The Cooperage

	The Mad Brewer '99 The Cooperage
Start Over Next Page San Francisco On the Road Again London London Town Darlington The Brit Number 22 Tanners Hall Tapas Vane Terrace Music Maker Spring Thing Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Castle Eden More Casks to Empty Edinburgh Pause that refreshes Inverness Northern Beauty Whisky Madness Dallas Dhu Glenfarclas Aberlour Glenfiddich Strathisla Cooperage Soup Factory Leeds Real Festival York Get me to the Minster on time Maidenhead Farewell to Real Ale	All of the whisky casks are used for aging something else first. The reason is that raw oak would impart too much of the wood flavors into the malt. Or so they say. Anyway, they use mostly old Burbon and sherry casks.
	Before the casks can be re-used, they must be re-built. This is the main business of the cooperage. They manage to get 3 casks out of 4 recycled ones.
	It's a very physical job, and these guys work very hard, because they get paid for each cask they rebuild.
	A pretty strange looking gadget. They can re-use the whisky casks 3 or 4 times, but they are rebuilt before re-use.
	You have to apprentice for 3 years before you can become a cooper. You also have to be able to create a new cask from scratch, by yourself.
	Outside is the visitor center, and a small gift shop.