Vacuum seal to help oak whiskey?
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alohashine
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- Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2016 3:40 pm
Vacuum seal to help oak whiskey?
Got a vacuum sealer and its got a ball canning jar lid attachment. Was thinking of throwing some of my latest spirit run, a nice all grain whiskey, into the mason jar with some fresh toasted an charred oak sticks. Would vacuum sealing the jar "accelerate" the oaking process? Whatcha think?
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teh721
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- Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2016 10:12 am
Re: Vacuum seal to help oak whiskey?
I started experimenting 2 weeks ago with a similar concept, but instead of using the vacuum sealer here's what I've done:
I started with 6 half gallon jars of 130proof with white oak wood chips, I placed three of them in my large pot and filed with water to just below the lower rim of the jars. Heated the water to 150F, loosened the rings on the jars (this is important so you dont explode the jars with the pressure) and let them soak in a warm bath. The temp of the water dropped down to around 125 as it brought the jars up to temp and I let them soak for about an hour. Once I take the jars out I let them slowly cool to room temp and through the normal canning process they self vacuum sealed each jar.
I've put these same 3 jars through this process 4 times now and when placed side by side next to the 'untreated' jars the color is dramatically different and richer. I chose to do the heating method in an attempt to open the pores of the wood to absorb more and then used the natural vacuum sealing action to pull everything back out. I re-tested the proof of one of the jars recently and only appear to have lost about 2% alcohol, expected due to the heating process.
Regards,
TEH721
I started with 6 half gallon jars of 130proof with white oak wood chips, I placed three of them in my large pot and filed with water to just below the lower rim of the jars. Heated the water to 150F, loosened the rings on the jars (this is important so you dont explode the jars with the pressure) and let them soak in a warm bath. The temp of the water dropped down to around 125 as it brought the jars up to temp and I let them soak for about an hour. Once I take the jars out I let them slowly cool to room temp and through the normal canning process they self vacuum sealed each jar.
I've put these same 3 jars through this process 4 times now and when placed side by side next to the 'untreated' jars the color is dramatically different and richer. I chose to do the heating method in an attempt to open the pores of the wood to absorb more and then used the natural vacuum sealing action to pull everything back out. I re-tested the proof of one of the jars recently and only appear to have lost about 2% alcohol, expected due to the heating process.
Regards,
TEH721