A YORKSHIRE-BASED distillery has joined forces with a local firm to create what is thought to be a pair of the world’s smallest wooden casks.

Each cask, created by Cooper King Distillery in collaboration with Jensen’s Cooperage, has been hand-coopered from individual, virgin English oak staves by master cooper at Jensen's. Jonathan Manby, finished with hand-made copper hoops and presented in an oak frame.

The 750ml capacity casks are individually numbered and engraved - with each base stamped with the cooperage’s mark.

The casks are available to enthusiasts across the world via online auction, with a reserve price of £350 each, which covers the cost to produce each cask. Fifty per cent of all proceeds above the reserve price will be donated to the distillery’s charity partner, Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, to fund community outreach projects in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Christopher Jaume, co-founder of Cooper King Distillery said: “The collaboration between Cooper King Distillery and Jensen’s Cooperage showcases the ingenuity and craftsmanship of the cooper, celebrates the beauty of oak and creates something timeless – a treasure to be passed down through generations.

“These are living, breathing casks. Each one gives the owner the chance to age their own spirit and to experience the wonder of maturation first hand.”

Each cask comes with one litre of the distillery’s gold-medal winning New-Make Malt Spirit, and is ready to be filled by the winner bidders. Due to the increased wood surface to spirit ratio, a rich and flavoursome maturing malt could be created in a relatively short amount of time.

Jonathan Manby, of Jensen’s Cooperage, said: “Drawing on my years of experience, and investment of over 100 hours of research and development into this collaboration, we have created something beautiful yet functional, that pushes the boundaries of what can be achieved when working with oak.”

An online auction for the new micro casks launched on the distillery’s website at 11am on Monday June 6 and closes 11pm o Thursday June 30. Head over to the Cooper King website for details and to place your bid on the casks.

For further details, contact the team by emailing info@cooperkingdistillery.co.uk or calling 01347 808232.

Founded in 2016 by Dr Abbie Neilson, a former scientist and Chris Jaume, a chartered architect, Cooper King Distillery is an independent, self-built, crowd-funded distillery near York, producing sustainable spirits distilled with "craftsmanship, honesty and adventure."

The firm was inspired by Abbie and Chris’ desire to leave the rat-race. They travelled across the globe and became fascinated by the eight operational whisky distilleries in Tasmania.

With a mission to bring their discoveries back to England, the couple gave up their established careers and set up a sustainable distillery back home in Yorkshire.