Barrel making Search billions of records on Ancestry.com Cooper or Barrel maker On early census records an occupation listed was "Cooper." I thought it might be fun to let you see what your ancestor did for a living if he was thus employed. Having read many pages on the subject, I set forth, here a synopis of the vocation, trusting that you will folow links for more reading. If anyone would like to add to this, please feel free to write the Baker Block Museum. You will find many of the tools for this trade at the museum. Enjoy! Cooper - n. - a person whose work is making or repairing barrels and casks (Webster" New World Dictionary). Cooperage, from same source indicates it is the workshop of or work done by a Cooper. For a first-rate look at the process go to: In the 1800s in Europe as well as in our fledgling country a man skilled at making barrels was an important person. Many goods were shipped and stored in barrels (also called casks, tuns, kegs or hogsheads depending on the area of the world and the size of the container).

We often think in terms of wine or whiskey when we think of the things likely to be contained in a barrel. But, all sorts of foods were stored in barrels. Sauerkraut was fermented and stored in them. Fish, meats and some vegetables were dried and salted then stored and transported in them. Most any item that could be stored for a length of time would be stored in a barrel to keep out vermin. Fragile items such as eggs would be packed in them among layers of straw to keep them cooler as well as to keep them from breaking. Barrels were great -- they could be rolled down ship gangplanks; have wheels and handles attached to them so a man could cart them about; be strapped onto a pack animal; be strapped together to float behind a raft down a river. One could bury them in a stream or cool earth as refrigerating units. They have been cut in half to feed or water stock, make a cradle for a child, or act as a large mixing bowl for any number of reasons. They were made of any tree that could be worked. Oak was the preferred wood for wine and whiskey casks as the grain is fine and the containers could more easily be made waterproof.

Modified, they become butter churns, buckets and wash tubs. One of the biggest uses for barrels in Northwest Florida in the nineteenth century was in the Turpentine Industry. Differing sized barrels were necessary for the storage and shipping of the products (called Naval Stores), pitch, tar, turpentine and such. Most of the larger camps had their own Cooper, often trained by his father or grandfather. Many were Scots while some were blacks who had been taught by the barrel maker on the plantation where they lived. These men were skilled technicians, fashioning barrels from raw wood through many processes. Often they had to fell a tree, cut it into boards, fashion the correctly sized and shaped staves for a particular type of barrel and dry the wood before they could even start building a barrel. A keen eye was needed to assure there were no knots or weak grain in the wood used. Each stave must be strong and well made. Selecting the right tree for the job was quite a knack and took a lot of experience. Staves had to be planned for smoothness on the outside and slightly cupped inside. The Bevel on their edges must be precise or they would neither fit together nor hold water.

Also the tapering of each stave is critical to its fit. Hoops were made by the local blacksmith. (Earlier barrels were made with wooden hoops.) Staves were soaked so they could be curved properly. Some barrels were burned inside while others might be sealed with glue or pitch. Any that were to be used for food storage, needed to be relatively airtight (tight cooperage) so sealing material would not contaminate foodstuffs. "Slack cooperage" refers to containers that were not tight but would be fine for flour, grains and other non-liquids. There is a very interesting book called "The 'Possum Hunter and the Tar Heels" -- historical novel of post Civil War days. The author, James S. Willoughby experienced many of the things he writes about and fills in with research on things which he does not know about. "Mr. Willoughby has earned his living largely as a self employed turpentine operator . . . running a sawmill and pulpwood operation . . ." Willoughby tells about the turpentine industry's use of barrels and a cooper's trick to keep the staves from falling apart before the hoops were secured on each end of the barrel.

The cooper made a "barrel" that was shorter and a bit smaller in diameter than the one he would be making. He then used this form to prop up the staves, placing them all around the form and then drawing a hoop down over the ends. He then turned the staves up the other way over the form and drew another hoop over that end. To understand the process, you might try taking a bunch of sticks and placing them next to one another in a circle, trying to keep them from falling until you can gather them together with a hoop. It is not easy! Barrel parts are: Stave - the specially shaped board which with 24 to 36 of its kind makes the body Hoop - circle of iron; several are used to hold the barrel together. Each is driven onto the barrel with the Hoop Driver and a hammer. Head - top or bottom of barrel generally made of several staves cut to size Croze - groove about an inch and a half below the rim in which the head sits or the tool (below) for making this groove How Barrels are Made How Barrels are Made The art of barrel making, known as cooperage, is an ancient skill.

Despite improvement from modern research, analysis, machinery and wood selection techniques, the actual barrel making process has changed very little over the years and is extremely time intensive. To achieve the highest standards of quality, most of the work must still be done by hand by a highly skilled cooper. The following information is adapted from the famous French cooperage Seguin Moreau, where many premium California wineries ï¿½ including Clos du Bois ï¿½ source French oak barrels. Every season, when trees are felled, experts from the cooperage are on hand to select the best oak wood for use in the manufacture of barrels and vats. This selection is the initial phase that essentially determines the quality of the finished product. The oak is examined both before and after being cut, and wood is selected based on many criteria, including tree shape and growing conditions. These factors determine the textural variety of wood fibers, the fineness of its grain and its tannin content. Tight grain and fine tannin content are found in the best wood. The logs must be hand split to preserve wood grain without breaking wood veins, which is essential for creating impermeable barrels.

