Long time lurker, infrequent poster here. Quick background, I own/operate a meadery in the UK and have been brewing all sorts of things for a few decades, but only been dabbling in distilling for a few years, with some success and some failure (probably a 50:50 mix).
I'm at a point now, where I would like to fill up some 20-30L barrels, starting with a bourbon. Unfortunately American white oak is as rare as rocking horse sh!t here, and most places where barrels are sold aren't able to answer basic questions about the species or where they were produced.
So, I guess the first question I have is whether anyone knows of a source of good quality virgin oak barrels in the UK?
Assuming there aren't any, my next question is whether there are any UK members here that would be interested in splitting the shipping to purchase some barrels from
this company. I don't know anything of the quality, but they have been in business for good few years and they have been mentioned once or twice here.
They use Quercus Patraea from Eastern Europe and can toast and char to specification. I would prefer the American Quercus Alba, but I guess beggers can't be choosers.
I'm looking to do this urgently, but some time in the next few months. I have a lot of fermenting and stripping to do in the mean time.
