Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

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OtisT
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by OtisT »

mendozer wrote:Nice! I need to befriend a tree cutter now haha.
I threw a request out to my Facebook friends and found a source for three types of wood. Was an old high school friend and it only cost me the promis of a few jars when I make something with it.

Yes, wood cutters are a good resource also. A few years back I was looking for old trees recently cut down for a tree ring experiment I was leading for my boys science class. I found two different guys who sold fire wood that gave me rounds from several types of trees. I think I searched craigslist for those guys. Also, check with any locals who cut and haul away trees for a business. Lots of folks just pay someone to come and cut trees and haul away the wood of their land. If there are commercial growers near you, they will periodically clear a field for replanting. Lots of ways to find good wood if you look hard enough.

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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by OtisT »

Oaked Panela Rum aged with Fruitwood

I am starting a new fruitwood aging test with oaked panela rum. The same original batch of panela rum was aged in four different type of new oak barrels. I’ve been waiting for these rums to loose their new make smell and after four months they are finally there.

Barrel types from left to right
* Oregon Oak - medium toast
* Oregon Oak - medium toast, medium char
* American White Oak - medium toast
* American White Oak - medium toast, medium char
Four types of rum.  7 gram chunks of toasted Apple and Cherry.
Four types of rum. 7 gram chunks of toasted Apple and Cherry.
The rums picked up plenty of oak from these new make barrels and they each have a beautiful nose on them. The American Oaked rums smell more oaky and that oak/toast smell covers the rummieness for the most part. I can smell more of the rum base through the Oregon Oaked rums.

Diluted down, each of the oaked rums tasted “hot” still and all are a bit bitter from the tannic new oak. I’m hoping time on the fruitwood will take care of the heat

I pulled 1.2 liters from each barrel and I split each type of rum into three 400ml jars. (12 jars total)

One set of rums will be aged with Toasted Cherry, 7 grams of wood in each jar
One set of rums will be aged with Toasted Apple, 7 grams of wood in each jar
One set of rums will be left as a control for now

Note. I did not want to use the toasted Plum I have because that wood seems to add tannins. The oak has already added plenty of tannins to the rums so I figured why push it.

I vacuumed the jars once to soak the wood then I released the pressure. I’ll check them in a month or so and will take pics then of the color differences.

Otis
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by OtisT »

FYI. Below is a link to more of my fruitwood finishing tests that I did with Panela Rum. I have several fruitwood experiments spread around the board in various threads and I am adding this to help link them all together.

The thread is “Panelapalooza 2018”: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=72500

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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by OtisT »

Charred and Toasted Fruitwood

I was recently blessed with some samples of different spirits made by MichiganCornhusker. There was a set of four bourbon spirits, two aged only on T/C cherry and two aged only on T/C maple. For each wood type, one jar was charred on two sides while the other was charred on 4 sides. I am blown away by the difference between the two sided char vs the four sided char spirits of each wood type; They are like two different spirits. While I liked all four, in each case my preference in spirit was for the 4x charred sample.

This inspired me to start playing with charred fruitwood. Up until now, all my fruitwood tests have been with toasted wood.

After charring on one side and dousing in water, I turned them over to char the other side. Because these are small chunks and have space between them, the char hit all sides of the chunks.
Charring fruitwood, all sides
Charring fruitwood, all sides
After charring and dousing in water, I let them dry and air out.
Drying and airing the charred wood
Drying and airing the charred wood
Heads Soaked Toasted Fruitwood
In addition to some new charred fruitwood tests, I am also starting some experiments with heads soaked toasted fruitwood. The idea behind the heads soaked wood is that the soaking will take some of the harshness away from a first use, and will also add some headsy/fruity kick to a spirit. I’ve had some early luck with a limited test of the heads soaked wood so I figured it was time to expand this area of testing.

