Is there any rule of thumb for aging whiskey with oak cubes?

[speedfreaksteve]

I have a bunch of medium toast oak cubes bought from my local brew shop. They seem to be about the same size from most places. Anyways, I'm seeing people say they aged for 1 week or 2 weeks, but they don't seem to mention how many cubes per volume of liquid. Currently I'm aging my latest batch in 1.9L jars and used around 18 cubes in one of them, and around 6-8 in the others.

Here's how it looks at the moment.

72 hours of aging so far

[HDNB]

tannins come out first, then the caramel and vanilla. guess you need to decide if you want dry, sucking on a rag whiskey or sweet creamy smooth whiskey.
oaking at higher abv gets to caramel and vanilla quicker and lower abv pulls tannins quicker too.

imho, in house experimenting. ymmv.

[Hank Reardon]

I have a bunch of medium toast oak cubes bought from my local brew shop. They seem to be about the same size from most places. Anyways, I'm seeing people say they aged for 1 week or 2 weeks, but they don't seem to mention how many cubes per volume of liquid. Currently I'm aging my latest batch in 1.9L jars and used around 18 cubes in one of them, and around 6-8 in the others.

Here's how it looks at the moment.

aged_72_hours.jpg

What are you aging, and what is the ABV? Check out TPee's thread about his aging processes...

If you have watched any of the reality docufake-drama, you could electrify the cubes and shorten the process to 2 days. (I'm kidding about that for the record)

[SilverBullet]

Myself, I'd pick the 6-8 cubes per 1.9 L bottle you have there. Leave them in for as long as you want

[speedfreaksteve]

I have a bunch of medium toast oak cubes bought from my local brew shop. They seem to be about the same size from most places. Anyways, I'm seeing people say they aged for 1 week or 2 weeks, but they don't seem to mention how many cubes per volume of liquid. Currently I'm aging my latest batch in 1.9L jars and used around 18 cubes in one of them, and around 6-8 in the others.

Here's how it looks at the moment.

aged_72_hours.jpg

What are you aging, and what is the ABV? Check out TPee's thread about his aging processes...

If you have watched any of the reality docufake-drama, you could electrify the cubes and shorten the process to 2 days. (I'm kidding about that for the record)

I'm aging a bourbon. It's delicious but I think/hope a little oak will bump it to the next level (or two).

Yeah I think those shows do a disservice to people wanting to actually learn AND distill themselves a good product.

[speedfreaksteve]

tannins come out first, then the caramel and vanilla. guess you need to decide if you want dry, sucking on a rag whiskey or sweet creamy smooth whiskey.
oaking at higher abv gets to caramel and vanilla quicker and lower abv pulls tannins quicker too.

imho, in house experimenting. ymmv.

I'm aging it at 130-135 proof. I'm starting to (I think) taste some light flavours imparted from the oak now after around 80 hours of aging. Seems promising and I'm really starting to enjoy this batch so far.

[Saltbush Bill]

Steve Im not sure on the size of the oak cubes you use.
Here is a photo of a oaking experiment I have going at the moment.
Each of the first four 2 L flagon has 2 sticks of oak approximately 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch x 4-5 inches long in it.
Ive used that ratio of oak to spirit many times before and it works for me , both short and long term.
The reflection on the glass makes it look like there is more oak sticks in each flagon than there really is.
This is a long term experiment using 2 different oak types charred and toasted in different ways.
The flagon far right has cubes in it (French Oak Med Toast from AP Johns Cooperage) from memory about 10 I think.
In my experience cubes color faster than sticks but don't necessarily make for a better tasting spirit.
I guess its the old thing of too much end grain that we read about so often.
Click on the photo to view full size.

[jb-texshine]

tannins come out first, then the caramel and vanilla. guess you need to decide if you want dry, sucking on a rag whiskey or sweet creamy smooth whiskey.
oaking at higher abv gets to caramel and vanilla quicker and lower abv pulls tannins quicker too.

imho, in house experimenting. ymmv.

