Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

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ukmoon
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Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by ukmoon »

First time trying rapid aging , got wood from a Woodford barrel , after five days the taste is great , my problem is it turn out black , I would like to know if anyone knows how to get the color betterImage
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by bearriver »

It looks like you don't prepare the sticks much, if at all. Perhaps it is part of a stave that was in contact with the band. If so, you may be looking at iron oxide...

I always resurface my used barrel staves down to the bare wood before cutting into sticks and charring. You never really know what the outside of that barrel was exposed to.

How much did you use per quart?
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by ukmoon »

Two three inch by one inch in a pint jar , I filter it with coffee filters twice , I know for sure it wasn't near metal ring , the taste and smell is great
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Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by ukmoon »

Going to try another and some more preparing on sticks , thanks
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by der wo »

This picture looks creepy. Perhaps some Kentucky earth, on which stood barrels the last 100 years?
At the beginning of the rapid aging it got grey or brown?

I would also do a toasting and charring all around after cleaning. They treated only one of the six sides.
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by Swedish Pride »

agree with bear, take a chisel to all sides expose "new" wood.

many barrels are painted or stained on the outside, mine were.

Does not look like soemthign I would want in my glass
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by corene1 »

On used oak barrel staves I always rough sand the wood to get a new surface then do my prep from there. I also use 16 to 22 square inches of surface to a quart jar of white whisky at 60%. Check out the this thread, lots of good information here. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =4&t=50348
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by cuginosgrizzo »

corene1 wrote:I also use 16 to 22 square inches of surface to a quart jar of white whisky at 60%.
Hi corene maybe you can answer to a quick question I never got around fully. When you say XX square inches of surface, how many faces of the oak stick do you count for the surface you are using? just one? :?
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by ukmoon »

Thanks
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by BasementBrewer »

cuginosgrizzo wrote:
corene1 wrote:I also use 16 to 22 square inches of surface to a quart jar of white whisky at 60%.
Hi corene maybe you can answer to a quick question I never got around fully. When you say XX square inches of surface, how many faces of the oak stick do you count for the surface you are using? just one? :?
Grizzo, surface area is the surface of the whole cube/stick. So all sides are taken into consideration. So for a cube you would calculate the area of one of the faces (base x height) and then multiply by 6 to find the total surface area.
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by ukmoon »

This is the barrel piece I have been working off ofImageImageImage
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by Swedish Pride »

looks a nice piece of oak, just sand, chisel, plane all the original surface's off and hit it with the propane.
Also , what ABV were you aging at?
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by NZChris »

That's huge ratio of wood to likker compared to what you get in a barrel. I reckon it's over-oaked.

I have an experimental jar that turned out about that color that I'm using by blending with white dog, 1 part over-oaked to 3 parts white. It doesn't give it any age, but it looks great, and would be kinda passable if I was that desperate.
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by ukmoon »

55 ABV
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by corene1 »

cuginosgrizzo wrote:
corene1 wrote:I also use 16 to 22 square inches of surface to a quart jar of white whisky at 60%.
Hi corene maybe you can answer to a quick question I never got around fully. When you say XX square inches of surface, how many faces of the oak stick do you count for the surface you are using? just one? :?
You count all the surfaces and bear in mind the more end grain that is exposed the faster the oak will release color and flavor. Remember a barrel has no end grain exposed. To calculate , take the length of each side and multiply by the width . say it is 1 inch wide and 4 inches long you would have 4 sq. inches then multiply by the amount of sides . if it is perfectly square you would multiply by 4 giving you 16 sq inches. Then add in the 1X1 end area which adds another 2 sq inches total and you have a total of 18 sq inches for a 1x1x4 inch stick. This is the size I put in 1 quart of white whisky at 60% ABV. If you are doing an odd shaped piece or a rectangle piece you would take the area of each individual surface and add them together to get your total.
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by Brutal »

If you over oak, time will undo what you have done eventually. Stick it in the back of a cabinet that you do not frequent and put a label with a date on it. I have a near 3 year old jar of ujssm that I over oaked pretty badly leaving it in my attic to heat cycle. It was hideous until it had been off the wood for 1.5 years. Now it's surprisingly good. Black as night though.
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by muscashine »

I've got a sealed jar in the attic with 8 oak cubes I bought from a brew store. It's been there a week and already has a good color. Temps in the attic vary pretty wildly.
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by Secale »

Wouldn't it be better to use less wood and age slower?

Or use different amount in each jar so they age differently.

