Interesting substance on staves in aging whiskey

[Fills Jars Slowly]

I checked on a corny keg of oak smoked malt whiskey that has been aging since mid 2016. It only has a gallon or so of spirit in it (I got thirsty) along with three staves of charred oak from a bourbon barrel that stick up quite a ways above the liquid level. When I opened the keg I noticed discoloration on at least one of the staves. I picked it up out of the keg and looked it over and it has an appearance of being a precipitate on the wood or something excreted from the wood. Kind of powdery, like a mold, though I don't think that is at all what it is. In the picture, it is the discoloration on the leftmost stave.

Now, the interesting thing is, I brushed some off with my finger and took a sniff. It smells of the most heavenly vanilla marshmallow oak goodness you can imagine. Apparently, this is at least one or some components of the nectar of the gods that is extracted or develops over the course of aging on oak.

[VLAGAVULVIN]

Isn't it worth to set the stave upside down now?

[autotech]

thats the result of evaporation of your spirits wicking up the wood/char, ie way to much air space most likly the abv is going down. just my 2 cents by looking at the pic.

[Fills Jars Slowly]

Isn't it worth to set the stave upside down now?

I like what is going on naturally to the extent that I don't think I will mess with it just yet. Also, the level of oak is pretty nice. If some of the exposed oak is "fresher" I don't want to overdo it.

thats the result of evaporation of your spirits wicking up the wood/char, ie way to much air space most likly the abv is going down. just my 2 cents by looking at the pic.

I have tried to pay attention to ABV changes and sensory profiles at various fill levels, and the trend is that older stuff is better and older containers are less full Gets into that whole correlation and causation thing, but so far, I don't notice a detrimental effect of lots of head space. If anything, it seems the opposite, but it is probably more age than head space that is responsible. That said, you are correct. This was barreled at 61% ABV and is now around 57%. It also might possibly be the tastiest (and near oldest existing) whiskey I have made.

This was distilled months prior to the referred to post, but this is the recipe and process I was using: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=65570

This stuff, even as much of a smoke monster as it is being 100% oak smoked malt, has really mellowed over time and is almost unrecognizable compared to the new make. Another testament to time (just a year or two!) and oak.

[zapata]

Yeah, I think its that the stave is acting like a wick, the booze travels up the "wick" but leaves behind non volatiles that were dissolved when it evaporates from the stave surface.

A cool thought is playing with it intentionally. On a future batch, if you cut your staves in half so they'd be fully submerged, would those amazing marshmellow flavors be more prominent in the later batch? Would you want them to? Are they flavors you are depriving the first batch from, or are they flavors that would just be left in the wood of a normal barrel?

Hell, I'm even picturing a full length stave, toast the whole thing, but only char the bottom half. Age a bourbon with just the charred half submerged, but then a rum with the "used" top half of the stave which would be both toasted and "seeded" with marshmellow salts and absorbed bourbon. Wow, could be awesome, and novel AF since it's something only an experimenting HDer could ever do.

[SaltyStaves]

Consider it ethyl carbamate. Don't recycle it.

[pfshine]

It sure does look like it. While EC doesn't have a smell on its own I'm sure it's just from the evaporated ambrosia.

[zapata]

Is there any reason to think EC would deposit on the wood like that?
Also can I point out that "saltystaves" is the most appropriate user name for this thread

[pfshine]

At first glance I wanted to say WOOHOO instant age in powder form, just add white dog. I couldn't tell you if it is or isn't, just be cautious

[Fills Jars Slowly]

Yep, that is why I put this out there. It is certainly an interesting phenomenon, but I am not sure whether it can be harnessed for either good or evil.

[distiller_dresden]

I don't think that's EC, the wikip entry specifically says, "The compound has almost no odor and a cooling, saline, bitter taste"

Try to just barely taste a bit of it, just a grain on the tip of your tongue, and if it's bitter spit it out, or spit anyways if you like, but see if the taste matches the smell. I wouldn't discard it if it doesn't taste bitter. That is a once in a lifetime of distilling experiment discovery accident there...

[Copperhead road]

Cut you staves to a length so the homemade domino will sink to the bottom of your keg. What’s the point of having oak sticking out in the air.....just saying

[distiller_dresden]

Well, if the container is sealed I can see the point of having the oak sticking out, if in some way the oak is exposed that sticks out, then the 'angels share' could be getting out via the oak. That is probably why there is the white stuff in the first place, the ethanol has moved up and through the wood and into the air, as it did so it pulled along oils and things within the wood which wouldn't evaporate, so they coagulated on the wood as more and more ethanol moved up and out. Hell, even if the barrel or whatever it is, is open, that process I described obviously happened...