How is barrel-aged whiskey made?

Have you ever looked at a glass of deep, amber whiskey and wondered how it gets its color, its aroma, and its complex flavor? It doesn't come out of the distillery that way. It's born from a magical transformation that happens over years of silent patience inside a single, humble container: the charred oak barrel. In this episode of How Does That Work?, we uncork the secrets of barrel-aged whiskey. We follow the spirit's journey from a simple field of grain through the fiery heart of a still, and explore the happy accident of history that led to the discovery of aging. We'll take a deep dive into the cooper's art of preparing a barrel, the incredible science of how temperature and humidity in a warehouse can completely change the final product, and how distillers around the world—from Scotland to Japan—use different barrels and techniques to create their own iconic styles.