Poplar cask

[DavidH]

For some reason, I wrote in my notes from the Cooley trip last year that the recent Mallorcan wine-finished Tyrconnell was maturing in a poplar cask. It's clearly oak so I don't know where that came from. Anybody else take notes that day? Who mentioned poplar? And is a poplar cask even possible?

That reminded me that the laws defining Irish whiskey don't specify oak, just wood. Do we know of any whiskey matured or finished in a cask not made of oak?

[JohnM]

I thought whisky always had to be matured in oak. I always wondered what it would be like if matured in something like maple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5KMWnNbYXc&feature=fvsr

[DavidH]

It has to be oak in Scotland. But not in Ireland, for some reason.

I've always wondered what whiskey would be like if other smokes besides peat were used when drying the malt, like mesquite or bacon or something.

[IainB]

Maybe you meant to say it was a popular cask.

[JohnM]

It has to be oak in Scotland. But not in Ireland, for some reason.

I've always wondered what whiskey would be like if other smokes besides peat were used when drying the malt, like mesquite or bacon or something.

I always assumed it had to be oak, but you're right. It does just say "wooden casks", now that I read it.