aging rye

[baron4406]

I love Rye, I mean I really love rye. Good rye commercially is very hard to find. So I made some Ag rye batches last year, results were ok. Drank some white and aged some for a few months on oak.
This year I wanted more rye flavor, so I did Odin's rye bread recipe. That was a success, it had that spicy rye flavor i love and it was perfect after a few trips thru the microwave. As usual I put some on light charred oak, with some small pieces of apple and cherry for long term aging.
Ok the aged rye is about two months old, and its totally different. Most of the spiciness is gone, its very smooth and good tho. Its what I noticed with the AG rye i did last year, after oaking it lost alot of its spicy rye flavor. Has anyone noticed this? I was so curious when we took our annual Virginia trip this year I stopped by a micro-distillery and bought some of their aged rye and white dog rye (yes they sell it). Same deal I actually preferred the white dog because it had alot more rye flavor.

So what's the deal with rye? Should I use something besides charred oak to age it?

[Tater]

old days rye was also stored in unchared barrels

[Cu29]

What ABV are you aging at? It sounds like aging at a higher ABV will give you a more complex profile and a lower ABV will be sweeter & smoother. Higher might be what you are looking for.

GL

[baron4406]

Already age it at 65% ABV. Longer I play with it I realize that most charred oak will overpower rye in a very short time. Gonna make up some more batches and just try some oak spirals.

[rtalbigr]

I did some rye bourbon early last year. Most was barrel aged (I haven't tried it yet) but I experimented with some in glass w/ oak sticks (heavy toast, medium char). I open the last jar at 15 months and diluted from 65% to 50%. It was excellent, some of my very best whiskey; smooth, spicy, with very nice vanilla undertones and a gentle sweetness. The longer it was aged the better it was.

Big R

[baron4406]

Good stuff Big R. I actually have a full jar of 90% rye that was run Odin style, I'm not sure what I wanna do with it. Its smooth and spicy white. I just had an idea tho, I have two gallons of 1 year old UJSSM ready to bottle, I may mix each jar with a 1/4 jar of the rye.