The oak log is first split in two, then into quarters to obtain wood for the oak staves (called merrain). After splitting and planing, the stave wood is stored outside in tiers. Exposed to air and water, the wood is naturally aged by the weather for several years. During the aging process, the development of sugars and acids are monitored. After aging, the staves are formed by machines into the proper shape and form for barrel assembly. After they are cut to the proper length, they are tapered at each end and beveled. Then they are planed on the outside, slightly hollowed on the inside and jointed by high precision machining. After being inspected and selected, the staves are given to a cooper for assembly. At this essential stage of the manufacturing process, man steps in. The craftsman with irreplaceable experience and, above all, appreciation for work well done now adds his personal touch. The sharp-eyed cooper selects his staves, setting aside those that do not suit him. Then he assembles the staves inside a metal hoop that serves as the assembly jig.

This operation, so spectacular in its speed and precision, is what the cooper calls the "mise en rose" or "raising the barrel." Solidly held in place by three metal hoops that have been forced into place, the "rose" is then subjected to a trial by water and fire in the workshop, where it takes its final shape. Repeating movements that are part of the most ancient tradition of his art, the cooper seals joints by passing a wet cloth inside and outside the staves, then heating the barrel over a wood fire for approximately 30 minutes. Rendered flexible by heat and humidity, the wood fiber can now be bent by the cooper, who uses a winch to gradually arch the staves and tighten them to obtain the shape of the barrel body. The body is held trussed in place like this until the metal hoops are definitely placed. The length of heating results in a "toast level" on which the flavors of the wine aged in the barrel will partially depend. During the heating of the staves, some substances of the wood are caramelized and develop a multitude of aromas, such as vanilla, fresh bread, buttered bread, or a touch of nut, that will be found in the final taste of the wine.

Toast level will be adjusted according to the customers' requests: light, medium or heavy toast. After the bending and heating of the staves, a very precise machining step is necessary to trim the ends of the staves and to cut the "croze," the groove in the staves that receives the barrel heads. Custom cut to fit the croze, the heads are produced with every respect of the most traditional rules for barrel making. Parts are assembled exclusively with dowels and natural, soft, flexible and rot-proof river reed to provide a perfect seal. The cooper then finishes the assembly of his barrel. The body is set up and the heads fitted into the crozes that have been coated with a paste of wheat flour. Then comes the final hooping, put in place with a large mallet. Once the barrel is finished, a rigorous test of impermeability is made, by pouring a small amount of hot water under pressure into the barrel. This procedure makes it possible to immediately detect any leaks, or mere traces of moisture caused by an unusually porous areas or manufacturing defect.

After the barrel is inspected and passed, the cooper does the final finishing work, planing and sand-papering to enhance the quality of the oak used and the perfection of the workmanship. His work finished, the master craftsman signs his name on the barrel, a custom that has existed throughout the history of French barrel making. You may notice that both French and American oak barrels are used to age many wines. While the barrel making process is similar for each, the wood imparts different characteristics to the wine being aged. Winemakers may choose a combination of the two to achieve a particular effect in the finished wine. What's the difference between French and American oak? Simply put, French oak adds more subtle flavor to wine, while American oak is more aggressively flavored. Once again, the use of French and American barrels of various ages provides a broad spectrum aromas, flavors, and textures to the blend, in much the same way as cooking with many ingredients improves the flavor of food. In the past, American barrels were known to be overly aggressive, which was blamed on the character of the wood itself. It was then learned that the methods used to make barrels in America, while suitable for whiskey, were leaving too much flavoring in the wood.

When American coopers began applying French methods to American oak, the resulting barrels, while still more powerful than the French, were very well suited for wine. To clarify: French Method: As Bourbon Booms, Demand For Barrels Is Overflowing : The Salt : NPR As Bourbon Booms, Demand For Barrels Is Overflowing Embed Embed As Bourbon Booms, Demand For Barrels Is Overflowing As Bourbon Booms, Demand For Barrels Is Overflowing Embed Embed Kelvin Cooperage, owned by brothers Kevin and Paul McLaughlin, is making white oak barrels for the newly-rising craft distillers. Here, oak scraps are burned inside the finished barrels to char them. Noah Adams/NPR hide caption toggle caption Noah Adams/NPR Kelvin Cooperage, owned by brothers Kevin and Paul McLaughlin, is making white oak barrels for the newly-rising craft distillers. Here, oak scraps are burned inside the finished barrels to char them. Noah Adams/NPR If you could make a lot of bourbon whiskey these days, you could be distilling real profits. Bourbon sales in this country are up 36 percent in the past five years. But you'd need new wooden barrels for aging your new pristine product.

