Home finishing.

@Peatpete, that sounds like a lot of fun! Let the experimenting begin. If I were doing it I would also love to see if there were any way I could get or make toasted, instead of charred, unused casks as well. I love what toasted wood has done for the Old Potrero 18th Century Style Whiskey.

I am sure that lots of people have tried this before, but I don't know any of them personally.

If I were doing these experiments I would try a number of things, probably ranging far and wide. I would love, for example to have a whisky finished in Nux Alpina, this Austrian Walnut liqueur I just bought. Chambord or Framboise would be interesting, I should think, as well. Old rums, anejo tequilas, St. Germain, Amaretto, Creme de Menthe, Genever, the list is endless...

@Victor If I ever get to try it (cost being the limiting factor) I think about the first thing I would want to try would be to fill the barrell with Calvados (apple brandy) for a couple of months, then do the re-fill with something like an Ardmore traditional, for a smokey, apple whisky...

It is an interesting idea and at 40 bucks for a 2 liter keg it is certainly doable. My only concern would be how long I would have to condition it before I put whisky in it. I’ve had a couple drams from fresh, first fill bourbon barrels and found them to be overly sweet for my taste. I do have a few whiskies that I’ve been thinking of vatting together (since they are not really in my top 20) and that may be a solution to the conditioning issue. Either that or simply buy some cheap “straight” bourbon and put it down for a couple years..

I really like the Calvados idea, you may be on to a winner there.

@Andrew When you first use a new barrel you have to soak it, to allow the wood to swell and stop any small leaks. My idea was that with a small barrel I would actualy do that initial soak with a mixture of whatever I wanted to condition the barrell with and water, instead of plain water as is usual. This should allow the wood to become extremely well permeated with the flavours of the condiioning beverage, and because of the small size of the barrel, shouldnt be to cost prohibitive. Once that was done I would think that conditioning for about 3 months would do pretty well, give the scotch about a month before decanting.

I have read somewhere that, in the past, people would have a small cask at home and fill it with the whisky at hand. @Peatpete They were drinking from it and refill it when the volume in the cask went low. So, the aging was minimal but they were experiencing with vatted malts. Damn! I can't remember where I read this. For your question, I do think it would be a great idea but don't expect too much. You would have a single cask expression but it needs to be perfect or you'll throw money away. Make sure the cask is good and sherry finish would be the standard.

Calvados looks just fine. Arran did this but I never tasted it. @JoeVelo I would buy a bottle.

Binny's spirit blog has one of their contributors doing some home experimentation this month. The first post related to this is here:

http://www.binnys.com/blogs/post.cfm/brophy-s-barrel

@Peatpete I'm actually getting into stilling my own whisk(e)y and I found tons of info and a good crowd of people on http://homedistiller.org/ and there is some easy to understand aging info on http://www.stillcooker.com/ Just remember that the surface area of the barrel to the volume of liquid in it makes a huge difference, for ex a quater cask will age 5-10x faster then a stabdard bourbon barrel. Hope this info helps you!

@ssmith84 Thanks for the info!

there is a distillery here in holland, abou 10 km away from my house in Bolsward, that sells whisky by bottle, but also by 14 L casks. It's called Frysk Hynder, and the only real Dutch Single Malt.

@coenleeuwen How much do they charge for the casks?

Peatpete, How is home finishing working out?