USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Craftsmen who make wooden barrels are called coopers. The word is most likely derived from the Latin word for vat, “cupa.” In New England, coopers arrived with the first English settlers in the 1620s. Their work was essential to commerce and daily life.

Detailed explanation-2: -Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden, staved vessels, held together with wooden or metal hoops and possessing flat ends or heads.

Detailed explanation-3: -A slack cooper could build up to ten containers a day using crude tools by today’s standards. Tight coopers were the masters of their trade. They made barrels that kept moisture out, critical for flour or gunpowder or kept liquid in, essential for whiskey, rum, and wine.

Detailed explanation-4: -This process, exposing the wooden staves to the open air and elements, naturally ages the wood, mellowing its flavors and allowing some of the bitter tannins to leach out. Herrera estimates that it takes him about 11 hours to build a barrel by hand.