Readers Respond: Whiskey barrels and retail

An article in last week’s newsletter titled "Throwback Thursday: hot item department" featured a photo of whiskey barrels for sale at Payless Cashways in 1976.

The article generated the following letter from a reader:

“Whiskey barrel sales were big when I was at West Building Materials. The picture brought back memories of these barrels sitting in lumber yards. If I had not read the caption, I would have thought that the picture was taken at West Building Materials. 

“The barrels were brought in for planting flowers and vegetables. People cut the barrel in half and had two planters. Most of the barrels were used for this purpose.

“However we found out that many were used for other purposes. We had people coming and looking for stamps of certain whiskey manufacturers on the barrel. We were told that if you took the barrel and put water inside and corked the barrel, then you could leave it outside during the summer months and it would extract whiskey from the wood. I never heard the amount of whiskey-to-water you could produce, but the water was poured out and strained. The person doing this would obtain a certain number of gallons of water-downed whiskey, which they thought tasted great.   

“I had heard that buying the barrel for $10 to $15 was a bargain for the amount of whiskey obtained per barrel. The reason they could do this was that when the original whiskey was drained, the inside of the barrel was burned. That process sealed whiskey in the wood, and the combination of water and heat allowed the whiskey to be pulled out of the wood.”

—

Gary Landress

EVP, sales and business development

Hampton Products International Corp.

Foothill Ranch, California