Toasted Oak

[ZAXBYC]

I ahve some oak chips that are saupposed to go in some wine I made, but I didnt used them as I do not like my lighten wines oaked.

If I wrapped these up in aluminium foil and put them in the oven, would they be suitable for flavouring/colouring my distilate?

Me

[Hawke]

Yes they can. Chips will impart a lot of wood flavor so you need to be carefull when using them. I prefer a very light toasting for my stuff. You may want to do 3 or 4 batches at different levels to find one that works best for you.

[BW Redneck]

IMO, shavings and "chips" are not the best when it comes to in-bottle aging. They toast through too quickly and don't form temperature layers that add complexity to the finished product. The end result: you get something resembling whiskey very quickly, but it's rather bland.

Relevant thread: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6597

[decoy]

I do mine 2 ways first i chuck the lot in a old frypan and just stir on high heat till they go a dark brown you
you can smell the oak as it browns..

or i use a corse wire sive to shake out the fine chips or splinters leaving me with large fat chips then still in the frypan i let them sit on one side to Burn a bit evry now and then giving them a gentle tap to or shake, you dont want them to burn on both sides.

cheers.

[punkin]

I do mine 2 ways first i chuck the lot in a old frypan and just stir on high heat till they go a dark brown you
you can smell the oak as it browns..

or i use a corse wire sive to shake out the fine chips or splinters leaving me with large fat chips then still in the frypan i let them sit on one side to Burn a bit evry now and then giving them a gentle tap to or shake, you dont want them to burn on both sides.

cheers.

I can vouch for decoy's aging process, it works, in a very short frame for the fine result.

[ZAXBYC]

Awesome! Cheers Guys!

Will have to give this a go then

[CoopsOz]

Rather than starting the 745th toasted oak thread, I thought I'd just tack on my question here. I must confess I am a toasting virgin, in the past I have always bought toasted chips from the local home brew shop. Rudi was kind enough to send me down some oak (about 18 months ago I think) and I' have just done my first toast. The oak was wrapped in foil and placed in a fan forced oven at 200 deg C for 2hrs, does the colour look right to you guys? Maybe it could have stayed in a little longer? I've seen some guys (Pint perhaps?) that take to the oak with a gas torch, every time I've tried that I just get charcoal.....so this is looking a little better. The untoasted is in the rear of the pic just for comparison.



I'm gonna chuck it in some UJ and see what happens anyway....just thought I'd ask.

[BW Redneck]

That looks perfectly fine to me. I use oak with two different toast levels on it to get the kind of flavor I want. The majority is lighter than that, and I add some that is very dark to it as a small adjunct for flavoring.

[CoopsOz]

Thanks BW.

[ZAXBYC]

Cheers CoopsOz Useful photo for reference!

[punkin]

That looks a very good colour Coops. I usually split my sticks before i toast em though

There's a lot of wood left in those staves that'll never see it's pupose.

I split mine into about 8-10mm square sticks pretty roughly with a tommyhawk. It goes a lot further that way.

Sometimes i'll let some of the sticks get a darker chocolatey toast on the verge of char, and sometimes a few in the middle of a foil bundle get a lighter toast. Then i can play with different blends for different flavours too.

[Trapperjones]

The oak chips at the local store here is more like oak sawdust. To reproduce rye whiskey I usually make a aluminum foil eggroll with half the pack of sawdust and using tongs place it on a electric stove burner on high. Move it around flipping it a few times don't be afraid to burn it a lil. I then pour it into mason jars containing 2nd and 5th hearts. Watch the color as using undulited spirits pull the color and flavor from the oak in hours. I usually leave it for a day or so then filter and cut down to 45%. I find the more burnt oak the darker the color but if you leave it too long you'll taste the burnt flavor. Hopefully one day get a 5L barrel from ebay!

[Hack]

I had been using cubes of toasted oak about 3/4" x 3/4" x 1" for aging. One cube per quart. It takes a month or two for the spirits to reach a true dark color. Recently after reviewing the suggestions I found in a book I got i decided I wanted to try about half as much oak per quart. I had already made myself quite a supply of the larger cubes so I split them in half. I was surprised to find that the dark toasted color was consistent right through the center of the cubes I split.

I'm also really liking the results I'm getting using these smaller cubes.