How old are the oldest barrels at the major distilleries?

[dmarkle]

Duplicate the Scottish climate with a bourbon and you will have a product that is really neither. It might be a good or interesting product, but it will be something else.

Isn't this (kind of) what Compass Box Hedonism is? I've heard that it's made of mostly corn. I haven't tried it, as it's been rather spendy when I've encountered it.

[squire]

Years ago corn was the grain of choice for Scottish grain whisky distillers. I remember 35-40 years ago people waxing rhapsodic about their favorite Scotch blend (single malts were unheard of) and they would get perturbed when told 60-70% of the whisky in their glass was pure corn distillate.

[amg]

Isn't this (kind of) what Compass Box Hedonism is? I've heard that it's made of mostly corn. I haven't tried it, as it's been rather spendy when I've encountered it.

Scottish grain whisky, while similar in ingredients to bourbon, is distilled to a much higher proof than bourbon legally can be, so it has an inherently much more neutral flavor. Add that the fact that it's aged in reused barrels, and you end up with something quite a bit different than bourbon aged in a cooler climate.

[squire]

As long as four roses is delicious and ready to drink in eight-ish years and Heaven Hill maintains their core lineup, I don't give a flying owl how long anyone else ages their bourbon.

Owl drink to that.

[ramblinman]

Remember too that the aging conditions are very different. Long aged Scotch whisky has the issue of going under proof (less than 40%) since they tend to lose ethanol in that climate (higher relative humidity, so proof goes down with age). In KY, the opposite, long agers unless on the lower floors lose water and go up in ABV. I'd be interested in knowing whether any aging whiskey in KY has a problem of going under proof, even on the lowest floor?

Thats interesting about the humidity, I've never thought of that.

Happen to have any insight into what happens in ultra-low humidity environments? I'm thinking about Denver and the small distillers that it's regularly birthing. I wonder what characteristics we'll see from aging in that kind of environment even if everything else was standard bourbon way of doing things.

[sutton]

My understanding of the phenomena is that somewhere around 75% RH things flip - you'll lose alcohol above that number quicker than water, controlling for all other factors. I'd assume that in very low humidity environments you'll lose water even faster. But it is also heat dependent - all of this accelerates at higher temps than lower, so humidity isn't the only factor. High elevation at low temps and low humidity, vs. low elevation at high temps and higher humidity?

It is interesting to me since there are other posts here that describe lower barrel entry proof "aging" whiskey more quickly since water extracts some of the barrel characteristics more effectively than ethanol. But whether that is achieved through a lower proof off the still, or water added before barreling, or both, it is beyond my understanding.