F – like cask no. 1
How big is the variety of casks at St. Kilian?
We currently have over 370 different cask sizes and types in which our St. Kilian single malt whisky is matured.
Is there a special cask?
We have numerous special casks. But the cask with the highest emotionality is the one with the No. 1.
What’s behind cask no. 1?
We number all the casks consecutively, starting with the number 1, so the cask with the number one was the very first cask at St Kilian’s to be filled. It includes the very first spirit distilled using our two Scottish copper pot stills on St Patrick’s Day in March 2016.
Which wood is cask no. 1 made of?
The cask was specially made for us by the Wilhelm Eder cooperage in Bad Dürkheim, Rhineland-Palatinate. It has the maximum permitted volume of 700 litres for the maturation of German whisky and is made from Johanniskreuz oak. Johanniskreuz is a regional growth area in the Palatinate Forest around the Kaiserslautern region and offers ideal conditions for the slow and fine-pored growth of oak trees. Our cask no. 1 was given a special, very strong toasting for the maturation of our spirit.
What happens to the contents of cask no. 1?
The original idea at St Kilian was not to touch the contents of this first cask and to leave it to mature for as long as possible. However, a sensory test after five years led to the decision to bottle parts of this cask and offer it to our fans.
How was the whisky bottled from cask no. 1?
Five years after filling, around two thirds of the contents were removed from the cask in April 2021 and labelled as “Cask No. 1 – First Cut after 5 years” with an alcohol content of 58.7% vol. filled in a total of 760 bottles (0.5 litre pot still bottle). Naturally – as always with St. Kilian – neither coloured nor chill-filtered.
What happened to the rest in cask no. 1?
The rest remained in the cask. We topped up the removed amount of whisky with fresh, mild St Kilian New Make and let the mixture mature further. This is somewhat reminiscent of the famous sherry solera process. In our case, you could even speak of a ‘one-cask solera’.
Will cask no. 1 be emptied again?
Our plan is to bottle around two thirds of the contents again as five-year-old single malt whisky five years after the first partial bottling, i.e. in 2026, and to make up the missing volume with fresh new make.
Why is only part of cask no. 1 ever bottled?
This special approach of only removing two thirds of the cask at a time and refilling it with fresh New Make ensures that the whisky is not too strongly dominated by oak. Secondly, every bottling from cask no. 1 still contains a drop of the very first distillate from March 2016. In addition, parts of the first spirit still remain in the cask and are allowed to mature forever.
