charring oak over a vegatable steamer

[jeger]

I put 4 liters of 65% wheat germ sugar wash on 3 sticks of oak that i charred over a vegtable steamer basket with boiling water. lidded it after a bit of fire for about 10 seconds. and the booze seems smoother then usual, is that enough oxidizing steam to activate the carbon when i char them? i saw on wiki that you can use co2 too, not sure how i would get co2 in contact with it though while i have a torch blowing on it.

[Dnderhead]

If you are saying that you steamed, chaired oak, doing so probably opened the pores as done with activated charcoal

[jeger]

I charred it in a steam bath, then when it was nice and charred and still hot covered for a few secoonds. I read on wiki that the carbon has to be pretty hot for the steam to activate it ("at temperatures above 250 °C"). Wanted to make sure i'm not just imagining it smoother.