Aging Whisky at Home

I think that's an interesting topic so if anyone has any experience with this please share

Slainte!

Hi, I just registered at this site and this subject is something I am newly familiar with. I am retired and on a budget so feel free to substitute how you wish. For single malt scotch, I used Tomatin 12 in a 1 liter cask (American Oak with medium char that I prepared using one liter of Dry Sack sherry for two months) and let it mature for 5 months tasting every two weeks after second month- each time I tasted, I replaced with more Tomatin to keep full. At the end of maturation, the flavor profile was stunning to me and I transfered the recipe to a 5 liter cask which of course will take quite a bit longer because of the increase in spirit to cask contact ratio. In other words, the larger the cask, the longer the period of maturation. I use the one liter for recipe testing to both limit consequences of mistakes and also to get my answer quicker.
For bourbon, I used a one liter American oak cask with heavy (#4) char prepped with a three month long fill of Chardonnay and then filled with Heaven Hill's Trybox bourbon- bottled straight from the still's trybox at 125 proof (62.5%) and aged for 18 months. I have to say I really enjoyed tasting this one every two weeks after the first two month period and actually found it to be perfect after 18 months but I've started another with the "intent" of aging for three years. 1 liter casks with custom charring are available for around $60 and the 5 liter casks are about $90- more if engraved. I'm currently trying a blended scotch,Monkey Shoulder (blend of 3 single malts and no other grains),as well as a cask of cheaper bourbon, Old Grand Dad 114. Both casks were second fills from above. Collectors have driven up the price of aged spirits to astronomical levels and that's why I began experimenting. My opinon of the results are strictly a function of my own taste but I believe that if you start with a quality cask properly charred and properly prepared, then filled with a quality spirit and you keep patient throughout the maturation, you will be very pleased with the results. Good luck.

"ron56pvi" wrote:
Hi, I just registered at this site and this subject is something I am newly familiar with. I am retired and on a budget so feel free to substitute how you wish. For single malt scotch, I used Tomatin 12 in a 1 liter cask (American Oak with medium char that I prepared using one liter of Dry Sack sherry for two months) and let it mature for 5 months tasting every two weeks after second month- each time I tasted, I replaced with more Tomatin to keep full. At the end of maturation, the flavor profile was stunning to me and I transfered the recipe to a 5 liter cask which of course will take quite a bit longer because of the increase in spirit to cask contact ratio. In other words, the larger the cask, the longer the period of maturation. I use the one liter for recipe testing to both limit consequences of mistakes and also to get my answer quicker.
For bourbon, I used a one liter American oak cask with heavy (#4) char prepped with a three month long fill of Chardonnay and then filled with Heaven Hill's Trybox bourbon- bottled straight from the still's trybox at 125 proof (62.5%) and aged for 18 months. I have to say I really enjoyed tasting this one every two weeks after the first two month period and actually found it to be perfect after 18 months but I've started another with the "intent" of aging for three years. 1 liter casks with custom charring are available for around $60 and the 5 liter casks are about $90- more if engraved. I'm currently trying a blended scotch,Monkey Shoulder (blend of 3 single malts and no other grains),as well as a cask of cheaper bourbon, Old Grand Dad 114. Both casks were second fills from above. Collectors have driven up the price of aged spirits to astronomical levels and that's why I began experimenting. My opinon of the results are strictly a function of my own taste but I believe that if you start with a quality cask properly charred and properly prepared, then filled with a quality spirit and you keep patient throughout the maturation, you will be very pleased with the results. Good luck.

Thank you for a very informative reply! Curious - did you fill the 1 liter cask with a full 1 liter of whisky? Or did you fill it with a 750ml bottle?