Cask Codes

The start of the year sees most distilleries restarting their cask numbering sequence from 1. Archie Mac Brayne the Mashman from Glen Scotia distillery recently shared a picture of their first cask fill.

First cask of 2021 - number 1. Photo: Archie Mac Brayne

What does all of the information on the cask head mean?

Most casks will have information stamped or labelled on to them so they can be identified in the warehouse. When you have thousands if not tens of thousands of casks in your warehouse a good labelling system (and good spreadsheet) are essential!

Casks being filled (side fill). Photo: Archie Mac Brayne

Some casks are filled from the side and will end up in a dunnage warehouse, some are filled from the top and will end up in a palatized warehouse. Cask #1 in the photo at the top of the page has a bung on the top of the cask but it's just sitting there - there's no bung hole! The filling hole is in the side - so this cask will be dunnage matured.

In the photo above you can see 4 labels and some stamped black text:

Let's start with the black text: this was burned in by the original cask user, in this case "Jim Beam Brands Co." It contained "Bourbon Whiskey" from "DSP KY 230".

This is the code from the U.S. Treasury's Department of Alcohol and Tobacco, Tax and Trade Bureau. The code means Distilled Spirits Plant - American for a distillery, "KY" indicates Kentucky and "230" is the code for Jim Beam's plant in Clermont.

The code below this was their identification number for the cask.

The top label shows the peat PPM level "HP" indicating Heavily Peated.

For Glen Scotia:

HP is 45-50 PPM

MP (Medium Peated) would be 20-25 PPM.

The middle label identifies the Distillery owner - "Loch Lomond Distillery Co. Ltd", the type of spirit "Glen Scotia" (at LL this may say Inchmurrin, Inchmoan, Croftengea etc) and the year of distillation "2021"

The bar code suggests "GSCO" Glen Scotia - this is from a list of distilleries issued by the SWA.

"2021" the year of distillation, "00000000001" the cask number and "ZZ" (a filler)

Finally the Cask number is shown "0000001"

The bottom label identifies the "Wood Owner", i.e. the cask owner as "Loch Lomond Dist", the year they bought the cask into the Loch Lomond Cooperage "2020" and it's sequence number "004242".

The barcode is a unique identifier "2020" being the year, "007917" is the sequential number of casks bought from a particular supplier in the year, "301" is the supplier code in this case Jim Beam, "03" is the cask size, here it is a barrel (01 butt, 02 hogshead, 03 barrel etc) and "605" is the cask type - here it is ex-bourbon.

The label on the left identifies the cask as being ex-"Bourbon" and the Fill number - in this case as there's no mark it's "1st Fill".

The next time the cask is used a cross will be put through the 1st Fill box, see example below.

So this cask has now gone into Dunnage Warehouse No. 1 to slowly mature, some options may be:

• married with some other young casks for Campbeltown Harbour, Double Cask or Campbeltown 1832
• bottled as a 7+ yo single cask special edition
• married with some other casks and finished for a Festival Limited Edition
• married with some other 10yo for the European GS 10yo
• married with some other 15+ yo for the global GS age statemented bottles
• married with some ex-sherry & MP whisky for a Victoriana bottling
• re-casked and finished in a sherry, wine or my choice a port cask as a (not strictly) single cask

Let's wait and see!

Some other cask labels I've seen:

Some casks will have two numbers, as in the last example above. This is indicating that Cask number 7 was re-casked in 2017 as part of distillery operation 416 (operations include new make cask filling, mature spirit vatting and re-casking operations) - in this case it was re-casked into a 1st Fill Oloroso Hogshead.

Archie was also kind enough to share a photo of the final fill of 2020 - cask number 2580. This came from DSP KY 1 - Heaven Hill's New Bernheim plant in Louisville. This was filled with Medium Peated spirit, again into a 1st fill cask. In this case it was top filled so ended up in a palatized warehouse.

Final cask of 2020 (top fill). Photo: Archie Mac Brayne

A busy day at the office.....

Palatized casks being filled from the top. Photo: Archie Mac Brayne

If that wasn't geeky enough - there's a Geeky bit too:

There are a few website showing different list of DSP numbers, and since the end of Prohibition many have changed.

This is a list covering some of the more well known ones:

Kentucky

DSP- KY – 1 : Heaven Hill Distillery; Bernheim Facility  – Heaven Hill, Louisville, KY

DSP- KY – 8 : Four Roses, Lawrenceburg, KY

DSP- KY – 12 : Tom Moore, Bardstown, KY – Sazerac

DSP- KY – 14 : Old Grand Dad

DSP- KY – 16 : Stitzel-Weller, Louisville, KY

DSP- KY 18 : Castle & Key, Frankfort/Versailles, KY

DSP- KY – 24 : Glenmore Distillery, Owensboro, KY – Sazerac

DSP- KY-25 : Old Crow Distillery

DSP- KY – 31 : Heaven Hill Distillery – Bottling Facility, Bardstown, KY

DSP- KY – 44 : Makers Mark

DSP- KY – 49 : Medley Distillery, Owensboro, KY

DSP- KY – 50 : Peerless Distillery, Louisville, KY

DSP- KY – 52 : Woodford Reserve Distillery – Brown-Foreman, Versailles, KY

DSP- KY – 62 : Four Roses – Cox’s Creek, KY

DSP- KY – 67 : Wild Turkey, Lawrenceburg, KY

DSP- KY – 78 : Willett – Bardstown, KY

DSP- KY – 113 : Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, KY

DSP- KY – 230 : Jim Beam – Clermont, KY

DSP- KY – 354 : Early Times Distillery – Brown-Foreman, Louisville, KY

DSP- KY – 15004 : Alltech’s Lexington Distilling Co, Town Branch, Lexington, KY

DSP- KY – 15005 : Barrel House Distilling Company – Lexington, KY

DSP- KY – 15006 : Corsair – Bowling Green, KY

DSP- KY – 15007 : Strong Spirits, Bardstown, KY

DSP- KY – 15010 : MB Roland

DSP- KY – 15012 : The Old Pogue Distillery – Maysville, KY

DSP- KY – 15014 : Limestone Branch Distillery, Lebanon, KY

DSP- KY – 20003 : Michters Distillery, Louisville, KY

DSP- KY – 20014 : Copper & Kings, Butchertown – Louisville, KY

DSP- KY – 20016 : New Riff Distilling, Newport, KY

DSP- KY – 20026 : Bulleit

DSP- KY – 20037 : Bardstown Bourbon Company

Indiana

DSP- IN – 31 : Starlight Distillery – Huber’s – Borden, IN

DSP- IN – 15016 : MGP Ingredients, Lawrenceburg, IN

Illinois

DSP- IL – 15018 : FEW Spirits – Evanston, IL

Ohio

DSP- OH – 20028 : Cleveland Distillery, Cleveland, OH

Tennessee

DSP- TN – 4 : Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, TN

DSP- TN – 2 : Cascade Hollow, Dickel, Tullahoma, TN

DSP- TN – 15006 : Corsair – Nashville, TN

Virginia

DSP- VA – 25 : A. Smith Bowman Fredricksburg Virginia Gentleman

DSP- VA – 1797 : George Washington Mt. Vernon historical

Pennsylvania

DSP- PA – 15016 : Pittsburg Distilling Company – Pittsburg, PA