Starting Some New Tests
These are all oak aged Panela Rums that came out of different first use barrels at 8 months. I’m pairing my charred fruitwood samples with rum that came from toasted only barrels (not charred). I’m pairing my heads soaked fruitwood with rum that came from charred barrels.
Oak aged rum with charred fruitwood
Oak aged rum with charred fruitwood
These are jars of my new new Flagship white Panela Rum with T/C wood as well as heads soaked wood.
White rum with fruitwood
White rum with fruitwood
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by 8Ball »

I’ve used seasoned and toasted peach wood in my pure cane syrup rum and also in my mango brandy with good results. Nice color and tastes. Have some pear brandy aging with peach wood as well. On a side note, using toasted and lightly charred pecan wood in rum is amazing.

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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

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8Ball wrote: Wed Aug 28, 2019 6:01 am I’ve used seasoned and toasted peach wood in my pure cane syrup rum and also in my mango brandy with good results. Nice color and tastes. Have some pear brandy aging with peach wood as well. On a side note, using toasted and lightly charred pecan wood in rum is amazing.

8B
Thanks for sharing that info 8ball. I would love to get my hands on some pecan wood. I’m also chasing down hazelnut wood, which is abundant in my region. I hope to try various nutwood polishing tests next summer.

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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by cayars »

I enjoyed reading your thread Otis.

I've done similar with different woods but haven't had the pleasure of playing with Cherry Wood yet.

Here's a couple of things I've found and standardized on doing. First only make sure to use the heart of the wood. If in doubt looking at it only take the center portion. If this is cut wood from a chainsaw, then use a hand saw and cut off both ends to make sure you get no oil or residue from the chainsaw in your wood.

First thing I do is throw the wood in some water and soak it well for a day or two, followed by a boiling on the stove.
Next while still damp I'll wrap them in aluminum foil and toast them in the over at X temp for y duration to determine the "toastiness" of each. I much prefer how they toast when they are moist inside as this helps with caramelization. The combination of these two steps will kill anything living in/on the wood.

Then I'll take them outside, throw them on top of the open grill on a sheet or two of aluminum foil and give them a good char with the propane torch. I personally like an alligator char (level 4). Tongs or similar make it easy to flip/rotate them and get all 6 sides. Once I've charred them properly I drop them in a bucket of water. The only reason I mention the grill is because it's a great place to burn your wood on without having to work on the ground or burning/catching anything on fire. The grill itself is not being used.

Now since you like to experiment I'd suggest getting some sugar maple or use your cherry wood or even apple wood. Make charcoal from them (youtube videos show how to do this in a coffee can or similar sealed container).

Rinse the fresh charcoal in some water to get off the ash and clean the charcoal a bit.

Now you can use this charcoal in a way similar to the Lincoln County Process. Think Tennessee whiskey or JD which uses sugar maple. Wild Turkey's Longbranch (Matthew McConahey) uses the combination/mixture of oak and mesquite wood in their version of the LCP.

I use a gallon jar filled with this charcoal and just dump a couple of quarts in right off the still after airing and making my cuts and adjusting to cast strength. 1 to 2 days (depends on wood) imparts a nice flavor right off the bat and the charcoal helps to pull out some of the nasties as well. It will make your white slightly more mellow right away. From there it goes to normal oak in jars or a barrel, if I want to age it properly.

Coming out of oak you can again filter it through any of your charcoal woods to imparts a bit more flavor which is what JD does with Gentleman Jack as that gets the Lincoln Country Process both before going into the barrel and before bottling.

Playing with this is as easy as using a couple of baby jars, half pints or quart jars to see how the charcoal affects flavor and mellowness. I think this is a good method to play with for woods that can get very strong quickly when soaking or leach to much tannins with normal soaking.

BTW, the LCP that JD and Tennessee whiskey makers use is a drip through process but the whiskey take more than a day to drip through so I just figured I'd soak the white in a jar full of the rinsed charcoal and this has worked well for me. No need to create a drip filter or play with drip settings. Just remember to remove whiskey from the jars in a day or two! Some woods might not even need a full day done this way.

Worth noting is that this isn't the same thing as normal charcoal like you would purchase for an aquarium and used to clean up spirits to make neutrals.


