The Afterlife of Used Bourbon Barrels

There is a huge market for used bourbon barrels, and it’s not just to make furniture or the typical DIY projects you find online!

Used barrels are sent all over the country to age your favorite kind of alcohol.

Yes, you guessed it right. Most of them!

Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/beer-barrel-keg-cask-oak-barrel-956322/

But that is the second life that is granted to these barrels, all thanks to coopering. Since the beginning, old and used barrels were used to store mostly everything.

Here’s the thing about bourbon, it has to be specifically aged in brand new charred oak barrels, and they shall not be used for another batch of bourbon ever again. Crazy, right?

In America, we use the white oak to make barrels, which after charring lets the bourbon extract all the flavors from the oak wood. Who knows what we’d do without our American white oak barrels!

Well, once these barrels have been used to their potential they are sent out to other breweries and distilleries. In fact, America transports a lot of its used barrels to Scotland, the land of the finest scotch. There’s a chance that you’ll be able to taste and smell the bourbon in your scotch. Irresistible, isn’t it!

Where the afterlife of the used bourbon barrels comes from:

1. Breweries in America and Europe use these barrels to age their beers - Beers are stored in various bourbon barrels to get the strong flavor that the barrels add to it. These flavors include oak (obviously), vanilla, burnt marshmallows, and coconut. And who doesn’t like all of these?
2. Mexico fills them up with tequila - A lot of flavors can be extracted from the wood even after it has been used to age bourbon. And the finest tequila has been aged in these oak barrels.
3. The Caribean fills rum into them - We’re sure you can imagine that golden tint found in rum. Where do you think that comes from? Why, of course, aging it in the used oak barrels. It takes up the tanning of the wood and mellows the rum out.
4. Dear Canada ages whiskey in them - The all admired Canadian whiskey is also stored in used bourbon barrels so that the end result is a beautiful looking and aromatic whiskey.

The recent times have shown that companies have been needing more and more of the used barrels since the demand for alcohol keeps increasing.

You know, you could buy a used barrel and try your hand at aging beer at home. Sip your personalized beer at your leisure sitting in your backyard. But if you don’t want to seem like an alcoholic you could store vanilla extract, cocktail garnish cherries and even soy sauce like a lot of companies do.

Are you now looking for Bourbon Barrels? Get the best-used bourbon barrels at great prices. Rocky Mountain Barrel Company has a wide collection of old used bourbon barrels. We ship our barrels worldwide. Connect with us now!