I'm aging it at 130-135 proof. I'm starting to (I think) taste some light flavours imparted from the oak now after around 80 hours of aging. Seems promising and I'm really starting to enjoy this batch so far.

Keep in mind that itll taste better and better for about a month or month and a half then itll taste horrible till the 3 or 4 month mark then itll get better and better

[Pikey]

...........Keep in mind that itll taste better and better for about a month or month and a half then itll taste horrible till the 3 or 4 month mark then itll get better and better

Does it ?

How do you get it to last that long ?

[jb-texshine]

...........Keep in mind that itll taste better and better for about a month or month and a half then itll taste horrible till the 3 or 4 month mark then itll get better and better

Does it ?

How do you get it to last that long ?

Have my wife take it to my mother in laws house. She dont drink and i dont like her enough to go get it. In the mean time u drink uj or rum apple pie.

[HDNB]

JBt thats a solid plan for getting through the awkward stage of oaking.

[cranky]

After a while with this hobby many members succeed in building up enough to have some aging stock. I myself have a small experiment going on that I've lost track of the time, 6-8 months I think. I think giving it a good long time to age is a very good idea and nobody can really tell you what you will prefer. I intend to leave mine aging at least a year. I think in aging a long time you have to be careful not to put so much oak in that it overwhelms the product. I also don't believe many of the long time distillers only age for only a week or two, I believe most of them are like me and let it go for quite some time.

[speedfreaksteve]

After a while with this hobby many members succeed in building up enough to have some aging stock. I myself have a small experiment going on that I've lost track of the time, 6-8 months I think. I think giving it a good long time to age is a very good idea and nobody can really tell you what you will prefer. I intend to leave mine aging at least a year. I think in aging a long time you have to be careful not to put so much oak in that it overwhelms the product. I also don't believe many of the long time distillers only age for only a week or two, I believe most of them are like me and let it go for quite some time.

I've been making wine for 30 years and liquor for over 10. I don't think I've had a wine bottle last more than 6-8 months after making it other than ones that I lost track of and found some time later. For liquor, I consider anything that was made 60 days or older to be "old stock".

That being said, I'm going to start trying to let some liquor age. I'll try to put some aside a handful of bottles from each batch to savour after a minimum set time. I didn't have the capacity before to make more than I can drink and share with others but I believe that now I do.

[T-Pee]

Fyi:

Oaking = wood.
Aging = time.

The two are completely different but related processes.

tp

[bilgriss]

Oaking = wood.
Aging = time.

That's exactly right. It really took a while for that one to sink in, and it's not intuitive when reading through various oaking descriptions around the forum. Should be, but until you've experienced it (at least with me) it doesn't sink in.

[Shine0n]

I've been using the oak cubes for a while now and absolutely love them now I've found a good ratio for a quart.
The ones I buy are 1/2×1/2" for the most part, so I'll take them and lay side by side and make the row 5"s long.

Put them in a quart mason jar with 125 proof likker and do the nuke aging, I do 3 cycles of this over 3 days (1 per day) and wow!!! It's good from that point on but I've still let them sit with the wood in and it keeps getting better.

I've done this with rum, plum brandy, sf. It definitely gets things rolling in the right direction for long term aging but as I've said in one month it's good to go.

If I were you I'd remove the oak from the jar with the most in it. I have a gallon of rum that still has the oak overpowering taste and it's been off the wood for 6 months now. Maybe I check it when it's at the turning point each time but imo it's too much and now I just let the people who always forget to get booze for the party have it. Lol
Experiment with ratios to find your liking and roll with it but the nuking helps speed things along quite nicely.

[OtisT]

Any thoughts on the amount of oak chips to use per quart? There is a lot more surface area with chips, and the size of chips in the bag I bought are very inconsistent which I am guessing introduces its own challenges in getting predictable results.

