what does airing out your run do

[UnseatedPanic]

Ok i have seen on here that people will sit there runs out with coffee filters on them... what does this do

Sorry if its been answered all ready

[Odin]

It airs out the likker. Mostly some heads & ethyl acetate evaporating and - by oxygen influence - turned into more likable goodies. And a day or more rest brings the product in balance. Different ethers, tasty oils, alcohols get time to stabilize.

Odin.

[Prairiepiss]

+1 Odin

Some higher alcohols can evaporation off.

Try it you will be surprised what airing for 24 to 48 hours will do to it.

[UnseatedPanic]

Thanks guys i will give it a try any other good things i should try i am going to oak the sweet feed i have its going in at 52% it has a pretty good bite to it right now after oaking should i knock it down to 45% or 40% for on the rocks drinks

[NcHooch]

...just don't forget about it or your likker will disappear .

Yep, just use the dilution calc on the parent site to dilute down to drinking proof once your oaking is complete.

[mash rookie]

Airing is critical to making good booze but,..If you make good cuts, do not over air. Leave plenty of head space when oaking or aging and it will allow remaining heads to escape within natural conditions.

[HolyBear]

I've noticed that at cooler temps, airing out takes longer. In warmer temps only a couple days is needed...

[Expat]

My output is about 90-92% (temp corrected) Do I need to dilute before airing it out? Will you not loose alcohol to evaporation?

[Prairiepiss]

No you should be airing out before you make your final cuts. Then after you make your cuts and blending diluting to drinking strength.

That's one of the points of airing. After airing it will have a more of a final taste and smell. That will be different then when it came off the still. So it will make your cuts better. And a better drink in the long run. What does it mater if you loose a little ABV. Your not going to drink it at 92% anyway. You will need to dilute it to drink. And even if it drops to say 90%. That's still a good base to start from for making flavored stuff.

[Expat]

Much appreciated for the info, I'll give it a try with the batch I finished this morning.

True the loss isn't consequential, I guess I'm still working on breaking that greedy streak

[Prairiepiss]

Much appreciated for the info, I'll give it a try with the batch I finished this morning.

True the loss isn't consequential, I guess I'm still working on breaking that greedy streak

The day you break the greed will be the day you find out what you have been missing.

[Frosteecat]

Would there be any value to putting a "bubbler" (like an aquarium stone?) in early airing? Or would that be too much?

[heartcut]

I tried a bubbler and it didn't improve the taste any faster, but it did lower the abv more quickly. IMO, the test was a failure. A day or 2 under a coffee filter works well.

[Prairiepiss]

There has been discussion about using an air stone. But its generally viewed to be another crutch like carbon filtering. If natural airing doesn't make it better then distill it again.

Now there was also talk about using pure oxygen. This is a big safety hazard. Mixing pure oxygen and alcohol vapors is asking for trouble. Mite as well turn your torch on without a flame and let it fill your house.

Some vodka makers use it as a selling point. Or make it sound like its one. But around here the verdict is still out on this one. I haven't seen that any good evidence has been presented that it works. Or that it is worth it.

Plain ol airing works great for me. But you mileage may vary?

[Frosteecat]

Damn...thought I had a shortcut.

[Odin]

I air out my drinks before tasting & making cuts.

When I made cuts, I find that airing with the stone you mentioned does help aging. I do that for like a few hours. It speeds up what I call "stabilization" of the drink. Somehow some rest gives a drink time to reach an equilibrium. Or so I explain to myself.

After cutting it takes at least two days before I want to take a sip or two to see if its okay. Then, I keep it bottled up with some head space for 5 weeks. The two days & the 5 weeks period both have an impact. The product gets better.

Airing with a fish tank stone speeds up the process a bit. So it is not necesairy. Unless you are in a hurry.

Recently, I have been doing some experiments with ultrasonic aging. And that does make a difference.

The normal "after two days" result, I can now get after an ultrasonic treatment of 5 minutes.

Further ultrasonic treatmens (like another 3 times 5 minutes) get me to what I normally have after the five weeks rest. This means I can get the same quality likker in a day (I give the drink some rest between ultrasonic treatments), that would otherwise take at least five weeks.