Simple white oak barrels, charred on the inside to increase flavor and add color, are becoming more precious than the bourbon. Making these barrels is a very old craft, almost an art, called cooperage. The Scots-Irish who settled in Appalachia could do this: Cut the white oak boards into staves, steam them to bend, make metal hoops to hold the barrel tight. You can see this process is the small town of Lebanon, Ky. This cooperage is one of several owned by a company called Independent Stave , which is based in Missouri and is the largest maker of whiskey barrels in the world. As the barrels take shape they are carried, rolled, and conveyed — sometimes overhead — to the different work stations. Starting out as a collection of oak staves, they are fitted together, steamed, bound with steel and seared with flame before arriving at the end ready for inspection. "The barrel has water and air in it," says Leo Smith, the supervisor for the last stop on the production line. "They're looking for any kind of leak or defect in the barrel. ...

He's gonna put a plug in that barrel where it's leaking, a small plug in it, and stop that leak." The plug is a simple piece of cedar, whittled by hand. Independent Stave is a family-owned company and they don't talk much about how many people work there or how many barrels they make. But plant manager Barry Shewmaker does say that production has doubled in the past two years. Not Just A Man's Drink: Ladies Lead The Whiskey Renaissance "We're seen an increase, and it looks like it's ... there's no end in sight," Shewmaker says. Independent Stave makes barrels for the big distilleries — Kentucky brand names you might have tasted — and so far Independent is staying steady with demand. Article continues after sponsorship But there's another need for oak barrels: very small craft distilleries starting to make bourbon, vodka, gin or rum. Their output is low — sort of like a drop compared to the big brands — but someone does have to make the barrels. Kevin and Paul McLaughlin moved to Louisville from Scotland and are joint presidents of Kelvin Cooperage here.

For more than 20 years they've been crafting wine barrels, and they buy used bourbon barrels to fix up and sell to the whiskey trade in Scotland and Ireland. It's Not Tennessee Whiskey If It's Aged In Kentucky, State Says But now a different market has come right to them: They're making white oak barrels for the new craft distillers. Paul McLaughlin demonstrates the charring process — they put oak scraps in the finished barrel — and soon the flames are visibile. In the beginning it's called "toast." "We start smelling kind of a baked bread — that smell, that's what we like, that's when we know we're getting a toast layer, and once we have the toast layer we'll let the barrel ignite, like that" says Paul McLaughlin. "You get baked bread, you get kind of a marzipan — really, really nice smell." There may be as many as 700 small craft distillers in the U.S. today, and that number is going up fast.

"Some of them call and say 'I'm making whiskey, I've got my stills going and I need barrels, and I didn't think there would ever be a problem getting barrels,' " Kevin McLaughlin says. At the Kelvin Cooperage in Louisville they are working overtime, but there's so much demand that the company estimates they could sell all the barrels they could make next year, 10 times over. Coopers and Barrel Making Privacy Policy Coopers were once numerous and independent craftsmen, whose craft was not only economically vital, but was physically demanding and required skill acquired only through years of practice. Until a century ago, many villages had at least one cooper, with new recruits having to serve a seven-year apprenticeship, and the 1841 Census shows that Witheridge had two coopers. With wooden barrels have been used for Centuries as containers to store and move food and drink, the Cooper's craft has changed little since Roman Times, still requiring skill, intelligence, and strength to make casks watertight. Working from no precisely drawn plans or any written measurements, the cooper by his own skill, and his sense of shape and form, will produce a barrel or cask perfectly fitted for the task required.

The Cooper is one of the most highly skilled craftsmen in wood. Whilst cabinet-makers and joiners can work precisely to written measurements and drawings, the cooper by his skill, his sense of shape and form, will produce an article perfectly suited for the job in hand. Sections of oak trunks, from trees ideally aged 100 to 150 years old, are cut or split along the grain into staves, are then bent, and stacked in the open for between 18 to 36 months to enable the wood to dry evenly in the air. Air-drying, either in stacks in the forest or in the cooper's yard, is preferred as it dries the wood more evenly, reduces tannic effects and retains aromatic qualities. The manufacturing process requires the use of a number of well-seasoned oak staves or sections of wood enclosing a circular head at either end of the cask, and then bound together with steel hoops, and the skill of the cooper lay chiefly in making the staves. Each stave, precisely shaped and bevelled, with edges cut to the exact angle to form the tight-fitting circle of the belly of the cask.

The finished product would be a cylindrical wooden container, with a built in bulge, or bilge. First trimmed into oblong lengths with a double taper, traditionally called 'dressing', then joined on a jointer known as a colombe and given their final shape, the staves are then fitted onto a frame and arranged around an iron 'raising up' hoop. The shaping requires heat, which also modifies the wood's physical and chemical composition. Natural gas, steam or boiling water or flames from burning wood chips, or a combination of any of these can provide the heat. If fire is used then the barrel is assembled over a metal fire-pot called a chaufferette. The cooper hammers home temporary iron hoops whilst dowsing the wood with a damp cloth. Non-fire methods are easier to control, thereby preventing the wood from blistering, and so are therefore preferred. The heads of the barrels, comprising five or six straight staves pinned together, are shaped (usually circular or oval) to fit into a groove (the croze) cut in the inside ends of the side staves.

