Sampling of casks occurs both by the distillery itself for ongoing cask management processes and at the request of individual cask owners. Several cask sampling lists have been designed to allow members of the distilling team and the cask custodian to manage this process carefully by allowing the recording of a variety of information related to casks these include but are not limited to;
- A list of Casks to be sampled
- Amount to be sampled
- The person requesting the cask sample and the date
- Whether duty has been paid
- Where and to whom to send any samples (if for a private cask owner)
- When the sample has been taken
- Details of the sample such as duty / LPA / and strength
- And recording of whether invoices have been sent for any duty and bottling costs.
Lets give an example
Neil Brooks owner of Cask CFID 5801 / CalcCaskNo 190879 rings up the cask custodian and indicates that he would like to send his wife Mary Brooks a 500ml sample from the cask
The cask custodian should next go to the following first
And when the list appears hit the ADD NEW button at which point they should be presented with the following screen.
Fields marked with a red asterix are required fields
The cask source is a field where you can type in the number you are interested in in this case you should type in the calc cask no
190879
Type the number in and wait for a short period and a list of the casks that match this number should appear
IMPORTANT — it is important to not just type it in but use the mouse to select the actual returned cask in this case 190879 when it is correct the red outline will stop on the Cask Source.
PLEASE NOTE — The drop down list has been altered to include other details about the cask such as the warehouse it is presently in and the comment field as well. This allows the user to double check that the right information is being input.
Next input the Sample Size in ml along with any description if this is necessary.
Continue entering information such as Description and the Recipient
PLEASE NOTE – Recipient is entered similarly to the Cask Source type in the name and wait for a short period and the name should appear afterwhich you MUST select it with your mouse. Below is the completed form in our example.
The save button can now be hit and a new sample will be added to the Sample Queue list.
This sample is also added to the list behind the button
It is important to recognise that the difference between the two lists is that all samples behind have a null value for the Date drawn field.
This sample will now appear at the top of the sample queue – here SREF (which stands for sample ref) 66
Now what if you need to remember to invoice them for this?
Identify the red circle and using your mouse select it. The following tab should appear.
Hit the ADD NEW button and a pre-invoicing screen appears. At this point you ONLY need to select who the invoice should be sent to and how much it should be made out to..
Here I complete it and suggest the invoice will be sent to Neil Brooks for 100 pounds.
This changes the red 0 to a 1
IMPORTANT NOTE – looking behind the INVOICES (2B RAISED) button this preinvoice will now be there.
Screenshot showing request for invoice for £100 to Neil Brooks
When the distillery staff are ready to make the sample from the cask they go into the Sample Queue and identify the casks in question and make the samples according to the list.
After having made the test they can record the details here. So lets say that after sampling was made on the 10 of October 2020 and that the strength was found to be 63%
Here is the edited record after this information has been entered.
Please note that when you complete the Date drawn field this will take it out of the sample queue and place it in the Samples to Send queue IF a value in Recipient if not it will only be visible in the All Samples List.
Now we go to Samples to Send and we will se our newly created sample with all of the details required to send it out in the post.
Whoever is in charge of sending out the samples can then go to this list and enter it appropriately. Completing the Sent date removes it from this screen but it will still be visible in the All Samples list.