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How long are brandies usually matured in oak containers?
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distilled spirit
The fermentation and distillation process for producing whiskey. The production of whiskey begins with grinding grain into a meal, which is cooked. Malt is introduced to the meal, which results in mash that is cooled and pumped into a fermenter, where yeast is added. The fermented mixture is heated in a still, where the heat vaporizes the alcohol. The alcohol vapours are caught, cooled, condensed, and drawn off as clean, new whiskey. This liquid is stored in a cistern room, and water is added to lower the proof (absolute alcohol content) before the whiskey is placed in new charred oak barrels for aging and later bottling.
Most brandies are matured in oak containers for three to five years. While this is the typical duration, some brandies may remain in cask for as long as 20 to 40 years or even longer.1
Specific varieties, such as cognac, follow their own regulatory standards for aging in wood. For example, most cognacs spend between one and one-half and five years in oak, though they are rarely kept in cask beyond 40 or 50 years. Because distilled spirits do not continue to age once they are bottled, the age indicated on a product refers exclusively to the time spent in these containers.23