Oak staves

[Ferthy]

So I'm getting things ready for my first every spirit run. Going to be running some UJSSM hopefully in the next couple weeks or so. My plan will be to oak some. I would like to do as much as I can in one gallon demijohns I have. My brother has boxes white oak pen blanks he turns on his lathe dimensions of those are .75x.75x 5 inches. However the stupid things just won't fit in my demijohns. I cut on in half and it fit easy peas but that brought the thickness down to 3/8x3/4. Now they seem just a little bit thicker than some oak chips I have. I have read chips are manufactured and sold by the devil to unwitting homedistillers looking for a quick and easy way to put some flavor in their shine only to find out that they do nothing.

Should I find some other container to use the thicker oak blanks? Or just split them and put them in my demijohns?

[Truckinbutch]

Go to wide mouth 1/2 gallon canning jars .

[Ferthy]

Go to wide mouth 1/2 gallon canning jars .

How should I cap those off? I read that the seals are not something you want coming in contact with shine. Could I just flip the caps over?

[still_stirrin]

Why not have your brother turn you some white oak lids on his lathe? Promise him a bottle of the benefits and he'd likely make several lids for you. Now, that's resourcefulness.
ss

[Ferthy]

[quote="still_stirrin"]Why not have your brother turn you some white oak lids on his lathe? Promise him a bottle of the benefits and he'd likely make several lids for you. Now, that's resourcefulness.


That is definately the long term plan. We have plenty of oak around. But right now he only has pen blank sized cuts as this is also a new hobby for him. To cut down some oak and have it season for a year or so would take to long at the moment. The first few times he got impatient and turned unseasoned wood and the finished project looked great and the cracked. This summer I do plan on getting some maple and oak to season and set aside for moonshine purposes.

[ShineRunner]

There are some links around for various ways to seal jar lids. I bought a sheet of ptfe and cut it into liners for mason jar lids and gallon pickle jar lids. Just sandwich them in between the lid and you're good.

Remember that the oak will swell once you drop it into the booze too. So if it fits the demijohn now, it may not later..

SR

[SaltyStaves]

I would cut those diagonally down the middle. This will give you a couple of three-sided pieces that will fit your demijohns. Just round the sharp edges off if you aren't charring them.

[NZChris]

I just do whatever it takes so that they will fit into the demijohn and not get jammed once they swell. That's gotta be better than getting wide mouth jars with a sealing problem, especially when you can get natural corks to fit what you've got.

[cranky]

Why not have your brother turn the blanks to fit inside the jug? That would keep the size to a maximum and you could still use the jugs.

[NZChris]

They don't need turning. I just whittle them and put the whitlings in the jug so as not to waste them.

[Ferthy]

If I went the mason jar route and used a ptfe sheet liner would this work well at making some inserts?

https://www.amazon.com/Oil-Slick-Labrat ... B00AWK04IQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Swedish Pride]

what nzchris said, just cut a bit off untill they fit comfortably, leave enough room for them to swell.
Been told it can be a bitch to split a stave once it's swollen up in the demijohn

[Ferthy]

what nzchris said, just cut a bit off untill they fit comfortably, leave enough room for them to swell.

What would be a comfortable fit? I just whittled the corners off the length of one. It fits with just a little wiggle room.

[still_stirrin]

...leave enough room for them to swell...

What would be...comfortable...with just a little wiggle room...

Don't forget that if you "whittle it" and poke it in...it's gonna' swell.

[Ferthy]

So the hole to me demijohns are 1 inch in diameter. The blanks are 3/4x3/4x5 inches. That means the diagonal on the skinny end is 1.061 inches. I whittled each corner lengthwise ( the entire length) to keep things even. Not just tapered at the ends. Now the diagonals down the entire length are 7/8 of an inch. I probably will bring it down a little more so that it is just over 3/4 of and inch. I think if I used a sander i could be a bit more precise and quicker.

[NZChris]

It doesn't have to be precise, it just has to fit loosely. Charring will damage it, and that gets knocked off easily if it's tight.

[Ferthy]

Well upon further inspection I have found that i have 4 demijohns and all have different sized openings. A couple that I got from my local home brew store have openings that are 1.5 inches. So I think for now I'm in the clear with using those and not having to do anything to the pen blanks. Should have checked all my equipment and assuming everything was all the same.

[Ferthy]

Thanks for all the input sorry for the water time.

[Ferthy]

*waste

[WIski]

Make covers from wax paper and tape around the perimeter to secure snug but not tight. They will breath a bit and feed the angles but not to much to rob ya blind.

[Ferthy]

Make covers from wax paper and tape around the perimeter to secure snug but not tight.

Your talking about using this on Mason jars? Using wax paper for liners?

[NZChris]

I won't be trying that on my likker.

[RedwoodHillBilly]

Tried it a while ago, won't do it again. Ended up throwing out a couple of gals of spirit after noticing that the wax paper was severely degraded. YMMV

[WIski]

Your talking about using this on Mason jars? Using wax paper for liners?

I have done this with mason jars for short periods when I wanted to keep the vapors off of the plastic coated lids but wasn't worried about letting the spirit breath. I have never witnessed any degradation of the wax on the paper. The toppers mentioned above have been on carboys and have worked a treat.

[RedwoodHillBilly]

Your talking about using this on Mason jars? Using wax paper for liners?

I have done this with mason jars for short periods when I wanted to keep the vapors off of the plastic coated lids but wasn't worried about letting the spirit breath. I have never witnessed any degradation of the wax on the paper. The toppers mentioned above have been on carboys and have worked a treat.

Glad it worked for you. I tried it using azeo and had problems. Probably could have saved it and re-run it, but didn't cost much to learn and toss it. To each their own, "you're not paranoid if they're really out to get you"

[Ferthy]

I have seen a few past threads with links to usplatics.com for ptfe liners made for mason jars. Pretty cheap. I think for now I will oak stuff in the gallon demijohns I have. Then store in old whiskey bottles topped with corks. I will probably pick up some of those ptfe liners to in the near future for giving stuff away or just back up storage. I'm more or less concerned about long term storage. And want something that will hold up and not leech stuff into my product. Thanks though WIski.

[NZChris]

Then store in old whiskey bottles topped with corks.

Once it is off the wood, proofed and bottled, aging is pretty much over, so I leave mine in their jugs, only decanting off enough to proof a bottle as I need it, each bottle being better than the previous one.

[Truckinbutch]

Then store in old whiskey bottles topped with corks.

Once it is off the wood, proofed and bottled, aging is pretty much over, so I leave mine in their jugs, only decanting off enough to proof a bottle as I need it, each bottle being better than the previous one.

Yep . As long as you don't proof it it keeps improving in glass .

[seamusm53]

Tried it a while ago, won't do it again. Ended up throwing out a couple of gals of spirit after noticing that the wax paper was severely degraded. YMMV

Even if the shine dissolved or 'degraded' the wax paper, at worst you should only have saved it to add it to feints for future distillation.

But wax as wax paper is tasteless and food safe anyway - I suspect you probably could have ignored the 'degraded' paper as harmless.

[RedwoodHillBilly]

Tried it a while ago, won't do it again. Ended up throwing out a couple of gals of spirit after noticing that the wax paper was severely degraded. YMMV

Even if the shine dissolved or 'degraded' the wax paper, at worst you should only have saved it to add it to feints for future distillation.

As I said in an other post in this thread "Probably could have saved it and re-run it, but didn't cost much to learn and toss it."

But wax as wax paper is tasteless and food safe anyway - I suspect you probably could have ignored the 'degraded' paper as harmless.

Perhaps, but it didn't cost much to toss it and be sure that I was safe.