To finish, the outside is planed smooth and the barrel is filled with steam or water: if it does not leak the bunghole is drilled and the temporary iron hoops are replaced with metal or chestnut ones. JOINTER: the jointer is a long plane, held fast, which does not move, and with the cutting blade uppermost, and over which the stave moves. It is not flat but slightly curved and enables the cooper to put the correct bevel or 'shot' on the staves to ensure they fit perfectly when bound together in the round. Staves are not the same width throughout their length; they are narrower at the ends because casks bulge in the middle. The amount of 'belly' put into the cask is judged by eye alone, and hence the considerable skill needed to make a cask. DRAW KNIFE: used for shaping the staves. The cooper had several with differently shaped blades to hollow out the inside and curve the outside of each stave, and to bevel the rim of the wooden 'head' (the flat circular end of a cask). The rim was inserted into a groove cut just below the top of the inside rim at each end of the cask.

AXE: The timber used for making casks was pine imported from the Baltic. The cooper first 'listed' (roughly shaped) each stave with the axe that has its blade off-set from the handle to save the cooper's hand from being chafed by flying fragments. ADZE: First, the rim or 'chime' of a cask was bevelled to slope inwards, and then finished off with a smaller sharp adze. COMPASSES: Used to measure the exact size of the heads that formed the ends of the cask, with lengths of wood were being 'trued' on a jointer and fixed together with wooden dowels. The size of the head was then marked out using a pair of compasses and cut out with a bow saw. INSIDE SHAVE: The cooper had variously shaped shaves for use with one or both hands to make the inside of the cask perfectly smooth. (Some casks lined with brown paper) BOX CHIV and CROZE: The box 'chiv' is a curved plane used to ensure that the inside of the ends of the cask had the correct curve ready to cut the grooves in which to insert the heads.

The 'croze' looks like a curved plane, but it has teeth to cut the groove. DOWNRIGHT: This is a shave used to scrape down the outside of a cask to avoid splinters. HAMMER a specially designed hammer has a grooved head used to hammer down the metal hoops that bind the cask together. Iron hoops were used for arsenic casks, but for many years wooden hoops were used for china-clay casks. Coopers made the iron hoops themselves. BRACE: The brace cleverly designed to enable the cooper to drill holes while using only one hand. The History of Wine Part III - Wine Storage - Barrels Articles » Commentary » The History of Wine Part III - Wine Storage - Barrels The History of Wine Part III - Wine Storage - Barrels November 9, 2009 By GregT View Full Size Wine Storage - Barrels It's not entirely clear when and where barrels actually originated, although their use became widespread under the Romans. Some evidence regarding the earliest wooden barrels comes from writings, some from illustrations, and some from archeological finds. A big problem is that pottery lasts longer than wood over the centuries, so we have far more examples of ancient pottery-making than of ancient barrel-making.

Nonetheless, the first references by early Greek and Roman writers credited the development of barrels to the Celts, or Gauls. The earliest known coopers tools date only from 100 B.C. but the art of barrel making is assumed to be much older. The writer Strabo, who died around 23 AD, wrote that the Gauls bought wine from northern Italy and then stored it in wooden containers that could be a large as a house. This observation has actually been supported by the discovery of remnants of wooden containers having capacities of over 1000 liters. Pliny the Elder, who died in 79 AD, also wrote that the Gauls stored their wine in wooden containers that were held together with metal hoops. In addition, he mentioned that storing wine in barrels made of yew made it poisonous, so there was obviously an awareness of the properties of different woods. Pliny thought that the barrel was developed by Gallic tribes in the Alps and noted that it was used in colder countries, while elsewhere wine was stored in earthenware vases. Even before meeting the Romans, the Gauls had long been fond of wine.

Either the Phoenicians or Greeks established the port of Massalia, or present-day Marseilles, and traded wine with the local inhabitants. By 400 BC the wine trade was well-established and widespread. Remnants of their early amphorae have been found in many places in the Languedoc and southern France. Thus, although some Roman writers imply that the Gauls did not know wine until it was introduced by the Romans themselves, that would have been in error. At any rate, the Romans were also selling wine to the Gauls at least a century before Caesar arrived to conquer, and they were sending it by amphorae in the same way the Greeks had. This early trade was huge; the town of Toulouse is built on tens of thousands of amphora shards that date from the second to first century BC. On the other hand, the Romans also knew something of wooden casks even prior to the conquest of Gaul. Cato the Elder, who died in 149 BC, referred to wooden wine casks when instructing how his slaves were to be given wine for the winter.

