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Sunlight and Barrel Storage


Patio29Dadio

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I am closing in on selecting a property for a startup craft distillery in Northern CA.  The favorite one is two buildings on a single commercial lot. One would be the barrel storage building the other would house the distillery operations. The barrel storage building is brick surrounded with windows (see the attached image).  I assume the precious liquid within would not be impacts by getting hit with sunlight through these windows, but wanted to get some feedback from anyone with knowledge on this.  Thanks!

barrel storage.jpg

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In a reasonably cool area I believe a bit of sunlight on the barrels will increase the rate of "ageing"

Hotter during the day, cool at night causes expansion then contraction of the air in the barrels which forces spirit into the wood then pulls it out again like wringing a sponge. Also the increased pressure will force out more of those highly volatile components through the wood leaving the richer tastier ones behind.

A good friend of mine makes some world winning whiskies. He will find barrels that aren't "behaving themselves" and put them in the sun to kick them along.

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On 7/13/2016 at 5:48 AM, PeteB said:

In a reasonably cool area I believe a bit of sunlight on the barrels will increase the rate of "ageing"

Hotter during the day, cool at night causes expansion then contraction of the air in the barrels which forces spirit into the wood then pulls it out again like wringing a sponge. Also the increased pressure will force out more of those highly volatile components through the wood leaving the richer tastier ones behind.

A good friend of mine makes some world winning whiskies. He will find barrels that aren't "behaving themselves" and put them in the sun to kick them along.

Agree

http://www.thedrinksreport.com/news/2015/16232-special-report-bourbon-ageing-warehouses.html

http://buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-008-the-building-science-of-bourbon

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/the-new-science-of-old-whiskey/309522/

http://www.eater.com/drinks/2015/8/13/9113965/whiskey-guide

 

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I am currently distilling at home using 50l barrels and I have them in my gallery and they are exposed to the sun.  I am going for fast aging as a trade off over the angels share.  The barrels I put in the sun will go from 45 deg C internal to the barrel during the day to 5 deg at night,  So I can get a really good flavor in about 4 months but I will lose about 20% volume. That comes back when you dilute to bottle strength but even so I will lose about 10% in 4 months. The same barrels exposed to high temp swings but not in the sunlight will age out in about 5 months.  with temp swings from +30 deg C in the barrel during the day to 5 deg. If I was in operation I would worry about but I am proving out recipes and chasing the right flavor combinations between whiskey and wood so for me its about speed not volume right now. 

Good luck with your startup. 

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