Jump to 4:50 to see JD's LCP.

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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by 8Ball »

Thanks for sharing that info 8ball. I would love to get my hands on some pecan wood. I’m also chasing down hazelnut wood, which is abundant in my region. I hope to try various nutwood polishing tests next summer.

Otis

Sending you a PM.

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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by OtisT »

Carlo, I’m glad your enjoying this thread. I’m certainly enjoying making it. Today I opened one of my tests I started a year ago and it sure smells wonderful. It was my “less is better” test. Can’t wait to taste it tonight.

I do need to try sugar maple. It’s also on my list of wood to try.

Thanks for sharing info about your process.

I’ve begun playing with charred fruitwood but don’t know if I need/want a full charcoal treatment for my rum. The rum is quite tasty and does not have any off flavors so I’d be afraid that a lot of charcoal would just suck all the goodness away. I guess I can try it and see what happens. One more test to add to my list. :D

Thanks for the post. Otis
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by pope »

8B unless I’m mistaken, pecan is sold at lumber yards as pecan hickory. The heart and sapwood are very easy to distinguish. Sugar maple can also be found there as hard maple (info for others reading this later).

I agree I have had a very positive experience mellowing grain spirits with homemade sugar maple charcoal, the difference was very apparent but in my experience 6 hours was perfect for the ratios used and by 24 hours it had flattened out the spirits flavor too much.
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by cayars »

I just got a nice supply of apple, cherry (didn't have this on hand) and some mesquite to play with. I toasted some at 400 F for "vanilla" flavors. I also charred some of the toasted wood. So I have each raw, toasted and toasted/charred to try of each.

I'm clearing some molasses right now for some rum. Going to try a molasses/golden syrup batch and then try different wood combinations in low volumes so I don't over wood them.

I'll be going back reading this and your other threads again on your wood experiments as well for other ideas of things you've done that worked/didn't and amounts used. I'm sure I'll find some really good tips for Rum.

Carlo

Do you have a favorite wood or two, you like for Rum?
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by OtisT »

cayars wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 8:08 pm I just got a nice supply of apple, cherry (didn't have this on hand) and some mesquite to play with. I toasted some at 400 F for "vanilla" flavors. I also charred some of the toasted wood. So I have each raw, toasted and toasted/charred to try of each.

I'm clearing some molasses right now for some rum. Going to try a molasses/golden syrup batch and then try different wood combinations in low volumes so I don't over wood them.

I'll be going back reading this and your other threads again on your wood experiments as well for other ideas of things you've done that worked/didn't and amounts used. I'm sure I'll find some really good tips for Rum.

Carlo

Do you have a favorite wood or two, you like for Rum?
Congratulations Carlo on acquiring the wood. The fruitwood I’ve been experimenting with has made some fine tasty drinks. Of the three I have been using, Apple is my favorite. It is a bit slow to notice, especially when compared with cherry, but when it takes it adds a subtle sweet fruit smell and taste that is wonderful.

I just sampled my “less is better” test which has aged one up year and am very happy with the results. (Original post in Oct 2018) I will be documenting the results in this thread soon. There I used 2 grams per 100 ml. Based on those results I would recommend you start around 1 to 1.5 grams per 100 ml If you want a really light touch.

In a nut shell, I found that the raw woods produced brandy like results from the test. I could smell the source fruit in each (Apple, plum, cherry) and in the Apple and Cherry samples I could smell that fruity heads smell ( like many of the brandies I have tried.) There was no heads smell in my rum, so that fruity heads smell is from the raw wood.

The toasted woods really seem to sweeten and blend the flavors together for a more mature and complex smell/taste. The toasted samples also have a thick mouthfeel as compared to the raw samples.

I did not do any charred wood tests that round, though I did start some charred wood test more recently. Those jars need more time before trying.

Good luck with your experiments. Let us know how they turn out.

