...really old wash(es).

[Frosteecat]

Ok, so life really intervened on me and I got knocked off my regular routine. That meant that I had a 5 gallon rice ferment and a 15 gallon or so corn ferment sitting in my garage for close to 6 months. Granted, the garage was quite cold during this time (never above 50F, really) but I had serious doubts as to how either of these washes would turn out. The rice in particular only lacked a couple of goldfish to become an aquarium it appeared. Murky and weird looking to say the least. I had made some tweaks to my setup over the winter (SS 3 tiered mesh plates sitting inside the headspace of an internal thumper--a stainless bowl set in the top of my big old 15 gallon SS pot) and was eager to run something, so I figured, "what the hell" and ran them both.

I was quite surprised to find that the rice whiskey was especially smooth and somewhat sweet, with no noticeable off flavors. I'm currently running the corn and it seems to be a slightly higher ABV/yield than I was accustomed to in the past. Not sure if this was due to my tweaks or to the age, but it started at 85% and held in the 75-70% range for quite some time as well. I've easily got nearly two gallons ranging from 85-50%, with a pretty wide range of flavors. I just tested it and its tasting decent but I'm going to speed up the run and use the remains to fill my thumper for the next run.

I guess what I'm finding is, provided it's all sealed up and at low temp, a wash can be kept and run to beneficial effect for long periods. I'm not going to be sure until its all aired and aged or added to fruit, etc. but I think it will bring its own flavor and character into the process and be good if not great. I'll update after that!