Our Rickhouse currently has around 1,000 barrels for storage, but if you've taken a tour with us you've probably noticed not all of the barrels are the same. We have a dozen different types of barrels that range from the classic new charred oak barrels for our Bourbon to some really unique barrels we use to infuse additional flavors into our whiskeys. Here are some of our favorite barrels we've used recently!

1. New American White Oak- These are barrels that must be used for Bourbon to legally be called Bourbon. These have a #4 char and the char levels go from 1-5, 5 being the most heavily charred. The more char you have in the barrel the more caramelization you'll get in the flavor of the whiskey. We use these barrels mainly for our Bourbon and Ole George whiskeys.

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2. Maple Casks- These barrels get used to age maple syrup to make Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup, then once those have finished aging, we use the barrels again to age different whiskeys. We have an exciting new whiskey coming this fall using these barrels so stay tuned for that!

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3. High Vanillin Barrels- We use these barrels as step 2 in our 3-step Solera system. These barrels contain a compound called Vanillin which gives the flavor and aroma of vanilla. For obvious reasons, we use these barrels to inject more vanilla flavor into our Solera whiskeys for a lighter and sweeter flavor on the palate.

4. Solera Barrels- These barrels may look like regular white oak barrels, but the difference with these is they're larger than our typical 53-gallon barrels we use. Because the Solera system is a tiered blending process, using larger 106-gallon barrels allows us to keep the Solera system running consistently to continue the aging process in the first step before moving to the High Vanillin barrels.

If you want to see these barrels for yourself book a tour of our distillery and Rickhouse!