John Francis Donaghy said:
I'm looking at buying a couple of home aging barrels, and I'm hoping to get some input.
I'm looking at buying from wither Deep South or Bluegrass Barrels, they appear to be pretty similar except that Bluegrass builds their barrels with wood from used bourbon barrels, while Deep South appears to use new wood. Both come with medium char, so no difference there.
Is their any added value to getting the virgin wood? Or is the virgin wood more of a negative, in that you have to break it in with a batch or two that age poorly before it really starts aging well? Does the aging ability drop off enough with each successive batch to be concerned about starting with the wood already having been used once?
First bourbon in is going to be OGD 114 (if I can find enough). I've had it aged in a friend's barrel and it's awesome with a little extra age.
How big of a barrel? The smaller the barrel the faster it'll mature. Also small barrels have thinner staves and they will lose more to the angels share. So when you start adding bourbon you almost need to check it weekly.
Barrels won't last forever, with each fill the added character will take longer to develop and all the while the angels share evao rate will remain constant.
If buying a new barrel make sure you hydrate it correctly and the first run will have more loss to wood absorption. May want to start off with a cheaper bourbon for the first week, and then add OGD 114. Then another bourbon, then maybe a rye. But keep the fills going because if it dries out you lose some of the previous spirit character and then you'll lose more with the next fill due to hydrating the barrel.
