Ozone.

[Husker]

if aging liquor is like aging beer and wine in wood one of the aspects missed in using wood chips or staves shoved into a glass bottle is the oxygen interchange. Barrels act as a barrier/filter to oxygen hitting the liquid.

The interaction between char(coal), wood, oxygen and beer/wine is where the magic lies. Putting wood chips into a glass bottle deprives your liquid of Oxygen which it needs to age properly and leaving the top open doesn't regulate the oxygen interchange and doesn't allow for oxygen/wood/liquid to all meet in one place. This is an extremely important aspect to aging beer or wine on wood.

I have no experience with liquor but I suspect that it is a similar problem with trying to age in a bottle with wood tossed in. I've toyed with the idea of using a large mouth jar and creating a wooden top for it so that I can get the proper interfacing of wood/oxygen/beer but there is no way to get enough surface area with this approach. I think I may be stuck with looking for old barrels. I just can't imagine getting enough beer together to age in a full barrel, much less spirits!

The other problem with using wood chips is that once charred there isn't enough wood content left for extraction so it does take larger pieces of wood if you want any sort of effect.

I know that some folks who make sour beers use conical pieces of wood stuck into a carboy far enough to contact the beer. The wood is inoculated with brett or whatever bug they want. This way the beer wicks up the wood and the air gets in through the wood.

This may be part of the "magic" I get when I distress age. I only fill my jugs about 2/3 full, and I shake the hell out of it every day (when I rotate between freezer and outside. I also open the jug, and "cycle" the air, before and after shaking.

The shaking will put LOTS of bubbles into the product, thus infusing some O2 into it. This may be a lot of the "speedup" that I am seeing, and the cold/hot transitions may play a smaller roll than I had originally thought.

Whatever it is, I know that the steps I take (alternate between freezer and warm every 24 hours, and shake the jugs, and "replace" the air in the jug), certainly sped up and vastly improved the 'aging' over a product that was simply put into jugs (with the same amount of split staves), and simply set in the basement to "age".

I am sure that mileage will vary, but I will continue forward with "this" method, as it works for me.

I can (and will) test this out, by using O2 from my welding setup, to put pure O2 into 4 jugs, and "air" into 4 others. Then age two O2 and two air, garage, shaking both, but not changing out the contents of two of them (one O2 and one air), and the other 2 get their air and O2 changed. Then the other 4 into the freezer (and out). Again, shaking all, but only changing the air and O2 in one set. Then compare the 8 jugs at 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, and 10 weeks. I have somewhere around 17 gallons of low wines of some UJSM in 3 carboys, so I should have product for this test.

This has been a VERY nice thread so far.

H.

[blanikdog]

I think I may be stuck with looking for old barrels. I just can't imagine getting enough beer together to age in a full barrel, much less spirits!

Interesting post. Yairss, this is the problem. Several two or three gallon barrels would be ideal, but where does one find them for a reasonable price? As I said, I have just got hold of a one gallon barrel which I intend using for Brandy. I treat this barrel as if it's made of gold.

[schnell]

might not be helpful.

ozone reacts with double bonds breaking them and generates aldehydes and carboxylic acids in the process. ethanol of course doesn't have any, but the congeners do. i think you'd only be adding to the heads and tails.

great for disinfection by decomposing organics, but probably wouldn't help do more than ruin good booze.

[cannon.co.tn]

I am sure that mileage will vary, but I will continue forward with "this" method, as it works for me.

Ultimately, this is what it's all about! I mostly brew and there are always interesting discussions about brewing to style ( http://www.bjcp.org/stylecenter.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow ) vs. simply brewing what you like to drink. Personally, I like to brew with some recognition of, but not strict adherence to, style. This way those I share with are most likely to enjoy the results.

There are a lot of "clone" beer recipes that are designed to mimic the attributes of favorite brews but the recipes may have little resemblance to the original recipe.

I can (and will) test this out, by using O2 from my welding setup, to put pure O2 into 4 jugs, and "air" into 4 others. Then age two O2 and two air, garage, shaking both, but not changing out the contents of two of them (one O2 and one air), and the other 2 get their air and O2 changed. Then the other 4 into the freezer (and out). Again, shaking all, but only changing the air and O2 in one set.

Sounds like an interesting experiment. Keep us posted.

[erbachem]

So a quick check on the internet shows that people do use ozone as part of the purification process. Am I right in thinking that this started off due to reports like the one on http://ethanolproducer.com/article.jsp?article_id=2439?

This article at least shows that ozone treatment should not only be safe to use but should also have a positive effect on vodka type products.

For flavoured products (i.e. pot still products) the effect could be drastically different depending on what you are trying to clean up. Ozone will simply oxidise whatever it has an affinity with. You will certainly be destroying at least some of the good flavour along with the bad.

My last observation is that there is a huge difference between O2 and O3. That's not to say that bubbling O2 will not have an effect, it just won't be the same effect as using O3.

[Bonden]

Even if I am a newbee here I still have some experience with ageing and I think I can tell you what The Chemist can't, namely why is it not the freezing that helps during distress ageing. I live in a country were Schnaps quite often is on table and were seasoning of the Schaps is an old tradition.

For many years I have seasoned my own traditional Schaps using walnuts (you should try this - 4 nuts cut 2 times pr. bottle. Might need dillution with clean alcohol after ageing). Anyway, due to a large proportion of heavy oils and tannins in the nut a Walnutschaps has to be aged for at least 1½ years before you can drink it. BUT it is vitally important now and then to let som air in and out of the jar and to have a good proportion (app. 1/3) of air in the jar above the alcohol. Otherwise the Schaps won't age (It will eventually, but it takes at least 5 years or more).

This reaction is called oxidization - air reacting with the content. This is a bad thing in winemaking, but in ageing of alcohol is is a vital "ingredient". My guess therefore is that it is the oxidization that speeds up the ageing - not the freezing process.

Regards,
Bonden

[wineo]

As far as the ageing process goes,I think that airation of your product removes some of the bad conigers,and oxydizes others,changing there composition.I use a filtered air pump,and leave my containers open,with coffee filters.and a rubber band for a few days.It makes a big change in flavor,and smoothness.In wines,it can be a bad thing but sherry gets some of its flavor from oxydation.I have done the airation on wine,which changes the flavor,and drives off some of the bad stuff{so2}.I then add a antioxydent to stop the oxydation process.
In barrel ageing,all these changes take years to happen.This is what I think is going on?
wineo

[grainhopper]

I have to add this not sure why? I put 3 litres of UJSM in a gallon jar with coffe filter over top of it with about 10 - 6" long, 1" square(approx.) pieces of charred oak. I would just shake every now and then.

4 days almost too long.