Otis
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by OtisT »

Less is better - Rum on fruitwood 1 year later

12 months ago I began aging 6 small jars of panela rum using three types of fruitwood. Apple, cherry and plum.
The beginning.  2g of wood in each jar of panela rum
The beginning. 2g of wood in each jar of panela rum
After one day
After one day
The toasted samples were toasted between 360-380F. I used 2 grams of wood per 100 ml @ 64%. The rum was a clean conservative cut of Panela rum.

The jars were aged one year and were opened monthly so they could breath. After 12 months I proofed these jars down to 41% ABV.
Aged One Year
Aged One Year
Tasting Notes
Raw Apple
Smells of Apple, sweet and lightly fruity like heads. (No heads smell in the base spirit). The taste is pleasant and smooth. At first it feels thick and tastes of Apple. After the thickness goes away, the taste of Apple lingers in the mouth. No off smells or tastes.

Raw Cherry
A very prominent smell of sweet cherry along with a hint of fruity smell like heads. The taste is pleasant and smooth. At first it feels thick and tastes of cherry. After the thickness goes away, the taste of cherry lingers in the mouth. No off smells or tastes.

Raw Plum
A very nice smelling sweet plum. No hint of the fruity heads like with other samples. There is a sweet thick and complex smell that reminds me of something aged on toasted wood.

This spirit tastes/feels hot and spicy, unlike the other raw wood samples. (I need to double check the ABV of this jar). Has a slight bitter aftertaste (very slight) and tastes a bit woodsy.

Toasted Apple
The smell is thick and sweet. Very pleasant. At first the toast smell is a bit acrid but that disappears quickly for the other smells. I may have toasted this particular piece of wood a bit hot. I’m really sensitive to that smell and it’s very faint, so not a show stopper by any means.

Tastes of toast and slightly sweet apple. Very smooth and pleasant. No thickness and no long lingering like the raw wood sample.

Toasted Cherry
Smells of sweet, sweet toast and cherry. This is the sweetest smelling of all the samples. It tastes/feels a bit hot at first but only for a second. It tastes sweet and of cherry. No bitter and no off tastes or smells. I’m really surprised in a good way by this spirit.

Toasted Plum
I’m smelling some sweet spice in this, as well as toast and a hint of fruit.

Like the raw sample this one starts out a bit hot at first but it is brief and less hot than the raw sample. Starts with a pleasant sweet toast then followed by sweet fruit. This seems to be a really nice balance between toast and fruit and has a nice finish.

Summary
I like them all, both raw and toasted samples. The raw plum is boarderline like/don’t like. Liking the raw wood samples was a real surprise to me. While I did like the raw wood samples, I do preferred the more mature and complex smells and tastes of the toasted wood samples.

Amount of wood used
I’m happy with the amount of wood per volume I used in this test. 2 grams per 100 ml seems like a good amount of wood for this type of long term aging. It was enough to bring out the type of fruit in smell and taste, yet I was still able to detect the notes from my panela rum. Intensity wise, Cherry was the strongest, plum was in the middle, and Apple was the lightest. For a lighter touch, I think 1 gram per 100 ml would be a good place to start.

If I were to do a larger batch of rum on this wood, I would probably use about 1g of cherry, 1.5g of plum, and 2g of Apple per 100 ml.

Raw wood surprise
I’m surprised by how good the raw wood samples turned out. It took time for the raw wood to develop into something I liked. I especially liked the Apple and Cherry raw. These two reminded me of a Brandy, having a light heads like kick/smell to it without having heads in the spirit. If I wanted to play with the brandy profile a bit, I may try a slightly more headsy rum to begin with. The raw plum was my least favorite of all samples. While the nose was great it has a woodsy aftertaste, and I’ll likely not do any more with this raw wood.

Otis
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by NZChris »

Thanks for going to all that trouble, Otis.

I have some apple heart wood out in the weather waiting for a project. :wink:
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by cayars »

Really nice work OtisT.