writing: “Put in a wooden cask ten parts of must and two parts of very pungent vinegar, and add two parts of boiled wine and fifty of sweet water. With a paddle mix all these thrice per day for five days in succession. Add one forty-eighth of seawater drawn some time earlier. Place the lid on the cask and let it ferment for ten days. This wine will last until the solstice. If any remains after that time, it will make very sharp excellent vinegar.“ Julius Caesar, who showed up in Gaul before either Pliny or Strabo, encountered barrels because the Gauls used them as primitive bombs to fight him. In 51 B.C., while he besieged the Gauls at Uxellodenum, the Gauls filled wooden barrels with pitch, grease, and twigs, lit them on fire, and rolled them to the Romans. We do need to be careful with translation at this point. The containers were called "cupae", from which we derive the word "cooper". As of 70 A.D.

under the Emperor Tiberius, the cupa became fairly well-known but the Latin name “dolium” was also used because the Romans had called their large earthenware vases “dolia”. There is some argument that dolia only referred to earthenware and cupae referred to wooden containers, but eventually, the Gaul barrels became known as “tonneau”, which is derived from the Latin "dolium", and which referred to a round container. In any event, the first storage barrels were not made for wine. More likely they were made for beer, because the Gauls do not seem to have actually produced wine until the Romans established a presence. Posidonius, in the first century B.C., had written about the habits of the Gauls. He believed that climate determined whether one would be a beer or a wine drinker and also that it influenced one's character. He stated that since the excessive cold ruined the climate of the air, the land of the Gauls produced neither wine nor oil. He too noted the trade in wine, observing that the southern Gauls especially had acquired a fondness for wine.

Gauls being who they were however, they drank the wine unmixed with water, and consequently if they did not fall into a stupor, they would start to fight among themselves. Diodorus Siculus, following Posidonius but still writing in the first century BC, writes that the Gauls knew nothing of wine or oil produced from trees, and as a substitute for wine used a foul smelling juice made from barley left to rot in water, while for oil they used rancid pig fat with a disgusting smell and flavor. He noted that this provided an opportunity for trade however, writing that ”The Italian merchants exploit the Gallic passion for wine. On the boats which follow the waterways or by wagons which roll across the plain, they transport wine, from which they make fantastic profits, going as far as trading one amphora for one slave, in such manner that the buyer brings his servant to pay for the drink.” Pliny, writing a bit later, agreed with the sentiment, noting that the Gauls made an alcoholic drink from cereal because their climate did not allow them to make wine. His writings on climate are interesting.

He felt that the cold climate also made the Gauls and Germans tall, light-skinned, slow-witted and savage. Conversely, the climate of the southern regions made those people small, dark, and timid, although wily and intelligent. The people who were centrally located in more temperate regions were just right in every respect and consequently were natural rulers of the others. The people from temperate regions were also wine drinkers. Coincidentally, they also happened to be the Romans. Once Caesar had established the Roman presence in Gaul, the land would not be without wine for long. During the reign of Caesar Augustus, the Allobroges, who controlled traffic in the Rhone valley, found a grape that could survive the frost in the area. This discovery pushed the limit of grape growing hundreds of miles north, away from the southern Mediterranean regions where it had been long established. Simultaneously in Aquitaine, the "Biturica" grape was found and became established in the region around Bordeaux, which had become a shipping port for goods to and from the British Isles. With these grapes, wine could be produced in Gaul. Also, as it turned out, in vast quantities. But how would they ship or store this wine?

Gaul turned out to be such an ideal place to make wine, and production ramped up so rapidly, that Gallic wine quickly began cutting into the profits of the Italian winemakers. To protect the Roman producers, in 92 A.D., the emperor Domitien decided to destroy the vineyards in Gaul. The misguided predilection for artificially restricting production to inflate wine prices has clearly been part of the wine trade since its very earliest days. It was understood for exactly what it was too - Cicero recorded that the Gauls were not allowed to plant olive trees or grape vines so that the Roman merchants could enjoy a monopoly on trade in these items. Of course, it is one thing to issue a decree but quite another to enforce it, so wine making was not entirely discontinued in Gaul, whether by the Gauls themselves or by Roman settlers. More importantly, the Gauls were woodworkers, not potters. For the first time, the traditional and ancient clay pot had a serious rival as a container for wine storage and transport. By this point the Romans were also realizing that the wooden barrel was better than clay amphorae for transporting wine or other liquids.

Caesar had taken the Roman legions into areas that were not always near waterways, so they had to build roads and carry supplies over rough terrain. Although insofar as possible, they used rivers for transport, they still needed a way to carry wine and oil to the soldiers through forests and mountains. Wood barrels are both lighter and stronger than clay. Moreover, because they are bowed, when put on their sides they can be rolled by one man with little energy - the surface that is touching the ground is very small relative to the size of the container so there is far less friction than there would be if the barrel were straight-sided. The bowed shape also makes it easy to roll them up and down ramps if the ramps have slightly raised sides or rails - the barrel will stay centered and will not roll to one side or another, which could result in damage and injury. In terms of package design then, barrels provided better efficiency for transport and storage. Finally, there were plenty of trees in Gaul from which to obtain the requisite wood. Although it took longer to make a barrel than to make a clay pot, it could be made larger, it was stronger, and it had a longer life expectancy. The consequences were inevitable.