I just started soaking a few 1/2 quart jars of distilled corn mash in various amounts of Oregon oak, medium toast, oak chips. The amount I used range from 2 tbsp to 4 tbsp of chips per half quart. I think I may have added too much after reading this thread, and plan to pull about half out today. It's only been soaking for 16 hours so far, but has picked up a lot of color already.

[kimbodious]

In 70% ABV I use one SD medium roast french oak domino per litre of spirit and just leave them in there.

[pounsfos]

you learn quickly that you're not as good at remembering as you think you are.

Buy a vivid, write it on the bottle, or some people use a little book to keep track.

If I don't write it down, I forget what i was doing with it after a month or so.

If you look in some of the oaking threads I think alot of people have said a few good ratios (total surface area of about 42cm, but don't quote me)

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =4&t=50348, t-pee has a fantastic article on it.

[corene1]

Just some thoughts to think about. I have noticed that the more end grain exposed the faster the color and tannins will come out. The density of the wood will also determine how quickly the wood will affect the spirit as well as where the wood comes from in the limb itself. A core cut piece is much different in characteristics than a cut from the outer edge of the wood. I have found that commercially produced woods often produce different flavors even when added in equal portions to the same spirit run, so it is hard to give an exact formula. For me , I would rather have an error on the light side of the amount of oak. I can always add a bit but once over oaked it is harder to fix. In time you may want to make your own sticks to better control the end product.

[Mudflats]

I have a question.... I noticed a few have already mentioned this topic, but not much.
I would like to see more info about the changes that can take place, as in weeks.
For example, I have noticed pure distillation (moonshine) is sweet, mellow (at 40%) but clear, and flat............add oak chips, is even better, until about a month, and it starts getting a horrible "bilge water " taste that continues to get worse day by day, which prompted me to redistill (this would be distillation #3).and all was well once again, until month and a half when it once again began to have that horrible bilgewater taste..............
But I forgot a case.............drained of chips and water added to 40% abv...and the case put away and suddenly found after 4 months, and WOW, it tastes great !
So what I would like to see, if any of you have noticed the week-by-week change in your (what we will call) shine, once oak is added and on its way to becoming whiskey...the changes are crazy !
There is at one point, so much oiliness tasting..I could almost throw it all out !
So if I walk away, and leave it be, it goes through incredible changes and suddenly is awesome !

Any more input here ?
My big issue is the awful bilgewater heavy-gross wood taste at about 1 & 1/2 months.

[aircarbonarc]

I have a question.... I noticed a few have already mentioned this topic, but not much.
I would like to see more info about the changes that can take place, as in weeks.
For example, I have noticed pure distillation (moonshine) is sweet, mellow (at 40%) but clear, and flat............add oak chips, is even better, until about a month, and it starts getting a horrible "bilge water " taste that continues to get worse day by day, which prompted me to redistill (this would be distillation #3).and all was well once again, until month and a half when it once again began to have that horrible bilgewater taste..............
But I forgot a case.............drained of chips and water added to 40% abv...and the case put away and suddenly found after 4 months, and WOW, it tastes great !
So what I would like to see, if any of you have noticed the week-by-week change in your (what we will call) shine, once oak is added and on its way to becoming whiskey...the changes are crazy !
There is at one point, so much oiliness tasting..I could almost throw it all out !
So if I walk away, and leave it be, it goes through incredible changes and suddenly is awesome !

Any more input here ?
My big issue is the awful bilgewater heavy-gross wood taste at about 1 & 1/2 months.

You need to forget about it and let it age a bit longer than a couple months. There is a nasty awkward stage where it starts tasting a bit off then it goes really tasty and not like old bilge water. I've work in ship repair yards so I know the nastyness they have in the bilges

[Shine0n]

Bilge water from a scallop trawler... yum!!!
I have some rum that seems every time I check it is like oak tea, but I've left it alone for 10 months now and it has come around nicely and I think it will continue to get better in the next coming months.

Leave it, forget it, set an alarm on your phone for 1 year and then check it.

It's hard knowing it's there but time is your friend