[Aerkuld]

I've been exchanging whisk(e)y samples with a work colleague and last night had a sample of M.B. Roland Single Barrel Bourbon.
WOW! This was something else, dark, rich, and full of delicious burnt sugar, peanut brittle, dried figs and stewed prunes, with some nice woody oak and maybe even cedar background notes. I got very little of the things I've traditionally associated with bourbon such as the vanilla. I'm guessing this was matured in some fairly heavily toasted oak casks. Don't know much else about it as it was just a small pour in the exchangeable 3oz sample bottle, but guessing it's probably in the 50% to 55% ABV range and no idea on age.
We'll be adding bourbons to our tasting group schedule.

Oh, and the mini casks. Definitely fill it with water and give it a good soaking for a week or so until it doesn't leak anymore. The wood has to swell in order to seal. I've had a mini cask for a while now. The first fill with spirit lasted for a month and a half. I stopped it there as the spirit was becoming very sweet from the fresh oak and was becoming a little over powered. I was working on an acceleration factor of x8 based on volume to surface area, so that's about 1 year equivalent. There's definitely substantial loss of volume on that first fill partly from evaporation, and party from the wood soaking up the spirit I suspect. I've since filled the cask with sherry and seasoned it for a similar time before emptying the sherry and filling with scotch to see how sherry aging comes out. Should be done by Christmas so I'll let you know.