Yesterday I made my second spirit, tropical smelling/ tasting half grain half sugar. I charred some cinnamon barks (3) really well, then I cooled them in cold water (I heard JD do that to their wood) and I am aging my high abv spirit (around 270 ml) in it now. After half a day the alcohol is a light amber color the smell is still really nice.
I used those barks in my old spirit, and weirdly I got really nice apply/ honey notes on the nose, but that was with the un-toasted cinnamon barks.
When you char them they don't taste much like cinnamon, they lose sweetness and the spiciness but tbh this type of bark has weak cinnamon flavor to begin with.
It does indeed create new flavors. Not sure how it is going to translate in aging alcohol tho.
I hold them on an open fire and let them burn, most of it is well charred, but when I cut the center it has tiny bit left charred. It is very uneven char.
Aging needs time. What you are playing with is flavoring.
Using botanicals to simulate aged liquor from newly made liquor isn't something I've seen discussed here often, but there are two very good threads here on fast aging. viewtopic.php?f=4&t=38991 viewtopic.php?f=44&t=55301
If I want to create flavored alcoholic drinks in a hurry in a country we're visiting, I use locally available ingredients and we can usually be drinking our own, very nice, products 8 to 10 days after we arrive.
Will read it for sure.
I tend to use aging wrong, I use it anytime wood is involved even if it is in a jar for less than a week.
And for using botanical, after the first run I let it macerate with orange peels, banana peels, saffron, mint powder, lemon and lime peels. It made it smell very tropical, like a juice even. Second run the flavors became nice and subtle, this time I can drink the 50-60% alcohol without feeling much, if it wasn't for the fact that it was drying the hell of my mouth! Reading the forum made me improve quite a bit.
Edit: I have read the 20 years in 6 days thread before. It is interesting but requires plenty of tools.
Drinking 50-60% abv alcohol is a mistake. It has always tasted bad to me, like it's sucking the blood out of my tongue. Also, ABVs that high can do cell damage in the mouth and esophagus and anything that causes cell damage can lead to some very nasty health outcomes that I'm sure we would all prefer to avoid.
LabDistiller wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 1:37 amI have read the 20 years in 6 days thread before. It is interesting but requires plenty of tools.
I'm probably one of the posters who have made the most use of the information in that thread. It's only as difficult as you make it and it has given me some great results.
NZChris wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 2:03 am
Drinking 50-60% abv alcohol is a mistake. It has always tasted bad to me, like it's sucking the blood out of my tongue. Also, ABVs that high can do cell damage in the mouth and esophagus and anything that causes cell damage can lead to some very nasty health outcomes that I'm sure we would all prefer to avoid.
Yes I understand, but I did put the cinammon in before I check the abv so now I have to wait until I filter it then I can dilute it properly. I just took a small drop and it got diluted from the drops in the glass (I rinsed the glass), but thanks for the concern.
As for that thread, if I understood correctly, warming it up and light have the biggest effect other than having microwave or ultrasonic, right?
Ok so today I checked the abv, it was 47.5% after filtering (some water got introduced from the coffee filter and the beaker). Then I dialed it back to 42 percent.
The color is gorgeous amber, same as many commercial whiskeys/ bourbons and I didn't need to add any coloring this time. The nose is cinnamon heavy but not in a spicy way, in a sweet way instead. After you go past that it is a bit fruity (from the base spirit) and a very slight roast notes.
Now for the taste, it was very smooth at first, clean tasting, sweet cinnamon with a hint of caramel and ends in apple notes. The taste is very lingering, I can still feel it 1 minute after tasting.
Bottom line, the cassia taste still comes through even roasting it, I don't mind it, in fact it is quite good and I am looking forward to drinking it on the rocks/ or with tonic water.
