I have put most of this into my welcome post, but I know a lot of you don't go there.
Two things I wanted to share with you...
First, I buy American White Oak in sticks... "pen blanks"... on Ebag, in the hobby section, about 10 bucks a dozen, shipped. I guess people actually make pens as a hobby. Who Knew?
In the Northeast where I live, we have Red Oak for sale everywhere, but White Oak is harder to find, and a lot of times it's in finished works. Not much point paying for a finished stair ballister just to char it. Anyways...
You can chip them but it's a pain. Much easier to cut them into cubes or leave them whole.
Char them over a flame, your grill, in the oven, whatever. Hold them with pliers, don't forget to move the grip a little to get that uncharred spot where the pliers were.
You can cut them into fancy spirals like the ones they sell, don't worry about it screwing in, just make the slanted cross cuts to give it the added surface area. If you cut through, no worries, throw all the pieces right into your jar. Here's a picture, the screwdriver is for scale. You can see some were double the size, those ones were 12 bucks a dozen.
I went for the custom art (see avatar)... there was instructions on care but I left them high and dry for months without doing the right things... I just didn't have a good enough product yet, and I needed to get way betterererrr.
Plus, I've been doing mostly nuetrals, and who barell oaks a good nuetral?
Now I've rehydrated one, soaking it in distilled water. You can see from the water being grey I'm losing some charcoal, but the barell needs to have the staves totally wet so they swell up, or else it will leak. You can actually slide the rings right off a dried barell. It's going to give up evaporation no matter what, the "Angels Share", but if you don't make sure it's good and wet the best of your stuff will just run out through the cracks. I don't have to explain to you guys why I'm using distilled water. Anyways, I don't have anything good for the inside of it, but I got it ready, filled it with distilled water, bung'd and capped it, and put it in the kitchen on its stand, where I will see it every day. I'm hoping this will motivate me. I soaked it too long, 4 days, it really only needed about one. It's ok though... It looks kind of cool, like it's ancient or something. And yes, they come with a working spigot for the front.
The guy I got them from makes Blue Agave Tequila (No we can't get Pulque, I asked, he can't ship liquids, Mexican Law. Trust me, I tried. Like, who has time to dig up thier whole back yard and roast agave hearts on coals? And then you have to press them? )
Each barell is exactly .75 US Gallons, and if anybody is interested, Clay is an Awesome Dude, and a Terrific guy to do business with, although frankly, his custom art is expensive. You can buy the barells without art, that's your cheapest option. Don't get me wrong, his old lady's artwork is The Best, but she charges what it's worth.
Clay J says his barells roughly double the time for aging with every use... the first time you use a barell, it will take 2-3 months to age. The second use will require twice the time to get the same amount of aging... 6 months. The third time used, it's double again, or 12 months for the same amount of aging you got the first time in three months. Fourth time, 24 months, 5th time, 48 months..... he says it's done when you age for the last time at around 172 months, then chip it and use it for your Grill. I have not gotten as far as using the barell, I am not yet Worthy.... but I WILL be. Soon. I hope! I believe him, he has actually done it, a lot, and for business, not fun. Note, this is for the smaller barells. A larger barell with less surface contact changes the aging times, although it will still roughly double with each use.
Clay J, if you're here, Love You Man!
Cheers!
