Because the barrel is made by barbecue, the wood surface is carbonized, and the aged bourbon whiskey uses corn as the main grain raw material. After it is used to mature other whiskeys, it can release various sweet flavors such as vanilla, cream, coconut, almond, etc., as well as delicate Floral and fruity. Generally speaking, in terms of color, body and taste, whiskey aged in bourbon barrels is not as rich as that aged in sherry barrels. Whiskey matured in bourbon barrels will show a lighter golden yellow color Softer and more delicate. In addition to directly using bourbon barrels, the Scotch whiskey industry also uses some oak barrels that have been reprocessed on the basis of bourbon barrels, such as Hogshead and Gorda barrels.
Hogshead, also known as pig's head barrel, when the bourbon barrel is transported from the United States to Scotland, in order to save space, the barrel will be disassembled and reassembled when it arrives in Scotland. When reassembling, some distilleries will use standard bourbon Barrel expansion, from 200 liters to 250 liters, is to assemble 5 standard bourbon barrels into 4. This kind of oak barrel will be crowned with "dump" or "remark". In addition, there are newly made oak barrels with a capacity of 250 liters, sometimes called reconstituted barrels, with a height of 100 cm and sides with a diameter of 60 cm. The most commonly used bourbon barrels are reconstituted barrels.
Gorda barrels were originally the blending barrels of the American whiskey industry. The American whiskey industry would blend the whiskey in several bourbon barrels and store them in the Gorda barrels for a period of time to fully blend them. Later, this barrel was also used by Scotch whiskey distilleries to mature whiskey. Gorda barrels have a capacity of approximately 600-700 litres, the largest oak barrels allowed in the Scotch whiskey industry.
