Oak lids for jars

[ukeman]

Hey guys,

I just ordered a batch of those PTFE discs from United States Plastics Corporation. Question I have....do you put them under the normal metal snap lid or do you replace the metal snap lid altogether with this and just hold it down with the screw ring? Clarity please....

[Nutmegmooner]

I'm glad to see you opened up that inside clearance a bit. No need for it to be close! I once lost about 10 lbs of saurkraut to a too snug wooden lid. Seems obvious now.

[MarkM301]

Just for reference. I turned mine upside down to check the seal and they don't leak so no need for all the gaskets they would just be insurance, You could make them from 3/4 think wood so you could get a good char on them also. The only drawback I see is that there would only be about 7 sq. inches of surface area so you would need to add a small piece of oak inside to get a little more wood contact.

KYChemist, when you turned them upside down, was it for a short or extended time? Without a gasket, do you think the liquor would slowly seeping out? (I'm thinking capillary action may slowly wick the liquid through the wood-glass joint.) Having the jars on their side would really maximize the contact with the oak, thus more closely mimicking what goes on in a barrel.

FYI, great idea.

[sunshine1101]

My thought process on the permiable lids is allowing the angleshare to escape. Id like to use the oak in the bottle but have a lid that would allow for some evaporation. It wouldnt need to be oak......

[bearriver]

I couldn't find this thread for some reason and now here it is... If it was a snake it would have bit me!

Anyways these are amazing! Keep up the good work

[The KYChemist]

@MarkM301... Not trying to be rude, but if you read the quotes correctly, and the following posts, I never got around to doing this. Its still on the list, but other things have come up. I still really want to, though.

[Antler24]

Bringing this back from the dead. Corene, I noticed you wrote in T-Pee's thread that with the wooden lids you got flavour from the wood even without it touching the spirits, and the spirits remained clear. This caught my attention because I've been planning to create a nice white rum, something along the lines of Bacardi, which is basically Bacardi's barrel aged amber rum that's been charcoal filtered.

I'm wondering about how long you used the lids, and how much of the oak flavour carried over into the spirits?

[corene1]

I keep all my spirits that are aging in jars with the oak lids on them. The flavor that comes through to the spirit without contacting the wood is very mild almost a like a trace flavor in the finish. A year in the jar has deepened it a tiny bit but it is still very mild.

[Antler24]

I keep all my spirits that are aging in jars with the oak lids on them. The flavor that comes through to the spirit without contacting the wood is very mild almost a like a trace flavor in the finish. A year in the jar has deepened it a tiny bit but it is still very mild.

Thanks Corene. I'll have to try to get some white oak and make some lids. White oak is hard to find here.

Maybe smaller jar size? Instead of a wide mouth quart, try 2 wide mouth pints to see if it'll get more oak flavour into the spirit and combine both jars later. Bacardi takes their barrel aged Amber and charcoal filters stripping color and inevitably some of the flavour too, so the end result wouldn't need a heavy oak presence say a whiskey would have.

Would be a great experiment hopefully I can track down some white oak plank.

[corene1]

This is where I get mine. http://www.dndhardwoodsonline.com/page/464309582" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[raketemensch]

UPDATE! I soaked the lids in whiskey over night and they grew 3/16ths on an inch opposite the grain direction and stayed the same running with the grain so we now have a oval. So I will have to cut blanks , toast them , soak them , then dry them , then shape them. Even the dry one I put on a jar expanded slightly and it was not in contact with any liquid and it was moist. So re work is in order. On the other hand it tells me that since the capped lid was slightly moist it is doing it's job of breathing slightly. I think it is worth pursuing .

Apologies for bringing up some ancient stuff again, but did these work out well with shaping them after toast/soak/dry?

I'm considering picking up a cnc machine for churning these out.