5 Jobs in Whiskey You’ve Never Heard Of

With hundreds of millions of bottles produced every year, the global whiskey industry is enormous, valued at approximately $28 billion. While production is led by countries like Scotland and the United States — both of which produce whiskey in a number of styles — Irish, Japanese, and other world whiskeys are popular in their own right, and there are a lot of jobs required to uphold each category.

Of course, there are the positions one expects to see in any distilling operation — distiller, master distiller, chemical engineer, blender, warehouse manager, brand manager. But then there are also a host of other unique jobs that are crucial for the production, maturation, and quality-control processes. Some of them are so niche you might doubt they even exist.

From barrel brokers and leak hunters to masters of wood (yes, that’s a real title) and more, keep reading to check out five of the weirdest jobs in whiskey.

Barrel Broker

Without barrels, there is no whiskey industry. Scotch, Irish, and Japanese whiskeys are all aged in oak casks for a minimum of three years in their respective countries before being bottled and sold. In the United States, bourbon and rye must be matured in new, charred American oak casks for at least two years. While it’s true that all whiskeys typically require wood barrels, not all styles mandate the use of new barrels, which distilling teams typically source themselves. There are also few restrictions on which types of barrels distillers use to finish their whiskeys, so producers opt for everything from casks used to age sherry and other types of wine to those formerly housing spirits like rum or Cognac.

To acquire these barrels, producers often go through individuals known as barrel brokers, whose sole responsibility is distributing used casks throughout the beverage industry. Companies like the Barrel Broker and Barrel Global are dedicated to fulfilling the alcohol industry’s barrel needs, selling both empty, used, and filled barrels to distillers, brewers, and winemakers around the world.

Sherry Cask Trader

For several Scotch producers — most notably The Macallan — sherry casks are a quintessential component of production. Believe it or not, the vast majority of these casks never actually housed any sherry. Instead, there is an entire industry dedicated to creating sherry-seasoned barrels to ship around the world, with the U.K. serving as a primary importer. As author Henry H. Work told VinePair, there are essentially two kinds of sherry barrels currently produced in Spain’s Sherry Triangle: those that enter into the solera process, and those that coopers make for export.

Rather than holding maturing sherry intended for consumption, these casks are filled with inexpensive, young sherry that’s strictly used for seasoning purposes. A few Spanish bodegas produce more sherry for seasoning barrels than they do for drinking, with some arguing that the sherry industry is only functioning to prop up the Scotch industry. Furthermore, some of these barrels don’t even ship from Spain, like those distributed by Germany’s Wilhelm Eder.

Rick Smoker

In order to craft Tennessee whiskey, all distillates must undergo the Lincoln County Process, a technique for filtering whiskey through maple charcoal before it’s bottled. The process used to be referred to as charcoal leaching and is thought to have been created by Nearest Green, a former slave who worked for Jack Daniel and became the first African American master distiller. At the Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, Tenn., there are two individuals charged specifically with creating this charcoal for filtering the famous whiskey. To do so, Darren Lipham and Tracy Matlock take maple wood stacks measuring six feet tall — referred to as ricks — and place them in an open-sided kiln to smoke. Lipham and Matlock then torch the wood with nascent flames. Once the whole thing catches, it takes about four hours to produce enough charcoal for one vat of whiskey, or approximately 53 gallons.

Leak Hunter

As whiskeys mature, a great deal of liquid disappears in the process, with evaporated fluid known as the angel’s share. Given how much of the spirit is lost to the elements, the last thing any distiller wants is for more juice to be sacrificed due to a faulty barrel. That’s where leak hunters come in. The job is exactly what it sounds like — patrolling maturation warehouses in search of any barrel with cracks or fissures that could result in the cask hemorrhaging precious whiskey. If they stumble upon a leaky barrel, the hunters repair the wood then and there, typically by scraping loose fibers off the cask and hammering in some cedar chips to plug the hole and minimize wasted spirit.

Master of Wood

We’ve established that cask selection is mission critical for producing quality whiskey. These barrels are often chosen by master distillers or blenders, but some brands take things a step further, employing people who are solely responsible for tracking down the world’s best barrels. The Macallan is one of the most prominent examples, with the distillery formerly employing its own master of wood, Stuart MacPherson, a title on par with master distiller and master blender. MacPherson left The Macallan in 2022, but the procedures put in place during his tenure are still used today.

The team sources oak from North American and European trees around 70 and 100 years old, respectively. Once harvested, the wood is left to air dry for one year before being shipped to Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, to dry for another 12 months. At this point, the oak is cut into casks and seasoned with sherry. Once fully seasoned, each one is evaluated, with only the best barrels selected to hold maturing Scotch whisky.

The article 5 Jobs in Whiskey You’ve Never Heard Of appeared first on VinePair.