I just figure slower is better for aging.
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by still_stirrin »

rad14701 wrote:LOL -> Less Oak Longer...
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by Secale »

What's so funny about using less Oak and longer?
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by Chauncey »

thats just over oaked, id cut it down with some unaged/white for one and just let it sit for a while. i use french oak chips, some light toast, some medium, some dark. just a pinch of each and some diluted water to cut down to barrel proof. i usually do it in quarts after blending my cuts, maybe like 10 to 15 chips max and heavier on the light toast ones. I have no experience with using parts of barrels but i would definitely prep that surface. i add the distilled water while blending and check with a distillers/spirit hydrometer before adding the oak chips. if you are over barrel proof, alot of heads in there etc it will strip that oak real fast.

the chips i get are 1.70usd or so for a large ziploc full and they are already food grade material so no real problems with cleanliness. the shop i get them from also has barrel spirals and cubes as of late but i stick to what has worked well for myself and friends.

i use primarily dark ones in my rums and brandy as i like the heavy taste but if you arent careful itll all just end up tasting like wood. the darker the toast the faster its gonna infuse into the booze. for whiskey i definitely mix them adding very few dark ones, couple mediums, and a heavier pinch of light.

heres a jar of oatmeal/corn sugarhead we broke into to sample along the way(it was mardi gras, ok) with a whole pile of crawfish i boiled

Image
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Allmyexsliveinhell wrote:thats just over oaked, id cut it down with some unaged/white for one and just let it sit for a while. i use french oak chips, some light toast, some medium, some dark. just a pinch of each and some diluted water to cut down to barrel proof. i usually do it in quarts after blending my cuts, maybe like 10 to 15 chips max and heavier on the light toast ones. I have no experience with using parts of barrels but i would definitely prep that surface. i add the distilled water while blending and check with a distillers/spirit hydrometer before adding the oak chips. if you are over barrel proof, alot of heads in there etc it will strip that oak real fast.

the chips i get are 1.70usd or so for a large ziploc full and they are already food grade material so no real problems with cleanliness. the shop i get them from also has barrel spirals and cubes as of late but i stick to what has worked well for myself and friends.

i use primarily dark ones in my rums and brandy as i like the heavy taste but if you arent careful itll all just end up tasting like wood. the darker the toast the faster its gonna infuse into the booze. for whiskey i definitely mix them adding very few dark ones, couple mediums, and a heavier pinch of light.

heres a jar of oatmeal/corn sugarhead we broke into to sample along the way(it was mardi gras, ok) with a whole pile of crawfish i boiled

Image
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by ukmoon »

Thank you , best advice yet
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by ukmoon »

Man that pic looks good
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by Chauncey »

Yeah I went out to a crawfish farm the day before that and picked up 100lbs of live.

Back to the over oaking - that's one reason I stick with chips, makes it harder to over oak imo. Still easy to do if yaibt careful
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by Chauncey »

Image

This is some oaked Brandy, half gallon with about 30 heavy/dark toast oak chips in it for just one day. That's damn deep color so once you get that dark, take the oak out!
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by seamusm53 »

I think this is a good example of why the more experienced members of this forum (of which I am definitely NOT) eventually keep track of their experiences so that they adjust and fiddle and manage to slowly improve their products. Me? I'm still at the playing around stage and frequently lurking/watching here to learn from these masters. You know, Good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgement.

I think some of the difficulty here is that over-oaking usually refers to taste not to color yet color is the easiest aspect to make white lightning look good. Ii have yet to take my shine past 'looking good'. So I suspect I have missed the boat on how much better my product could potentially taste when I have quit early and settled for color.

Thanks for your post.
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by Chauncey »

Ime the color and flavor seem to develop at a similar rate. Ymmv but i definitely know Dark toasted material tends to impart more of a smoky flavor and darker color often much faster.
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Re: Rapid aging with oak barrel wood

Post by Danespirit »

ukmoon wrote:First time trying rapid aging , got wood from a Woodford barrel , after five days the taste is great , my problem is it turn out black , I would like to know if anyone knows how to get the color better
If you char your oak, be sure to "wash" it afterwards...all the coal residue that is loose will be flushed off by simply holding your oak under the tap and very gently rubbing the first layer of coal off.
It's burned off coal tha leaks into your spirits and gives it a colour of old motoroil....(if you smell it you can easily smell the charcoal in it, right..?).
The "old motoroil" you made, can be redistilled into some fine spirits...as you won't get that colour out by filtering the spirits through a filter commonly used.
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