Need input...

[Boomer8]

Not new to the site, but just registered. I've been reading for a while and looking for help and usually finding it. I am planning a little experiment and I'd like some input from people with oak aging experience.

What I want to do is age (in quarts) several different methods of using oak to age. My plan is to have 30-40 quarts aging with all different preparation methods. For example, the first 3 quarts I did, I cut to about 100 proof, toasted oak @ 400 degrees for 4 hours and then charred. The oak pieces are 6" long, 3/4" wide, and 1/4" thick. I put one stick in the first quart, two in the second, and three in the third. My next 3 quarts will be identical, except I won't char the oak. I'm planning to introduce several variables, including (but not limited to): different proofs of likker, different roasting temperatures and times, charred/uncharred, possibly using different woods, distressed aging vs. "normal" aging, etc. It has potential to end up with a load of whiskey in order to cover all the different combinations of these variables, but I'm willing to stick with it and get it all made and into jars so I can start aging and seeing the results. The plan is to only pull a little every few months to see how it's going. If any of these combinations proves exceptional, I'll make a dozen or so more of it to let age for several years.

Anyways, since this project is in its infancy, I'd really like any advice/suggestions that any of you are willing to offer. As of now, different woods are on the back burner because I'd really like to fine tune my oak aging skills, but not totally out of the realm of possibility down the road. If anyone has any experience with playing with these variables, I'd certainly like to hear more about it so I can compare notes in a few months. I plan to make notes of each whiskey as I check them so that I'll have something by which to judge future batches, should I decide to attempt a replication.

Thanks in advance for the help/advice and hopefully over time I'll be able to reciprocate with knowledge gained from this little experiment.

[That Guy]

Hi Boomer8!

Experimentation is always fun, but don't forget the magic rule - always start with an identical base product. Do you have a standard recipe that you've run enough times to reliably get an identical product out of? If not, you may want to save up several different batches until you have enough blended "base" product to run all the experiments with. That way you're only changing the variables that you actually want to change

When I started several years ago I bounced around doing different recipes and experiments like a hyper chihuahua - it made very hard to determine what was a good recipe and what was just a proper, well cut run.

Other than that advice, I don't have too much to add - I prefer very little oaking myself. Just a small handful of chips per quart for 2-3 weeks tops. I often pre-soak the chips in cheap wine for several days beforehand to get a different flavor too.

Good luck!

-TG

[Boomer8]

That's exactly what I did - blended enough to have a stable starting point. When you pull off the oak, do you age prior to drinking? That's another variable I'd consider playing with - time on oak vs. time aged in a bottle without oak.

[frozenthunderbolt]

Boomer, there is a great temp diagram that links to the different tastes avalible from oak hit with different tempratures.
Someone did a similar experiment a while back and i'm pretty sure that the conclusion was that 67% ABV was about the highest % you wanted to use on oak.
Less oak longer is better than more oak faster.
Personaly i'm tending to use dark toast rather than charred oak now - more subtle and less woody IMHO - perhaps use one side charred if you are going that route.
Otherwise a most excellent and valuable experiment - go for it and report back.
A final note - use pencil on paper to lable your jars - pen and vivid(permanent marker) melt in the face of alcohol!