Hey if you could tell us one more thing I'd love to hear the results.
If you mix equal parts apple and cherry how do they smell/taste mixed? Does one flavor dominate or does it turn to "mud" in a jar?
If you could do that for the raw and toasted and report the results I'd really appreciate it.
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by jog666 »

OtisT wrote: Sat Sep 14, 2019 9:15 am
I would love to get my hands on some pecan wood.
Otis
I plan to get with you before to long when I bust up some pecan to begin aging. Its been weathering for nearly a year now. I think that was part of the problem when I first put some together, just to young.
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by planetsandman »

Otis,
What a great thread, you and the fellow contributors have saved me a least a year of experimenting! I am going to toast a bunch of 1" cubes tonight of some 5 year old cherry heartwood I found in the attic and get started on some of this Rye I just finished. From past experience I know it always takes less wood would than one would think, but I am not sure I would have gotten it down to 2g:100ml without your hard work
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by OtisT »

Wheat and Barley Whiskey with Applewood

This is a 2-row and red wheat whiskey, double pot stilled, in a toasted American oak barrel. I just checked this after 16 months and decided it needed a little char. Additionally I want to add some apple wood to this.
E56BF722-46BE-44B8-ADCD-CF9D7807CD4C.jpeg
B9F3C9C4-688C-4D9D-BABC-29D4EE8321D6.jpeg
3F827F9E-1C75-44F5-B404-3907E272AD93.jpeg
I split the barrel’s contents into two 1/2 gallon jars and added a toasted/charred oak stick to one, and a toasted/charred apple stick to the other. Not sure yet how long I will soak these. After this soak I’ll throw them back together in the barrel to finish.

Otis
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by Boozewaves »

some great information in this thread ,
I am a gardener , I took some big branches off an apple tree last week to give it a prune , the wood smelled pretty good and my first thought was using it to age spirits , something I have not tried yet , I did make some brandy from apples I picked last year , its gone now but it would make the brandy come full circle if it was aged with apple wood . Shame that the wood I have will not be ready at the minimum until this time next year , I will save it though

Reading the thread made me realise I have a big cherry log that I cut down in another gardening job where the guy just wanted rid of the whole tree and that has sat outside at least a year , I think I will try and do something with that , I have some UJSSM on the go for the first time , I will try some experiments with that when its up to gen 2 , ill probably do a side by side comparison of charred and uncharred
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by GreenEnvy22 »

I may have to try doing some of this as well with a future batch.
I have an apple tree and some pear trees.
I also have fig trees. Not sure how fig would do. When I throw some fig wood in my smoker, it makes a lovely sweet smell, reminds me of cigars.

I have dried wood from all of these, so could do some experiments.

We have lots of peach trees in the region too, could grab some branches from a relative next time they prune.
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by OtisT »

I can’t wait to hear about how those various fruit woods turn out for you. I hope you post about it.

Be sure to try at least some small portion of your batches with the raw fruit wood. I’ve had some interesting results using the raw wood with both white and oaked rum.

Otis
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

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OtisT wrote: Sat Dec 14, 2019 10:57 am Wheat and Barley Whiskey with Applewood

This is a 2-row and red wheat whiskey, double pot stilled, in a toasted American oak barrel. I just checked this after 16 months and decided it needed a little char. Additionally I want to add some apple wood to this.

I split the barrel’s contents into two 1/2 gallon jars and added a toasted/charred oak stick to one, and a toasted/charred apple stick to the other. Not sure yet how long I will soak these. After this soak I’ll throw them back together in the barrel to finish.

Otis
After 4 months in jars with the Charred/Toasted Apple and Charred/Toasted Oak sticks, I felt the whiskey had taken on enough Apple and enough Char. I threw this whiskey back into the original toasted oak barrel to finish aging. I’ll test it again later this summer when it reaches 2 years old. Otis
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by StillsNMash »

I also need to work on this. Have restarted my ventures since 2012. I have apple, pear, persimmon, black walnut [for the ex ;P ], white oak, locust, catalpa and various other woods I am curious about.

I have a grove of persimmon trees, and the property, which has been in the family for 156 years, has produced a lot of persimmon wine. Sadly all of the folks that did that have perished so I don't have any of the old time information thus I am cutting new teeth.

