How old is my bourbon

But, snarkiness aside, it is the aging process that transforms a relatively harsh and neutral grain spririt into something worth coveting, and even spending hundreds of dollards per glass on. The charred oak barrels, which we will get into in a moment, add additional flavor compounds to the spirit, and the time spent in the barrel concentrates the whiskey. Harsh flavors mellow and wood flavors increase, along with tannins and other compounds from the wood, adding new character and body to the whiskey.

In other places, distillers make use of old wine or port barrels to age their spirits, but in the United States, bourbon must be made with brand-new oak barrels that have been charred. Legend has it, Elijah Craig who was, incongruously, a Baptist minister in addition to being a distiller was the first to use charred oak barrels to age his spirits; however, this story is likely not actually true. Used barrels will contribute characteristics of wine or port to the spirit, whereas new oak will, obviously, not.

This new wood exudes strong vanilla and butter notes, from vanillan and lactone compounds, respectively. New oak is also high in tannins, which make their way into the bourbon as well. European oak is higher in tannins than American oak, so bourbons tend to be less tannic than European whiskies.

Finally, there are the tax stamps. After Prohibition, a red tax stamp was created for non-bonded whiskey. This stamp does not help date the bottle because the numbers on the stamp are government numbers for the stamps being issued.

After , the deregulation of the industry ended the tax stamp requirement. This information should help date your old bottle of whiskey.

The information is to be found over the whole bottle, so if you are sending photographs to someone looking for the date, you should photograph the bottle from several angles, including the bottom of the bottle. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Enter your email address to follow bourbonveach. Email Address. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Search for:. Dating Old American Whiskey Bottles. Like this: Like Loading Michael R. Author archive. What happens when a bourbon does cross the line from old to too old? As the demand for long-aged bourbon grows, distilleries are experimenting to find out how far they can push the boundaries of age. Most distillers rely on cooler spots in their warehouses, less subject to temperature swings, to get a few extra years of wood aging without overwhelming the whiskey too much.

But some are taking it even further. We are aging the bourbons at a reduced temperature and a set humidity to determine how that affects the aging process. And some people are willing to pay a lot of money for that kind of experience.