How long for wood chips?

[SpiffyStump]

How long do you let you're wood chips soak for? I first started giving my jars a warm water bath and freezing, but then I read from a few people that the warm water brings out bitterness and tanin, so I tried just freezing and thawing. I have not tried any of my flavored spirits as I have just started using wood chips, but im sure alot of you will tell me a bunch of different lenghts of times but thats fine as I also want to find out how many times I should freeze and thaw and how long until it gets decent flavor? is there a point that the woodchips dont put much flavor? Looking forward to responses. PLease and thanks!

[NZChris]

I don't remove them until the jar is empty.

I don't freeze them as the chemical reactions that are needed for causing the tannins and lignins in the wood to break down and for all of the subsequent cascade of chemical reactions, between the likker and the wood and each other, all happen faster the higher the temperature is.

[Sporacle]

Not 100% what you asked and I have no particular idea as to if it works or not but it is a good read
https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38991

[Saltbush Bill]

I wouldn't use wood chips at all.
Home charred or toasted sticks made from used barrel staves will do a much better job, another option are oak Dominos as sold by suppliers like still dragon, there are others who sell similar oak adjuncts that do a great job to.
Chips are at the very bottom of the list of ways to oak spirit imo.
Less for longer is the rule of thumb.
Artificially heating and cooling is unnecessary unless your in some sort of a mad rush.

[Bushman]

I agree with Saltbush however if I am out of my own wood sticks then I will put in a jar with chips while I have my barrels full. Then I transfer to a barrel as I use the solera method of aging.

[River Rat]

I'd say go with the sticks too. Not spirals, or chips, or notched sticks. Just good solid sticks. Putting it in and out of the freezer will get you some good oak flavor quicker for sure, but oak flavor is not the only thing you are after. Time is the key. After the wood has sunk I put my jugs in and out of the freezer 2 or 3 times and then stick them in a part of the house that isn't insulated and try to forget about them. Give it a year and then enjoy the good stuff.

[Stonecutter]

I’ve had some tasty results with chips. Medium toast. Just enough to cover the top of a liter mason jar. I let it sit in my safe at about 68-70F for 3-5 weeks. Always comes out delicious. I’ve never gone nuclear. I let the hands on the clock do all the work for me. I trust the opinions of these old timers (seasoned hobbyists) though
I’ve been wanting to make my own toasted sticks, just haven’t gotten to it yet. Either way you decide there is a ton of info here. Somewhere there is a flavor profile graph regarding the different toasts

[Stonecutter]

In fact…any updates Saltbush Bill?

Could you write a litte more? About the production, the intended purpose (wine?) and what the difference between dominoes and sticks is?

I can and will when I have more time on my hands.
As Copperhead has pointed out they are very similar to mini staves, some might even say they are the same thing.
From what Ive seen mini staves are usually a smooth sawn finish , most Dominos I've seen marketed have a rough finish and rounded edges. Ive read that they are toasted in a large tumbler hence the rounded edges and rough finish, they are not toasted by flame as a barrel is. The write up went into the process in detail, I can not find it or the link right now.
As far as I am aware they were originally made for use in the wine industry and are now used a lot in that industry. The first I knew of them was about 7-years ago when Punkin "Still Dragon Au" bought a trail batch of them to market to Australian hobby distillers and to see how well they worked. From memory I ended up with some of that first batch, in my opinion they work better and give a better / different result than most home toasted/ charred sticks, Home done still has a place and does a good job if that's what you like to do.
Below are a couple of photos of a trail I am doing using different oaks In UJSM.
Left to right , Second Use Medium Toast Dominos with one home charred stick... Heavy toast/ light char American Oak Dominos,.....Medium Toast American Oak Dominos.....AP Johns cooperage French Oak Mini Staves...... AP Johns American Oak Cubes.
The oak in front of the bottles is samples of the oak used , it does not represent the amount used in each bottle.
Day 1

Day 7

1 Month

This experiment is now 18 months old , half of the oak has been removed from each Flagon / Bottle. Have not taken photos for some time but will be doing so soon.

[jonnys_spirit]

10yrs? 1yr? 1month? About three orders of magnitude in time that we might consider - 10yrs aint gunna happen in my shed unless i go tee-totaler. I’ve used chips, cubes, re-toasted/charred chopped staves, and used staves from eg; bourbons, wines, ports, sherry. Less oak and more time. Used has a nice effect and might use a wine stave or three as a finishing treatment. Does give a nice color for red wine and port staves. You might read about “four fingers” worth per gallon of 125 proof and that’ll work great but also try two and six on different batches and different proofs. Say 110-130?

I haven’t done it for a while but in the past I have filled a few mason jars with toasted fingers and topped up with wine, cream sherry, port and let them sit. I do make wine so do end up with used wine oak too that i dry and save for this. A few milliliters of the aged oak tea wine/port/sherry into a bottle of spirits is also a nice touch sometimes.

