Checking back in, Idiot Who Bought a Barrel, 3 years on.
Hello again /r/whiskey! Brief catchup on my whiskey barrel madness: https://www.reddit.com/r/whiskey/comments/13d6b6g/tempering_whiskey_from_the_barrel/
The whiskey in the barrel is now just over 3.5 years old. Samples taken from the 3 year mark last November have shown significant improvement over the previous 2 years. The colour is now perfectly scotch-like, and could easily pass for the same distillery's 10 year old versions in colour only! The taste however is quite a bit more complex as well, no longer tasting like basically plain moonshine, with a colour to match. As a not overly educated whiskey drinker, the taste is definitely reminiscent of that same distillery's 10 year version, just not quite there yet obviously.
Last fall, we finally tapped the barrel to make extracting the nectar of the gods a bit simpler than using a plastic wine thief that inconveniently was cracking every winter and requiring the purchase of a new one... Ideally, this tapping would have been done with the barrel turned 180 degrees to avoid leakage, but that proved problematic for reasons we can get to later. Instead, a pan was held under the tapping area to catch any spillover whiskey and of course wood shavings from the drilling into the barrel. That was then filtered through cheesecloth to remove most of the wood bits and provide a couple ounces of sample whiskey!
Unlike the previous years of this stuff, finally some people aside from the local lobster fishermen are starting to enjoy the taste of it. Every August, a friend of mine fishes lobster on his father's boat, and I would go pick up a good few of them on a friday afternoon for a boil, he'd give me a very nice deal on lobster, and in return I'd bring a small bottle of the whiskey for the fishermen to sample. They have always loved it, though any other person always made THAT face of someone who just got hit with 67% ABV whiskey/moonshine... Funny story, he told me after one of the last lobster pickups last fall, one of the fishermen had a tad bit too much of the whiskey, and FELL OFF THE BOAT! Not a big deal, swim 20 metres and you're on the shore, just hilarious to me. That guy has been cut off, apparently.
Finally, small issue... when I attempted to rotate the barrel in the fall, as I try to do a few times a year, it started leaking from the bunghole. I sorta assume the bung got too hot and dried out from the summer heat last year? Regardless, the barrel has remained bung-side-up ever since as I try to figure out what to do about this. Would soaking the bung in water be enough, and for how long? I was deathly afraid the bung would fall out in that last brief leaky rotation, so am loathe to try again without more info. I also figure it's about time to tighten the rings around the barrel, but cannot figure out the name of the tool used to do that along with a hammer? Tried it with just a hammer, did not go well...
Anyway, thought it was about time for a check in! Thanks as always, drink responsibly or don't, I'm not yer dad..