At M,SU, 85 and 140n56 I refer to yellow gin.  My explanation for the use of oak barrels (for shipping, not aging) was, if correct, only partly correct.  Gin manufacturers used oak for flavor and color.

Lord Kinross, The Kindred Spirit (London: Newman Neame Ltd., 1959), 80:

 "The head cooper of the cask section recalls the origin of this colouring of the gin [i.e., Booth's, which must have still been colored at the time of writing], told to him by his father, who was a stillman here in the nineteenth century.  Until his father's time, Booth's gin was crystal white.  Then one day the firm had a surplus and decided to lay the gin temporarily in casks.  They bought them from Spain, together with large Bodega butts containing some 150 gallons.  They filled these up with the gin, but forgot to season them and thus eliminate the colour.  After a time they took a sample and the gin came out tinted a beautiful gold.  On testing it, they were impressed by its flavour and its smoothness to the palate.  This mellowing process gives character to the spirit, modifies the flavour of the juniper, and creates a unique smoothness of taste and smell."

I thought that I remembered a yellow Seagram's gin in the 1950s, and have recently learned from Mr. Scott Geisler of the Seagram's Corporation that their gin was in fact aged in oak.  I am now attempting to get the exact dates.

© 2001, Lowell Edmunds