By the first century AD, barrels were in use across the Roman Empire. Caesar died in 59 BC. Trajan's Column, begun in approximately 106 AD, less than fifty years after Caesar's death, bears carvings of Roman boats loaded with barrels. The column was built to commemorate Trajan's victory in Dacia, or what would now be part of Romania and Hungary, far from Gaul. Moreover, Trajan was the successor to Domitien and had not rescinded the prohibition on wine or olives from Gaul, so the barrels depicted bore Roman goods. By the second century barrels were well-established. In the German town of Trier on the Mosel, there is a famous carving of a Roman boat loaded with barrels that dates to about 220 A.D., known as the Neumagen Wine Boat. It commemorates a local Roman wine merchant. There are other stone carvings in France that depict boats hauling wine and other goods under the Roman occupation. As one moves farther away from southern Gaul, remnants of amphorae are decreasingly found, suggesting that their use did not last much beyond the earliest Roman incursions by Caesar.

From Bordeaux, the Romans shipped barrels to England where remnants of barrels have been found made from very different types of wood, including larch and fir that likely came from Germany and/or France. During more recent excavations at Canary Warf in England, remnants of Roman barrels made from fir and other woods were uncovered. At Hadrian's Wall in England, there are remnants of barrels and Roman writings about barrels of wine, fish, oil, and other goods. Hadrian died around 138 AD and of course some of these things could have appeared after his death, but it is apparent that the barrel had become the vessel for transporting precious metals, powders, ochre, sulfur, olives, jam, salted fish, mustard, oil, vinegar, honey, pickled foods and other commodities. As conquerors, Romans retained mastery of the vineyards in Gaul, though they were supposed to have been uprooted. When the Emperor Probus finally lifted Domitien's restrictions in 276 AD, wine production in the Empire and shipments to England increased dramatically. The use of pottery was not entirely abandoned however.

Shipwrecks have been found containing many amphorae that have been dated between 100 and 200 A.D. Roman amphorae have also been found in Britain, which would place them after the arrival of the Romans. But if barrels were ultimately better containers, why did pottery use continue for so long? In part the answer is quite simply because it was good enough. Hard-nosed and unsentimental, the Romans are the last people who would have kept to their pottery merely for emotional reasons. While pottery may not have been a superior container once metalworking and woodworking had reached the levels of sophistication they reached under the Gauls, there was no real economic pressure to find an alternative to clay. It is cheap, a skilled potter could turn out many consistent pots in one day, and logistical systems had long been established to deal with pottery containers. Rather than let the perfect become the enemy of the sufficient, the ancients probably saw no real benefit in re-thinking their storage and transportation materials. Today there are many examples of businesses that use little new technology but operate quite successfully alongside businesses that are far more up to date.

It is never technology itself that drives change, it is the application of technology to produce an economic advantage that drives change. So pottery vessels remained in use for some time after barrels had become increasingly common. Still, more than anything, the Romans were practical people. The advantages of barrels were so great that the Romans could not resist the technology. By the waning of the Roman Empire, barrels had become ubiquitous and they remain in use today. The only real material rival that they have seen in over 2000 years is the recent development of stainless steel. Interestingly, it is difficult to find much scholarship regarding the history of barrel making, which is curious, given that barrels have been so important to world trade for so long. Mentioned in this article Behind the Scenes of Jack Daniel's Barrel Making - Drink Spirits Tweet on Twitter Jack Daniel’s Whiskey Barrels on Fire When it comes to American whiskey (or bourbon), a tremendous amount of the flavor you taste in your glass (as much as 60%) comes from the barrel that the whiskey was aged in. As a result, the time and attention that whiskey manufacturers like Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey put into making that barrel is extremely significant.

Drink Spirits had an opportunity to go behind the scenes at the Brown-Forman Cooperage in Louisville, Kentucky to see firsthand how these barrels are made. Brown-Forman Cooperage in Kentucky The Brown-Forman Cooperage is the only barrel making facility exclusive to one distiller. Formerly the Blue Grass Cooperage Company, the cooperage was renamed in 2009 to the Brown-Forman Cooperage. The facility makes barrels for all of the Brown-Forman barrel aged spirits, including Woodford Reserve , Old Forester, Herradura Tequila, Collingwood Canadian Whiskey, Early Times Bourbon, and of course, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey . The scale of the facility is massive, including an aging and storage facility for the wood that goes into making the barrels that has over thirty million dollars worth of lumber stored in it. Brown-Forman Master Distiller Chris Morris Stands by Piles of Drying Oak Barrels made at the Brown-Forman Cooperage are all made from American Oak. Wood is sourced from a number of regions, including the Ozarcks, Appalachia, and a “Northern Region” that includes and surrounds Minnesota.

