Barrel House for Beginners.

[cowdery]

Have you been imagining your own micro-distillery and wondering how your barrel house might look?

This is Great Lakes Distillery in Milwaukee. All of these barrels have been filled since the distillery moved to its present location less than two years ago.

All of the barrels are the standard 53 gallon size. Many small distilleries are using small barrels for a variety of reasons, but there are arguments for staying with 53 gallons. Cost is a big one. So is the collective experience of the American whiskey industry.

The blue heads indicate used barrels. The natural heads are new barrels. New barrels are for whiskey, used barrels are for rum and brandy.

[DeanSheen]

That's one of those new concrete rick houses I see.

Is that all their inventory?

[Josh]

That's one of those new concrete rick houses I see.

I wonder how well it will age in an all concrete enviroment. It doesn't seem like there'd be much seasonal variation to allow the whiskey to expand and contract.

[barturtle]

I've noticed all the lights in most rickhouses are explosion proof...that looks like a standard fluorescent fixture.

Also, I wonder if those paper tags will come unglued in 10-15 years of sitting on moist wood.

With crap piled at both ends and a fence in the way it must not be easy to get to one of those barrels when it's bottling time...and unlike a rickhouse sytem, you can't roll them, you have to take all the ones off the top to get to the bottom...how crappy.

[cowdery]

It's the same environment as the distillery itself, so no it won't get the extremes as a warehouse with no climate controls would. This is more typical than not of small distilleries. It's even true of places you might not think of as so small, such as A. Smith Bowman and Forty Creek.

Yes, that's all they have aging for now. Not for nothing are they called micro-distilleries.

I don't know if they're required to have spark-resistant fixtures and switches. That's a regulatory matter, not really an option.

The fence divides a 2,000 square foot storage area from a 4,000 square foot working area that incorporates the gift shop and bar. The rack is pushed right up against the fence so people can see it, but there's a lot of room behind it.

[callmeox]

My guess: Paper tags are stapled, like the bar codes on some barrels at BT. The "ricks" are industrial steel barrel racks and are unloaded with a forklift from the side opposite of the fence.

[wadewood]

I've noticed all the lights in most rickhouses are explosion proof...that looks like a standard fluorescent fixture.

Garrison Brothers here in Texas in their new rickhouse did not even run electricity to building (on purpose). Instead they have some battery powered LED Lanterns.

[craigthom]

I wonder how well it will age in an all concrete enviroment. It doesn't seem like there'd be much seasonal variation to allow the whiskey to expand and contract.

[nblair]

It's in Wisconsin, though, so the outside seasonal variation will be significantly greater than in Kentucky.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the temperature variation in Kentucky be better than the variation in Wisconsin?

I'm from Wisconsin and the variation consists of ridiculously cold for a large part of the year with a hot summer and back to the freezing cold again.

In Kentucky I think there are temperature swings more frequently than in Wisconsin. It can be sunny and 65 degrees in the middle of March, then the next week we'll get over a foot of snow (it happened during Spring Break two years ago). The weather here is totally unpredictable and I was under the impression that is what you want when it comes to bourbon because you want it being drawn in and out of the wood.

[craigthom]

The term was "seasonal variation", and it gets colder in the Milwaukee area in winter, and just as hot in the summer. That's a wider variation.

[BBQ+Bourbon]

I wonder how well it will age in an all concrete enviroment. It doesn't seem like there'd be much seasonal variation to allow the whiskey to expand and contract.

I'm not sure if this lends itself to your question, but concrete has very little insulation value. It absorbs heat and emits it, but doesn't block much.

[cowdery]

Not so much because it is in concrete but because it is in a multi-use space, it certainly won't be the same as a typical Kentucky steel-clad that has zero climate control. This is a space where humans work, but also where a still is run. Don't assume it will be better or worse, though; just different.

[Bourbon Boiler]

Depending on the layout of the operation, I would think there would be a lot of temperature and climate variation. Making mash and running the still will emit heat, so if those operations are performed close the barrels there could be a few days where there is a lot of variation.

[cowdery]

Although there are a couple of side rooms that I don't know what they contain, most of Great Lakes is in one big room. I haven't been there when they're running the still, but I doubt it changes things too much. Other places, such as Koval here in Chicago, have a similar set up, with the aging barrels in essentially the same space as the distillery.