Cooper

1. ('ku:p) n. A person skilled in making
and repairing barrels, casks, etc.

2. -vb tr. To make or mend (barrels,
casks, etc)

From Middle Dutch cuper or Middle Low German Kuper.

Coopers Choice

1. n. Barrels filled with 10 year old Malt Scotch Whisky produced by Old St Andrews.

2. n. A great gift for a scotch lover. A special bottle for that special person

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It takes a lot of skill to take two dozen irregularly shaped pieces of wood and make a waterproof container from them, but coopers have been doing this in Europe for over 2,000 years. A barrel is made up of staves, which have been shaped into a bulging cylinder held in place by metal hoops. The shape is designed so the barrel can easily be rolled - the curving ‘bilge’ allows the barrel to be spun easily in any direction.

Most cooperages tend to make barrels from white oak, which has a tight grain and fine tannin content. The cooper assembled the staves inside the first metal hoop, which acts as a jig.  This operation is known as "mise en rose". Three metal hoops are forced into place, after which the "rose" is placed over a small wood fire and the inside of the barrel is charred or "toasted" to give flavour. To finish assembly, the cooper winches the staves together at the top, fits the heads into the "croze" and completes the final hooping with a large mallet.  It takes approximately eight man-hours to produce a single barrel. 

Scotch Whisky Act of 1988 states Scotch must be matured in oak barrels of a capacity not exceeding 700 litres.; this is what gives the colour and part of the taste to the otherwise clear liquid. The whisky is usually aged in 'second hand' barrels, which have been previously used to age another liquid, usually bourbon or sherry. The tannin in the wood has been removed by the barrels' previous contents. Sherry barrels give a rich red colour and a fruity taste, while bourbon barrels give a light colour and a dryer taste.

Whisky barrels, being made from a natural material, cannot be perfectly sealed. Indeed the ability of the barrels to "breathe" is vital to the final taste of the product. When a barrel is filled, there is an initial ‘in-drink’ of about 2% and then during the years that a barrel spends in the bonded warehouse about two percent of the contents are lost to evaporation each year. When barrels are opened after say four years maturing, around 10% of the contents will have disappeared. This loss is known in the trade as "the angel's share"

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