F - like barrel storage
How are whisky barrels stored?
Whisky barrels are usually stored horizontally. This is the traditional way of barrel storage.
How are the maturation barrels stored at St. Kilian?
At St. Kilian, the whiskey matures horizontally, with the barrels lying on galvanized steel racks. The opening of the cask, the bunghole, faces upward. Each rack can hold two casks and is relatively easy to stack. Four to a maximum of five such racks can be stacked on top of each other. For this to work well, the keg sizes per rack must match in pairs. Such metal racks are widely used in the beer and wine industry.
How many racks are stacked at St. Kilian?
In the warehouses of our Bunker City in the Odenwald region, up to three such metal racks filled with barrels are stored on top of each other. This storage strongly resembles a traditional Scottish warehouse, the so-called Dunnage Warehouse.
What is a high-bay warehouse?
A high-bay warehouse is a modern warehouse that is much larger than a Dunnage Warehouse and is designed for larger quantities of drums stored horizontally. The temperature in such a rack warehouse fluctuates more seasonally than in a dunnage warehouse, and within the high-bay warehouse there may be greater temperature fluctuations between the upper and lower racks.
Are barrels always stored horizontally?
No. Whisky barrels can also be stored upright. This is the case in a so-called pallet warehouse. In this, the available space is better used by placing the barrels packed closer together on wooden pallets and stacking them on top of each other. This type of barrel storage is often practiced in Ireland, where six barrels are placed on a pallet and these are stacked on top of each other up to seven pallets.
What are the advantages of horizontal storage on steel frames?
With this type of storage with the bunghole facing upwards, a sample of the matured whiskey can be conveniently taken from the cask. This allows the degree of maturity of a whiskey to be checked at any time without having to move the barrel in the warehouse - more or less laboriously. On the other hand, the casks can be conveniently moved on the metal racks by means of a forklift truck, which simplifies handling enormously. Even entire keg blocks can be moved in this way.
Does the position of the bunghole have to be observed for horizontal barrel storage?
In principle, no. In the large high-bay warehouses in Scotland or the USA, the barrels are moved in and out of the storage racks by rollers without paying attention to the position of the bunghole. Therefore, it is necessary that the bunghole of the barrel is well sealed with a wooden plug (wooden bung) and a bung rag. At St. Kilian, the bunghole of the barrel is always on top of the steel rack. This is also sealed with a food-grade silicone plug that can be easily removed from the barrel in the rack, allowing convenient access for sampling.
What needs to be considered for upright storage on pallets?
An important issue with storing whiskey barrels upright is the risk of leakage. When the barrels are upside down, there is quite a bit of pressure on the bottom of the barrel, which is not in the direction the barrels were designed to withstand the force. The result is often a more or less curved barrel lid, which can cause those leaks. When barrels are stored horizontally, this pressure is directed down the sides of the barrel lids without deforming them.
Why did St. Kilian choose the metal frames?
The many advantages offered by this type of barrel storage have led us to implement metal racks in our warehouses. For the transport and handling of the barrels that have to be filled at our distillery in Rüdenau and transported up to our warehouses in Bunker City, these galvanized steel racks are ideal and have proven themselves excellently so far. In addition, this type of storage on steel racks ensures good air circulation, as the barrels are sufficiently spaced apart, which ultimately also benefits optimal maturation.
Do all barrels at St. Kilian tire horizontally?
No. To a small extent, we also store barrels upright at four barrels per pallet. This applies exclusively to bourbon barrels in order to save some space for this type of barrel. We also consider this an experiment to see how this upright storage affects the maturation of our whiskey in bourbon barrels.