A whisky cask can hold anywhere from 170 to more than 750 standard size bottles of whisky when it is first filled. The reality is that the number of bottles in a cask depending on the cask type and age as well as the size of the bottle used and strength of the whisky.
How Many UK Bottles Does A Cask Hold?
When first filled each cask type will hold:
- Quarter casks hold up to 178 bottles
- Barrels hold up to 285 bottles
- Hogsheads hold up to 357 bottles
- Butts hold up to 714 bottles
- Puncheons hold up to 785 bottles
This is based on the cask type sizes listed in the Whisky Treasury 2002 by James McEwan, the UK standard bottle size for spirits, which is 700ml, and assumes the bottles are filled at cask strength.
The flexibility of bottling and the natural effects of whisky maturation means the above are large generalisations. You will find scotch bottled in various sizes; they can be 30ml, 500ml, 700ml, 750ml, 1Litre etc., dependent on the market and the bottlers preference. Scotch can be diluted from cask strength to 40% ABV or above, and so you can get more bottles from a cask where the strength is above 40%. There are more than 16 thousand 30ml miniatures in a puncheon!
Additionally, it is important to realise that the amount of whisky in a cask reduces by an average of between 1% and 4% each year. The reduction is known as the angel’s share and occurs because casks porous. That means some of the liquid evaporates and some is absorbed by the wood – all part of natural whisky maturation. Ultimately unless the cask is newly filled the actual contents of the cask is likely to be less than the initial fill volumes listed above.
How Do I Know How Many Bottles Are In My Cask?
If you want to know how many bottles are in your cask you first need to have the cask regauged. A regauge will tell you how many bulk litres are in the cask and tell you the alcoholic strength (ABV) of the liquid in the cask. From this information you can work out how many 700ml bottles at cask strength your cask contains.
For example, if your cask contains 210 litres at 60% ABV you can potentially get 300 x 700ml bottles at cask strength. Remember that you can dilute whisky down to 40%, meaning that for the same example you could potentially get 450 x 700ml bottles at 40% ABV.
You also need to remember that during bottling some liquid gets lost – up to 5%, which means you may actually only get 285 bottles at cask strength, and 427 at 40% ABV.
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As you can see, measuring a cask by the number of bottles can be misleading. This is why it is not industry practice to represent a cask by how many bottles of liquid is in it.
If you are looking into how many bottles are in a cask then there is a good chance you are looking into buying or selling whisky. What you also need to know is that bottling a cask of whisky as an exit strategy can add an additional 50% onto the costs of your cask investment.
We have created a cask calculator so that you can see exactly how much it could cost you to bottle a cask of whisky, check your costs here. And if you still have questions make sure you get in touch, we are always happy to offer independent advice on buying and selling casks of whisky.