I tried to continue from there. Like giving my drinks 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 treatments, but nothing changed. I got the drink as well as I could get it after what would otherwise take five weeks of rest. I am talking rest here, not "five weeks of on wood" or sumtin'

Took another angle at it, since I have an ultrasonic cleaner that also allows me to warm up my likker.

Made it like 35 degrees C and gave the drink another few treatments.

What I got was astonishing. Better than I would get with airing or time or time & airing together. A new level.

I treated my vodka like this and it worked (old style vodka with some taste & mouth feel left), I did it to my Eau-de-Vie (like a vodka/whiskey in between) with good results. First tests on my geneva (just tonight) are very, very promissing. My whiskey though did not get that much better. But maybe that is because my whiskey was not that great to start from.

Slowly trailing of topic here.

Odin.

[Frosteecat]

Are you using a jewelry or shaver cleaner or something? Lab equipment? I also wonder if agitating/stirring the New product might not help release some of the "bad flavors/chemicals" and mellow it? I may rig up a rock tumbler, put some media in it and compare against a simply aired control sample...
I like the way you think, Odin!

[Odin]

I started reading up on the subject and ended up wanting some jewelry cleaning thing.

But finally, I ended up buying a pretty professional 2.5 liters unit. 50 watts, 40/20 khz. All SS. Programable.German. Costed me around 160 USD, but it is worth it.

Don't go for the cheap Chinese shit.

Odin.

[Kas]

Nice Idea frosteecat I may copy this and rig up a small motor to constantly turn a bottle of my whiskey with some oak chips in it....
Let us know how it goes if you do.
Odins method also sounds very interesting and I believe we are really getting into scientific methods with this...
Although don't have quite enough money to invest in an ultrasonic machine myself.

[Frosteecat]

Nice Idea frosteecat I may copy this and rig up a small motor to constantly turn a bottle of my whiskey with some oak chips in it....
Let us know how it goes if you do.
Odins method also sounds very interesting and I believe we are really getting into scientific methods with this...
Although don't have quite enough money to invest in an ultrasonic machine myself.

So I actually did this. I have a rock tumbler that probably holds about 2 cups worth of media. I didn't trust what had been in there so what I did was take the smallest canning jars you can get...about 3/4 a cup (I think they held some fancy or sampler jam at some point...they were in Mrs. Frostee's cupboard).

I washed them thoroughly though they were already clean. I put about 4 ounzes of liquor in each one. I placed 2-3 small pieces of clean copper in the tumbler jar (my theory being that tumbling would "polish" the liquor of impurities) and just left the other one on my airing shelf with a coffee filter on it. I placed the small jar inside the tumbler vessel and let it tumble for about 36 hours. So now I had a jar with tumbled copper in liquor in it and one still pristine but aired.

When I took the jar out it was very cloudy...like something had been cleaned/soaked in it. I can only assume those copper pieces were not as clean as they looked. I put a coffee filter on it and let it air in the same cabinet my other "control" jar was in. They've been airing for about a week now. The experiment jar was still quite cloudy tonight. It looked like highly oxygenated or maybe "hard" water, like from a well....? The control jar was crystal clear. I poured them both through a coffee filter into fresh containers. The tumbled product is still milky looking. It's the one on the left.



They certainly smell differently (I have a really strong sense of smell and can pick up on fairly small differences and flavor/scent profiles). The control jar has what to me is the distinctive hearts scent--obviously alcohol, but clean, sweet and with a background foundation of "strong clean water".

The tumbled sample is much subtler, slightly less sweet/floral, has a hint of mineral/metal (most likely the copper I tumbled it with) and, most interestingly to me, a kind of buttery scent, but understated...like sweet Irish butter. It is not unpleasant at all. You definitely have to breathe deeply to get any strong scents from this one...the strong alcohol scent is not as present, and then you get the metal...but the finishing buttery smell is quite a pleasant surprise at the end. The contol is simply "yep, that's strong liquor, well distilled" as we are acccustomed to.