-Stills
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by Smokee »

Yah, we are a good distance apart on quantity... interesting. I have a 5 quart set that I cut the amount of cherry by 25%, varied the amount +/- a few ounces. I did these in Feb., they'll be ready in July. I'll def let you know how they turned out.

There was a time that I was sure I was under-wooding so I added considerably more wood per quart, I could tell early on that it wasn't going to turn out well but it was cherry that I got at my cousin's camp, none of that cherry worked regardless of toast. This seems to be the biggest problem with being consistent in my aging. You can get one piece that works well and another that's a complete dud.

edit: As I'm looking back over this thread I see that your amounts are a good bit less than mine which might explain some of the quantity difference. What size are those smaller jars that are about half-full on page 2 (above)? Right now I'm going with 6 months of aging. I do this cause I like drinking cherry aged whiskey over what I get from the store and haven't been able to keep up, my goal is to have a jar or two left over to let age a couple years or so.
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by OtisT »

Smokee wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 6:24 am edit: As I'm looking back over this thread I see that your amounts are a good bit less than mine which might explain some of the quantity difference. What size are those smaller jars that are about half-full on page 2 (above)?
Everything shown on page 2 uses roughly 2 grams of wood per 100 ml of spirits, regardless of the jar size. Some of my earlier experiments were using around 6-8 grams/100 ml and that seemed too heavy for my tastes.

The first pic shows rum in Quart jars. In the text below the pics is lists that each jar is 400ml full and I put 7 grams of fruitwood in the jars. That rum had previously been in an oak barrel for a period of time.

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Fredistiller
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by Fredistiller »

A few weeks ago I started a post to ask the best way to season cherry wood. I wasn't thinking outside the box and assumed I should threat cherrywood the same way as oak.

But OtisT who is a longer time on the subject suggested this:
"So I think a question about your fruit wood is, are there tannins in it? Or perhaps, are there other undesirable compound in fresh wood that would wash out over time in the weather? If I had both fresh cut and seasoned wood from the same type of tree I would love to run a comparison test."
"The best suggestion I have for you now is to try using a small amount of the fresh wood now in a few jars of spirits and to season the rest of the wood. Possibly try a tea test now too to help learn a bit more. In a few years you will have a better idea as to the impact of seasoning on cherry wood."


So I cut sticks out my (almost) fresh cherry wood and toasted them at 160°C/320°F and 180°C/356°F and 200°C/392°F for 1hour. Each stick have a surface of approximatively 8.5cm²/ 3.35"² and went in 100ml UJSSM (60%corn-30%oat @52% distilled with wash in the thumper. Great grain taste, conservatives cuts: no heads, a bit of tails), get nuked and vacuumed for 24h. I knew it was way too much wood to be balanced but I was interested in the cherry tastes.

This are my conclusions:

160°C
Wood: smell of nut, toasted bread, warm sand.
52%: smell gives a very small hint of cherry
Watered down: no real cherry taste, grain is still present but with a not very pleasant "woody" taste.

180°C
Wood: a "crumble" smell, buttery and sweet.
52%: hint of buttery smell, grain smell is attenuated.
Watered down: This gives a big difference! Smells and tastes like "cherry candy", all other tastes are almost gone. For my tastes, it is somewhat sickly. But my best friend tasted it and she finds it fantastic, all tastes are in the nature...

200°C
Wood: Buttery and fruity smell, a bit spicy.
52%: Cherry smell is less present, most like a cherry blossom, and very sweet.
Watered down: Very pleasant result, for my taste this is by far my favourite. It's like a sweet cherry butter cake, with a hint of spice. The somewhat sickly cherry taste that was overwhelming is now much more balanced, more "natural". Unlike the "chemical" cherry candy taste I found in the 180°C. It also smoothen, soften the UJSSM compared to my oaked version.

For both 180-200°C I can really understand why Otis tried cherry wood with rhum, as the sweet taste should marry better with rhum than with grain. I ordered 25kg of Reunion sugar cane and some molasses to try...

