I wrote a little about how much product evaporates each year in a post about a 50 year Glenlivet 50 Year Old Single Malt. In that article, I found a quote from Harlen Wheatley, Master Distiller at Buffalo Trace where he states:
...The angel's share is 10 percent for the first year (because whiskey is absorbing into the wood of barrel as well as evaporating), then 4 percent for the next 8 years after that, then around 3 percent per year after thatThe good people at Alcademics.com did the math on a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 23 and found that at bottling, a typical 53 gallon barrel produces a mere 14 gallons of product. As companies are producing longer and longer aged bourbons (Canadian Club 42, Michter's 20, etc.), I think it's helpful to take their work and extrapolate it to a full 50 years as a reference. The entire chart is below.
| Year | Angel's Share (Percent) | Total |
| 53 | ||
| 1 | 0.1 | 47.7 |
| 2 | 0.04 | 45.792 |
| 3 | 0.04 | 43.96032 |
| 4 | 0.04 | 42.2019072 |
| 5 | 0.04 | 40.513830912 |
| 6 | 0.04 | 38.89327767552 |
| 7 | 0.04 | 37.3375465684992 |
| 8 | 0.04 | 35.8440447057592 |
| 9 | 0.04 | 34.4102829175289 |
| 10 | 0.03 | 33.377974430003 |
| 11 | 0.03 | 32.3766351971029 |
| 12 | 0.03 | 31.4053361411898 |
| 13 | 0.03 | 30.4631760569541 |
| 14 | 0.03 | 29.5492807752455 |
| 15 | 0.03 | 28.6628023519881 |
| 16 | 0.03 | 27.8029182814285 |
| 17 | 0.03 | 26.9688307329856 |
| 18 | 0.03 | 26.1597658109961 |
| 19 | 0.03 | 25.3749728366662 |
| 20 | 0.03 | 24.6137236515662 |
| 21 | 0.03 | 23.8753119420192 |
| 22 | 0.03 | 23.1590525837586 |
| 23 | 0.03 | 22.4642810062459 |
| 24 | 0.03 | 21.7903525760585 |
| 25 | 0.03 | 21.1366419987767 |
| 26 | 0.03 | 20.5025427388134 |
| 27 | 0.03 | 19.887466456649 |
| 28 | 0.03 | 19.2908424629496 |
| 29 | 0.03 | 18.7121171890611 |
| 30 | 0.03 | 18.1507536733893 |
| 31 | 0.03 | 17.6062310631876 |
| 32 | 0.03 | 17.0780441312919 |
| 33 | 0.03 | 16.5657028073532 |
| 34 | 0.03 | 16.0687317231326 |
| 35 | 0.03 | 15.5866697714386 |
| 36 | 0.03 | 15.1190696782955 |
| 37 | 0.03 | 14.6654975879466 |
| 38 | 0.03 | 14.2255326603082 |
| 39 | 0.03 | 13.7987666804989 |
| 40 | 0.03 | 13.384803680084 |
| 41 | 0.03 | 12.9832595696815 |
| 42 | 0.03 | 12.593761782591 |
| 43 | 0.03 | 12.2159489291133 |
| 44 | 0.03 | 11.8494704612399 |
| 45 | 0.03 | 11.4939863474027 |
| 46 | 0.03 | 11.1491667569806 |
| 47 | 0.03 | 10.8146917542712 |
| 48 | 0.03 | 10.4902510016431 |
| 49 | 0.03 | 10.1755434715938 |
| 50 | 0.03 | 9.87027716744595 |

Six year bourbon is good enough for me. My time for drinking is very limited!
ReplyDeleteYooper Joe
I like older bourbons at barrel strength because the flavors are more concentrated since no dilution occurs.
ReplyDelete