Barrel Like with other spirits, longer aging results in a more pronounced flavor. Traditional balsamic vinegar is aged in a series of wooden barrels. Since its invention in 1868, the pepper mash used to make Tabasco sauce is aged for three years in previously used oak whisky barrels. Beers are sometimes aged in barrels which were previously used for maturing wines or spirits. This is most common in darker beers such as stout, which is sometimes aged in oak barrels identical to those used for whisky. Whisky distiller Jameson notably purchases barrels used by Franciscan Well brewery for their Shandon Stout
Barrel necessary elsewhere, whisky made elsewhere is usually aged in used barrels that previously contained American whisky (usually bourbon whisky). The typical bourbon barrel is in size, which is thus the "de facto" standard whisky barrel size worldwide. Some distillers transfer their whisky into different barrels to "finish" or add qualities to the final product. These finishing barrels frequently aged a different spirit (such as rum) or wine. Other distillers, particularly those producing Scotch, often disassemble five used bourbon barrels and reassemble them into four casks with different barrel ends for aging Scotch, creating a type of cask referred to as