Conclusion:
First, keep in mind that:
Cherry wood may be very different (European, American, and different species/sorts).
My UJSSM was 52%, other ABV could give other results. I wanted stronger ABV but I made a mistake in my calcs... Damn!

But my tests results are not so much different than what Otis already described. Better to use a bit of cherry wood if you want a good balanced result. How much is a bit? I would stay between 4-8cm²/L.

For now I used 1 stick @200°C in 700ml, nuked and vacuumed (12h), and added the 3x100ml from my tests. It's more wood that I advise but I see this 1L only as a "ageing test" and see how it reacts with time. And want a strong cherry taste for an easier description.

I also ask myself what if you mix cherry with oak together for ageing?

160-180 are almost the same color-200°C looks toasted.
160-180 are almost the same color-200°C looks toasted.
Nice golden yellow for the 1:160°C-2:180°C. Yellow orange for the 3:200°C. The glass is filled with the same UJSSM oaked version, so one can see the difference in color.
Nice golden yellow for the 1:160°C-2:180°C. Yellow orange for the 3:200°C. The glass is filled with the same UJSSM oaked version, so one can see the difference in color.
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by OtisT »

Fredistiller wrote: Wed Jun 24, 2020 8:45 am .... I also ask myself what if you mix cherry with oak together for ageing?
Awesome post fredistiller. :thumbup:

Check out this thread for some oak/fruitwood tests I have been doing using rum.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=72500

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Learning to Toast: Toasting Wood
Polishing Spirits with Fruitwood: Fruitwood
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by Fredistiller »

Check out this thread for some oak/fruitwood tests I have been doing using rum.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=72500
Thanks for the link!
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by OtisT »

Less is Better - 2 Year Update

My fruitwood experiment titled “Less Is Better” is now 2 years old. Still really happy with the results, but I will make a few changes to my use of Fruitwood moving forward as I continue to tune my preferences for the use of this wood.

Amount of wood
The 2 grams of wood per 100 ml that I used is plenty strong and not subtle though I could still taste my panela rum. Even the Apple, which was the weakest of the three woods used, came through very well. I’m confirming my thoughts at the 1 year mark, that I can easily back down the amount of wood used a bit. Next batch I will shoot for 1 gram per 100ml for any long term aging. Maybe 1.5 grams for the Apple.

Toast level and depth
The toast really adds a sense of thickness, richness and sweetness to each spirit but in the end the toast was a bit too strong for my liking. I had used a 360F toast and the toast was fairly deep, almost to the center of the wood but not all the way through. I split the toasted wood to get my 2 gram pieces, trying to get part toast and part raw in each piece, but there was definitely a lot more toasted than raw in each. The next batch of fruit wood I toast, I will go for a much shallower toast with a goal of about 1/8 of the way through. Because I got a bit of acrid smell, I will also be backing my temp down from 360F to 320-340F.

Apple raw and toasted
Apple raw and toasted
Cherry raw and toasted
Cherry raw and toasted
Plum raw and toasted
Plum raw and toasted
Summery
I am liking the raw wood more than the toasted wood. I am really excited about what toasting does for the spirit with all the richness it adds, but I feel it was just a bit too much. With the adjustments I plan above, I can easily see the toasted wood giving my raw wood a run for its money.

Otis
Otis’ Pot and Thumper, Dimroth Condenser: Pot-n-Thumper/Dimroth
Learning to Toast: Toasting Wood
Polishing Spirits with Fruitwood: Fruitwood
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Re: Learning About Fruit Wood for Aging

Post by Fredistiller »

Just in time Otis! I'm ready with my rum (hook style) and was asking myself how I'll age it with my cherry wood. I talked about it on this post in October if you remember.
I used fruit yeasts, and the white rum has fruity notes with a pleasant nose of red fruit and an apricot after taste.

I hesitate to nuke/vacuum or just just let the wood soak in?

In any event, once that virus everyone is talking about lets go off me and I'm able to leave the couch for more than 10 minutes...
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