The wood from the various regions is milled and then delivered to the cooperage. Fresh cut oak, or “green wood,” is 85% water, so to be used for barrels it needs to be dried and aged. Drying wood too quickly can create splits, cracks, and checks (microscopic cracks) which cause a barrel to leak, so the wood needs to be slowly aged outdoors. The green wood is stacked fifteen to twenty feet high in an outdoor stockyard for nearly a year. Each whiskey has its own barrel recipe that dictates how long the wood is dried and aged; for example, Woodford Reserve is 9 months. In addition to gradually drying out the wood, exposing the wood to the elements also helps determine flavor. Green wood is high in tannic acids (as much as 12%) which translates into harshness and astringency in a whiskey. When you dry wood outside and it gets drenched with rain and then dried by the sun, this helps reduce and “tame” the levels of tannic acid.

There are also fungal and microbial reactions that occur when you naturally age cut wood that unlocks the phenolic structure (which is where the vanilla flavors come from) as well as breaks down some of the wood’s natural carbohydrates. This process imparts many of the fruit, spice, and sweet flavors and aromatics that make their way into the final whiskey. Oak for Jack Daniels Barrels in Huge Kiln After being exposed to the elements, the oak is then relocated into giant heated warehouse kilns where they are exposed to high heat to finish the drying process. The amount of time that the wood may stay here again depends on the barrel recipe (which are all proprietary). The wood is mixed so that the final barrels are all a blend of the various sources of woods, which helps create a uniform flavor. Wood Planks Become Staves for Jack Daniels Barrels After the wood has been aged and dried, it makes its way through a number of steps in the cooperage on the way to becoming a barrel. The first series of steps are to transform the wood planks into the staves and heads of the barrel. Getting this process right is important as these barrels need to be water tight: imperfections or mistakes here lead to leaks later on in the process.

Chris Morris Shows off Charred Barrel Heads The heads (or ends) of the barrel are made by pinning together planks of wood and then cutting them into a sphere. These heads are charred separately from the barrel and then affixed towards the end of the process. Jack Daniel’s Barrels Built by Hand Barrels are built by hand one stave at a time. A worker at the Brown-Forman Cooperage will assemble 500 barrels a day with over 2,000 total barrels produced in a day. Of these, the majority are produced for Jack Daniel’s. Chris Morris Showing Examples of Toasted and Charred Staves After the barrels are built, they go through a multi-step process to get them ready for making whiskey. The first step is called toasting. The barrels are slowly heated on the inside to around 450 degrees. The amount of time they toast the barrels is a trade secret, but the toasting helps break down the natural occurring aldehydes including vanillin which get released into the whiskey during aging.

Brown-Forman is one of the only cooperages to toast their barrels before charing them, and this extra step is one of the reasons why their whiskies have such nice vanilla notes to them. Jack Daniel’s barrels go through the char process Once the barrels are toasted, they are ready to be charred. Charring barrels is one of the most dramatic and exciting parts of the barrel-making process. Open ended barrels are placed over natural gas burners and set on fire, exposed to heat as high as 1500 degrees. How long a barrel is exposed to these flames determines how deep into the wood the char goes. Char is measured on a four level scale with the deepest char, #4, called alligator char (as the staves look a lot like the backs of alligators after this deep char). Charring a barrel breaks down the hemicellulose in the wood into sugars, which get caramelized and impart the sweet caramel flavor into the whiskey. The charred wood also forms a thin layer of carbon which significantly helps reduce the oiliness from the corn spirit used to make bourbon and whiskey.

Ultimately, charring a barrel makes many of the elements from the barrel more accessible to the aging whiskey, as some of the elements are water soluble and some alcohol soluble (the proof of the spirit that goes into the barrel can dramatically impact the elements it can access from the barrel). A Bung Hole is Cut and the Barrel is Tested After a barrel is charred, the heads are added to each end, a bung hole (where the spirit goes in) is cut, and then the barrel is filled with water to check for leaks. Any barrel that leaks is then fixed by a small group of coopers who replace staves, fill cracks, and and fix bands. A small leak could mean losing a lot of whiskey over the aging process, so this final testing phase is crucial. Once the barrels pass the testing, they are shipped off to Lynchburg, Tennessee where they are filled with new make spirit that ages to become Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey (or, for Woodford Reserve and Old Forester, they stay in Kentucky). Barrel Staves from Jack Daniel’s Whiskey Barrels One of the things you realize watching a Jack Daniel’s Whiskey Barrel being built is how natural a process it is.

While there’s a fair amount of machinery in the cooperage, the process all is focused on shaping and preserving the natural qualities of the wood. “Each barrel is as individual as one of us,” remarks Master Distiller Chris Morris, and it’s amazing how any spirit company can make a uniform whiskey using barrels that are all unique. There’s something magical about the process of turning planks of wood into whiskey barrels, and I’m glad we got a chance to see the process. The Brown-Forman Cooperage can be toured as part of Mint Julep Tours . TAGS Chapter 5 - Maturation of malt whisky, about wood and casks And their word is law. So, WOOD plays a crucial role in the development of a malt whisky. First of all there's the species of OAK that is used by the COOPER to make the casks. Only oak casks are used. Not only because it's a legal requirement; oak is flexible and solid at the same time while it adds very distinct elements to the spirit inside the cask as well.

