The Whisky Experiment

I'm (planning on) conducting a Whisky maturation experiment. It's not going to be an experiment that is going to hold up scientifically but it's going to be fun non the less.

What I want to do is finding out what the difference will be between a fresh American Oak matured new make malt spirit and a sherry matured new make malt spirit. 

What I will first do is mature new make single malt spirit in a fresh American Oak Barrel. 

To do this I bought a barrel and new make spirit. 

First thing I noticed was a slight rattling of something inside the barrel. After shaking it out it turned out to be some left over wood from drilling the bung hole.

First question that pops to mind is:

- do I rinse this out and with what?

The experiment has progressed as far as this. Updates will follow as they come depending on my discipline and opportunity to actually write something new 😋