A slight correction is needed ALL American whiskey except corn whiskey must be aged in new, charred, oak barrels. It doesn't matter if it's wheat, malt, bourbon or some other grain. The age (which also by law must be on the label) is the amount of time it spent in that new barrel. You can then put it in a used barrel, but that doesn't contribute to the age statement.

Corn whiskey doesn't need to be aged at all, but if it is, must be either in used barrels or uncharred new barrels.

The TTB has made an exception for Jack Daniels Unaged Rye Whiskey, but it is unclear whether that exception will apply to others who want to make an unaged whiskey.

Britt's Pickles uses wine barrels to ferment their foods.

Is The Slog a blog anymore?

Cause blogs traditionally present content in reverse-chron order ...and if posts are lifted to the top for any reason, there's a note to that effect.

Hey, great article! Sounds like a fun assignment. I knew barrels were repurposed, but always figured it was only one or two locations. Question: (and maybe @1 knows the answer), why not use the same barrel for the next batch of the same brew/spirit? And why is it illegal to do so with bourbon? If they're already being used multiple times, what is gained or lost?

If you've visited a whisky distillery in Scotland you've seen that they use a lot of bourbon barrels imported from the US. The new barrels give that vanilla-y flavor that you want in bourbon but not in scotch. Scotch used to be aged in old sherry casks and some types are still "finished" in wine casks for a few months or a couple of years at the end of their aging.