Just like all French cognacs have been matured exclusively in Limousin oak casks, only a few oak species are used for whisky casks; White American oak ( Quercus alba) and European oak (Quercus robur). Interestingly enough, the fact that it does mature in oak casks was discovered only by accident. In the old days wooden casks were used merely as vessels for the freshly distilled spirit. A lot of the spirit was consumed before it ever got the chance to evolve into anything that smelled or tasted like the whisky we drink today. Nevertheless, here and there some casks were left alone long enough to age in peace. During those months or even years the rough spirit became whisky. I can only imagine the drunken delight of the lucky Scotsman who discovered the secret of maturation in an oak cask. Scotsmen like to gossip (at least that's what I've been told by other Scotsmen). It wasn't long before the news of the wonders of wood became known to more people and after a while most customers developed a clear preference for the matured stuff. Nowadays the wood works its magic for at least 3 years before a spirit is bottled as a Scotch whisky.

Younger spirits can't be legally sold as Scotch whisky, but I've actually sampled a few young spirits that are just stunning. Did I say that whisky does not mature after being bottled? Well, it actually does - but very slowly. More information on the process of oxidation can be found in the 10 - Conclusion However, not only the type of wood of the cask is important. Factors like the size and shape of the cask can have their own influence on the whisky inside as well. However, I'll get into that topic later on... So, now the whisky is distilled - can you drink it yet? Not quite. Well, you CAN, but it won't be much fun. Just like a fine wine, a malt whisky is shaped by many different influences; the type of water at the distillery, the shape and size of the pot stills, the climate within the warehouse, etc. But unlike a fine wine (or even a not so fine one), a single malt whisky hardly ages or changes, after it has been bottled . Ex-Bourbon Casks versus Ex-Sherry Casks The standard ex-bourbon cask holds some 200 liters of whisky.

It is usually called a BARREL and has been used only once for the maturation of bourbon in the US before it was taken apart and shipped to Scotland. There are many different brands like Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, George Dickel, Maker's Mark, Old Crow, Wild Turkey & Four Roses, but all these bourbons are actually produced at just a handful of distilleries. The precise heritage of the bourbon casks is considered a topic of relatively minor importance. That seems rather odd when you look at all the fuss that is made about the trouble that some blenders go through to secure just the right sherry casks or wine casks for their compositions. Bourbon barrels are usually heavily charred on the inside. The carbon from the burnt layer not only acts like a filter (removing certain nasty elements from the spirit), it also helps to transfer vanilla and woody notes to the bourbon. In its 'second life' in Scotland a cask keeps influencing the contents. However, the effect that the wood has on the whisky inside a cask slowly diminishes over time. This is especially true when a cask is used 'more than once'.

The casks that Americans use (just once) for their bourbons are made from the oak trees that grow in America - which is another species (Quercus alba) from European Quercus Robur. Most American oak casks are sourced from Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. As I mentioned earlier, the size of the casks is much more standardised (+ 200 liter) than that of sherry casks. Sherry casks are usually larger than bourbon barrels and come in several different sizes. A HOGSHEAD holds 250 liters, while a BUTT is twice that size with 500 liters. Distilleries sometimes use other sizes (like the 450 liter PUNCHEON ) as well, but the vast majority of the casks are still barrels, hogsheads & butts. Just like the discovery of the significant benefits of maturation in oak casks, the magic of sherry was uncovered by accident. Scotland relied on oak trees from the forests of England for a long time, but at some point distilleries needed to find an alternative source for their casks. Sherry (fortified Spanish wine) was once very popular on the British isles.

Actually, it still is - the UK alone takes care of a whopping 29% of the world's sherry consumption, with Holland coming in a close second with 27%. The sherry bodegas use Quercus Robur for their casks - i.e. European Oak. There are many different 'types' of sherry, which means there are different types of sherry casks as well. To name just a few of them; Fino, Oloroso, Manzanilla, Amontillado, Pedro Ximï¿½nez, etc. Are you dizzy yet? No? Good - then you might like to learn that 'Pedro Ximï¿½nez' is also the name of the grape species used for sherry. In fact, only two species of grape are used for the production of sherry; the other one being 'Palomino'. Compared to the 1970's, sherry consumption in Holland and the UK has dropped off dramatically. As a results, production of sherry dropped as well - and therefor availability of casks. Anyway, sherry used to be shipped from Spain to England by the cask.

Alcoholism was running rampant in those days, so empty and discarded sherry casks were littering the 19th century Scottish landscape very much like empty beer cans and bottles are doing today. In one of the world's first recycling initiatives the Scots started picking up those second hand sherry casks to use them again for the maturation of their whiskies. And then use them again & again & again - waste not want not...

Question: What is a person who makes barrels or casks called?
Answer: Cooper