During the maturation process, whiskey is stored in casks that can be quite large and unwieldy. Still, master distillers must check on the progress of the whiskey is it matures to determine the correct time to bottle. If you don’t want to spill any of the valuable liquid and you can’t roll around the barrel, how does that happen?
Whiskey Thief
A whiskey thief is used to extract a small portion of whiskey from an aging barrel for sampling or quality control.
The old-fashioned versions are made typically of copper and resemble a large drinking straw as pictured above.
It is pointed at the bottom, has a long copper neck, and a vent hole at the top.
The distiller inserts the thief into the barrel, to fill it with whiskey, covers the hole with their thumb to create negative pressure that holds the whiskey in the tube as it is removed from the barrel. Then, once holding the pointed end over the glass, the thumb is released and the whiskey flows into the tasting glass.
While distillers call it a whiskey thief, the same tool is used to sample wine and is called a wine thief. Traditional thiefs are made from copper, but modern ones can be made of glass or plastic.
Calling it a thief is meant in the literal sense as many distiller workers used to use these tools to steal samples from the aging whiskey. Since the barrels could sit for 10 years or more, it was easy for a thief to draw a little out of the barrel without anyone noticing.
Copper Dog
A copper dogis another type of tool used to sample whiskey from the barrel.
The dipping dog, similar in shape to the their only shorter is attached to a chain and secured to the workers’ belts was concealed in their pant legs.
A thief could easily draw off some liquid from the cask and carry it out without drawing attention. It got its name from the fact that is was attached to a chain, always by the workers side, and considered man’s best friend, thus the name copper dog!
Copper dipping dogs originated in the 1800’s in Scotland, but are still in use today by distillers. They also make a unique gift for the whiskey enthusiast.