20 years in aging? for the hobby... Part 1

[kiwi Bruce]

Hertzbier, I am not asking in a rhetorical way when I say this: How much of these threads have you read?

At of them.... that said,... the discussion here has revolved around all of the possible things we can do, at the hobby level, that could help speed things up a bit, and by bit I mean years. I think the thing that set me on the "rapid maturation" bent, was the fact that whiskey matured in smaller casks, reaches its destination in a fraction of the time it does in a 53 gal cask, with the same results from both. So we had discussed aerating, agitating, micro waving, ultra-sounding, heating cooling, freezing, etc, etc, and wood... JD chips, oak strips, blocks and so on, and so on.

What we are all looking for is someone to come up with a definitive maturing protocol that will work for all of us, repeatedly. It's the last part, the repeatability, that seems to be the bugbear. As my Granddad used to say "The devil's in the details" So we keep good notes and keep trying all of the multitudes of combinations it the hope that one of us will find our "Grail" which is...Good homemade whiskey that's less than eighteen months old and has the maturity, body, color and flavor of a fifteen to twenty year old.

[hertzbier]

Yep, wasn't tying to rock the boat nor hijack the thread, and yes I've certainly read the posts. I may have [probably] picked the wrong thread to reply in - one thing we've never claimed is to be an instant aging (20y) approach. More than anything i was just trying to offer help with the project being considered in this thread if i can, I enjoy the process of engineering around this particular goal. Hertzbier's technology is meant to help those already barrel aging (and it turns out, there's an unbelievable number of barrels aging something or other around the globe). We are working with a distillery who is using our technology on the "back-end" of his whiskey aging (last 12 months) in 53G barrels, after much of the chemistry changes have taken place. We've also helped another distillery go from 5G to 15G barrels in an equivalent timeframe, which saves them a lot of money on barrel costs. We're not solely for spirits though, we're also working with a winery on hands-free batonnage and a brewery on faster bourbon-barrel aged beer, and I'd like to think we've barely even gotten started.

This isn't about us though, I'll get back to lurking. Thanks to everyone who posts here. If anyone decides they need some engineering help, you know where to find us. Happy New Year!

[chris8sirhc]

re: #4, heating.

Here is an article written by a biochem major relating to that subject:

Guest Blog Post: President of the Charleston Bartenders Guild
February 06, 2016

John Aquino
President, USBG (bartenders guild) Charleston SC Chapter
Owner, Natural Blonde Bloody Mary Mix
BS Bio-Chemistry
I've been in the bar industry for 30 years this year, and I've seen all of the trends come and go, but the last 10 years have been SPECTACULAR! From molecular to the return of the classics, new tools and old ways (ice blocks, eg.), and the boom of hand crafted spirits, bitters, mixers and modifiers, it's not unlike comparing technological advances from 1900-1950 to 1951-2000. When the crazy stuff began 10 years ago, most of the innovators kept their secrets to themselves, and rightly so. Finally, these guys saw $$$ and started writing books about their styles and techniques, and that info launched a whole new wave of young, eager, creative mixologists who took pride in KNOWING the craft and KNOWING the products down to a cellular level.
With a background in Bio-Chemistry, I bought as many books as I could that went to that intricate level, experimenting with the techniques and trying to at least stay even with the trends. While there are several great books that delve into that realm, the book I got the most from (at first) that has a direct influence on my application using the staves Chris provided is "Craft Cocktails at Home", by Kevin Liu. I made a LOT of lemon- and orange-cellos for my former restaurants, but it would take 3 weeks minimum before they were ready. Kevin talks about cutting that time into hours by sous vide-ing the infusion. By pouring your spirit (I recommend 100 proof over pure grain) into a mason jar with the citrus peel, and using the sous vide method at a temp of 50 Celsius (122.5 Fahrenheit) for 4 to 5 hours, it creates the same effect as the 3 to 4 week infusion.
The science behind the 50 Celsius is integral...peels contain oils, which is what you want to extract for flavor, but anything over 125 F totally breaks down the cellular structure of the peel and the bitter components contained within. Keeping the temp at 50C maintains the integrity of the peel's cells and promotes maximum oil extraction without breakdown. I used the same principle with the wood staves. 1 stave per litre of spirit, 50C for 4 hours. Since this was my first try, and I don't have a plethora of booze to practice with, I stayed with what I knew, and it turned out great! I used Dickel 8 year Sour Mash with a cherry stave, and Michael Collins 10 year Single Barrel Irish Whiskey with a French Oak stave.
The cellular structure of wood varies from tree to tree, and I am not sure how the treatment Chris uses changes that, but the results were that the overall taste for both was MUCH smoother than before, with the flavors infused being slightly more than subtle. I think the cherry would benefit from a few more hours in the bath. The staves are still in the bottles, and I will leave them there to report on the imparting flavors over the next few months.
The applications are numerous for this product: from clear spirits to browns, from as-is to charred, even in pre-mixed bottled classic cocktails or vermouths....I'm even going to try them in a few bottles of red wine I can vacuum seal for a while. Another idea I have is to reuse the staves when the bottles are empty in another medium, like the whiskeys aged in old madeira or port barrels. Maybe the Dickel soaked cherry stave in beer or a sherry. I'm accepting all ideas! My final thoughts are that the science behind what this product is meant to do,either by using applications to speed up the process or just letting it soak, and the versatility of creating more or less "flavor" based on char or even splitting it up for a more subtle approach, warrant some interest by our bartending community. Try it out and see what you think...it worked well for me!
Stay Frosty!
John Aquino


source:


http://www.beyondbarrels.com/blogs/news ... ders-guild" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[kiwi Bruce]

Hi chris8sirhc...good article, glad you posted this...KB

[nerdybrewer]

Thanks for posting that chris8sirhc!
Another use for my Sous Vide, now I need to get some things to experiment with.

[Rick Martin]

I have been reading this thread for a couple of hours and I am curious as to the outcome of some of the processes people tried. This thread mixes quite a few threads together that are trying to do the same thing at different levels. Please continue.

[SaltyStaves]

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 44&t=55301

[Rick Martin]

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 44&t=55301

That is the one that sent me to this thread. But thanks


Rick