I made a great batch of single malt a while ago and set it aside to age. I had nothing to drink so I took some off the oak quickly to enjoy while the remainder continued to age. Now over 2 months have passed where I've used a minimal amount of oak (just 1 stick of used oak per litre) and exposed the whisky to LARGE temperature swings (12 hours at -4˚F and 12 hours at 86˚F) and 2 vigorous shakes each day. I believe this has worked WONDERS for me. I sampled it and it honestly tastes like a 15 year old single malt. The colour is rich, the nose is phenomenal, as is the taste. The oak has given it some great toffee/chocolate/dark fruit notes and it smells and tastes like gold. Of course, it's very smooth. Best of all, the richness of the flavour is a scotch richness, not a bourbon richness (which is pure caramel, quickly added, and often attributed to using new oak).
I'm sure many of you might scoff at its only being aged 2 months but if you could only taste it. The moral of the story is when the ageing/maturation go hand in hand with good cuts, magic happens. I'm going to whip up a new batch and set it on oak while I continue to enjoy this one.
One of my freezers is extra cold (-20˚C)! Jar it with the oak and throw it in there for a while. Its amazing how thick/viscous/syrupy high-proof alcohol can become at that temperature. I think the large density changes at those extremes really helps to force the liquor in and out of the wood depending the temperature.
If you think 2 months is good, keep some around till you hit 4 months. I hold fast that magic happens (starts to happen) at 4. I will drink nothing before 4 months. Theres a huge change that occurs. Of course longer is better, but at 4 its wow factor. Anything younger just tastes young still. I wont drink anything, whiskey, vodka, rum, nothing before 4 months now. Its too big of a change.
woodshed wrote:Where did you get the idea of caramel for color in Bourbon? Not even legal to do so and a bastardization of the spirit.
I think there was a misunderstanding. I read that as him describing the color/flavor that is achieved from oaking, not the actual addition of the extract.
"Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond."
ShineonCrazyDiamond is right. I was referring to the colour/flavour and not the addition of caramel colouring. What I meant was that the richness and fullness in flavour is different from the bourbon richness, as bourbon uses fresh, charred wood which imparts a significantly stronger caramel undertone as compared to scotch which uses used casks after a lot of the caramel has already been used up. And in my experience, if you're only after a deep red, caramelly, one-dimensional bourbon, it can be achieved in a week with lots of heavily charred oak sticks.
Jimbo, I'll try that for sure. I'm delighted to sip on this for now and it should last me around 4 months so I'll probably whip up a new batch soon as I can let it sit until this gets over. I'm sure when I try that, I won't want anything younger so I'll finish this well before trying the next batch!
And zaph, you're right, my freezer does go lower than that, but I don't need it lower. Already provides a large enough temperature change for me.