I do save my used oak and reuse it. Say for instance two used bourbon fingers and two fresh charred fingers into a gallon jug and try to change up the toast and mixes for each gallon so i’ll end up with some different spirits.

A vessel or three of solera is also nice once you have some stock. At one point I had a nice solera grappa gallon going from many batches. Take a third out and top up with recent batch after some aging. Add more jugs to the solera queue for a particular spirit as you build up stock. Bourbon, grappa, rum, whatever you like to make.

Cheers!
-j

[jonnys_spirit]

[SpiffyStump]

I wouldn't use wood chips at all.
Home charred or toasted sticks made from used barrel staves will do a much better job, another option are oak Dominos as sold by suppliers like still dragon, there are others who sell similar oak adjuncts that do a great job to.
Chips are at the very bottom of the list of ways to oak spirit imo.
Less for longer is the rule of thumb.

What is the differnce between wood chips and wood Dominos I feel like they would work the same, but maybe not?

Less for longer? meaning you prefer less woodchips for longer times? does that give better flavor or is it just the best run for your money?

[SpiffyStump]

I don't remove them until the jar is empty.

I don't freeze them as the chemical reactions that are needed for causing the tannins and lignins in the wood to break down and for all of the subsequent cascade of chemical reactions, between the likker and the wood and each other, all happen faster the higher the temperature is.

I noticed lots of fibers that settle at the bottom, I had planed to use a glass turkey baster to carefully siphon the spirits into a bottle, I have also though about using a coffe filter but I was conserned about filting out color and flavor or would it not filter those things out? Also it sounds like you just prefer to let the spirits and wood chips sit in roomt temapture and do not temp changing, is this correct?

[SpiffyStump]

Not 100% what you asked and I have no particular idea as to if it works or not but it is a good read
https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38991

have you ever messed with ultrasonic ageing?

[Sporacle]

No mate I have not, I got a start via the Turbo method with essences, then got youtubed and a bit of home-brew advice and moved onto woodchips, then spirals and then something else. I age now with 1 Oak Stave per litre at about 60abv in glass with a cork lid and wait and I also have a barrel that I'm doing a rum Solara thing with. Basically I am trying to do things as absolutely simply as I can to try and figure out how to get my base spirit as good as I can make it

[NZChris]

I decant off what I need and leave the rest on the wood for more aging. When the jar is finally empty, I often add the wood to a younger jar.

I filter any dregs through my liver.

I haven't used chips for a couple of years, but I have a lot of product aging on them. I have a good supply of oak that I'm using for dominos now.

[NZChris]

Also it sounds like you just prefer to let the spirits and wood chips sit in roomt temapture and do not temp changing, is this correct?

Mostly. A lot of my rum is in an old fridge that is heated to tropical temperatures. Everything else is left alone.

[Saltbush Bill]

Less for longer? meaning you prefer less woodchips for longer times?

Less for longer means that regardless of what you choose to use for oaking you should not add to much oak..................a small amount for a long time will win over two much oak for a short time every time. You cant do what it takes 10 years to do in a barrel, in a jar in 10 days, or 10 weeks, or ten months.

What is the differnce between wood chips and wood Dominos I feel like they would work the same, but maybe not?

Suggest you look at this link to see what a domino looks like https://stilldragon.com.au/products/ame ... s=e&_v=1.0 .......then look at what you are using.
One has very little end grain the other has massive amounts of end grain.
Ive experimented enough over time to know what I like and don't like when it comes to oak, Ive tried chips a few times and never had a result that I liked when using them........your tastes and mileage may vary.
You will learn a lot by typing "Chips" or "Oak Chips" into the google search bar.......after a couple of hours of reading you should start to get the idea of how popular "chips" are with more experienced distillers.
Chips are what are sold to people by HBS owners, they are kept on the shelf next to the turbo yeast, .......like turbo they sell chips because that is what they believe or are told by distributors is best and because they have nothing better to sell in most cases.
Everyone is entitled to use what ever they want to use, experiment and find what you like for your self.

[Chucker]

As SB noted in the most recent post, that’s indeed one of the nice things about this hobby, that there are few absolutes. And aging/flavoring is something so subjective that you just can’t have a pat answer; it’s adaptive to conditions, resources, base spirit, personal taste preferences, and a plethora of other subtleties. What I think works wonderfully for me may be abhorrent to you and vice versa.
If you’ve got a decent enough spirit in the first place you probably won’t ruin it beyond disappointment. You may want to take note to not do whatever that was again, and then try something different. You’ll figure out eventually how to get it where you want by working from principles outlined above that reflect on the cumulative experiences of the posters. Use those as a guide rather than look for a means to circumvent the process you need to undertake as well.
At least as you get started down this rabbit hole this really is something that is all about you. But the practical homework should keep you in good ‘spirits’, anyway.