each barrel is hand-assembled from staves of varying size) because of some ancient measurement?

I didn't know, so I told him I'd try to find out. I asked Larry Kass, the director of communications at Heaven Hill. Larry asked the folks at Independent Stave, and also asked the guy I should have gone directly to: Mike Veach, the closest thing bourbon has to an over-arching 'corporate memory.' Mike's an avid researcher, and a tireless advocate of funding for a bourbon archive and historical center. Here's his answer, sent through Larry:

As far as the barrels are concerned, this is what I have always heard: The barrels used to be a standard 48 gallons and that is the size the warehouse ricks was designed for storing. During the Second World War wood became scarce for cooperage and the decision was to increase the gallon size of the barrels to save wood and space in the warehouses - and to save cost as well but that was not the main point at the time.
The size of 53 gallons was the largest that they could make to fit in the standard ricks without making the structure of the barrel weak causing leaks. Now this information came from an article that was based upon second hand sources, but it does seem the most logical explanation. I was told by some warehouse workers that they thought if they made it larger, it would also be too hard to handle while rolling. They said the old 48 gallon barrels were much easier to handle, so the increased size made the barrels more difficult to roll. That could also have played a part in the size of 53 gallons.

So there you go. Makes sense. Thanks to Mike, to Larry, and to Tom for asking an interesting question.