So the important thing of course is the taste test, right?
Again, the control sample is as you'd expect--it's got that cold neutralesque first hit, followed by a strong alcohol flavor mixed with the clean water taste and a slightly sweet, vaguely bitter finish that lights up your tongue and mouth and then gradually subsides...but still stings a bit.

The tumbled sample is warmer tasting, more of an unidentifiable flavor...definitely the tang of the copper, slightly floral, almost perfumed (oddly because it smells less so than the control sample) and the kick is more graduated and less severe. The alcohol "bite" fades in, doesn't spike as hard, and then fades out more...it's less residually strong. And there is definitely that subtle, warm, buttery, but less shocking/full taste to justify the scent detected earlier. It is much less "in your face" overall and a good bit more complex and much less brash than the control.

If I had it to do over again I would use as completely flavorless a media (marbles? ceramic? boiled stones?) as possible, if at all. I suppose the copper may have imparted the butter taste somehow, but it also left the metallic hint as well, which is just out of place. I don't know if I can get one without the other. But if it were possible to lose that mineral taste and keep the other, I think it would really make for a smooth and exceptional tasting whiskey. Maybe just tumble with the oak you're going to use anyways?

Well...as odd as that line of experimentation seems...it actually produced very noticeable results IMHO, and I am now trying to think of how to make a larger tumbler...
I'll update any new trials, but I probably won't do it again for a week or two.

[mash rookie]

NO EATING COPPER FROSTY!

That is the fun part about this hobby, being able to experiment and learn. The copper in your tumbler will only do harm. I would avoid that.
Copper in the vapor path reacts with some sulphor compounds to neutralize their flavors. That is good.

In your tumbler you were actually wearing some off into the alcohol where it could then be consumed. Any metal can be toxic at certain levels. While you might take a zinc or iron supplement you can also be poisoned by too much of either.

The purpose of airing is to allow the higher alcohols (heads) that smeared with your hearts a chance to evaporate. Aging in oak casks allows for some evaporation as does a bottle with a cork.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_toxicity" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Frosteecat]

I hear ya man. LOL can't believe I have to be told not to eat copper at this stage of my life what a hobby!
I probably consumed a tablespoon of this so don't sweat it....actually it would probably be a good antidote to some other stuff I consumed in college.
May have to change my handle to Mad Hatter...

[spmachine]

Is airing out something that can be done later? I have been making the sweatfeed liquor like a mad man for about 4 months now. In the spring my biker friends and me went through alot. The summer heat has brought a lull to the chaos and I have about 50 qt jars of 90% sitting on the shelf. It was pretty much ran straight from the parrot to the jar to the shelf with a lid. I got that cuts thing down though so It still been great. so great its the only thing Ive ever made. At this point in the game would it be benificial to line those things up on my workbench, uncap them and cover them for a few days? or am I too late?

[Prairiepiss]

Only one way to find out. Try it out on a few jars and see what happens.

[spmachine]

Only one way to find out. Try it out on a few jars and see what happens.

I opened some up right after i posted that question. im really curious.

[LWTCS]

Can open and transfer back and forth between jars for a few minutes too.....IMO.
Ain't as good as the real McCoy but it helps a bit.
Cheers

[Odin]

Not sure what a rock tumbler is and what it does.

The ultrasonic cleaner creates tiny bubbles that are smashed to oblivion at pretty much the same time. The implosions cause hard contact between various molecules, thus creating encounters/reactions that would otherwise take more time (like a few years in a barrel). I am not saying it replaces ageing, just that it speeds it up and mellows things out a bit.

Odin.

[FantsGrove]

Odin have you tried any of the ultrasonic techniques with flavoring? For example mellowing out an already infused spirit but minus the water/sugar dilution syrup.(i.e. citrus, mint, cinnamon, previously oak aged ). I guess i just wonder if it would help smooth out the profile of an infusion?

[Odin]

No, not yet. I did however put juniper & other herbs together with 40% strong base likker in the ultrasonic cleaner and gave it a few treatments. Like that lots of the oils/taste got over.

Odin.

[LWTCS]

Hi Odin,
Say,,do you have a picture of that device?