Cloudy after aging

Treatment and handling of your distillate.

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Copperdog
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Cloudy after aging

Post by Copperdog »

I’m pretty much an idiot. Been distilling for a year. I’m not new and I’m making some decent whiskey but I’ve come into a problem. I’ve been aging my whiskey on charred oak that I’ve bought online and gotten decent results. I wanted to make it more true to me so I cut down a branch out of my big oak tree and I didn’t educate myself enough about seasoning. I did toast it for an hour in the oven and thenI charred it over an open flame. After 24 hours on my bourbon it is very cloudy. Did I ruin it? Can I fix this? I took it off of the wood after 24 hours and put it on some charred oak that I have used in the past.
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Expat
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Re: Cloudy after aging

Post by Expat »

You're going to have quite a bit of tannins from green wood. You might be able to dilute it down to something drinkable with new make but if it were me I'd just take it off the wood and shelve it. Maybe it'll smooth down sometime. Likely not but nothing changing that now. Live and learn.
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still_stirrin
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Re: Cloudy after aging

Post by still_stirrin »

Well, you could rerun it through the potstill. And then, pay attention to how you age your whiskey. Rerunning it will also give you an opportunity to hone your cuts too, leaving more of the heads in the feints jar.
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Copperdog
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Re: Cloudy after aging

Post by Copperdog »

Yeah I was thinking to possibly just run it a third time. I only left it on the wood for 24hrs before I saw the haze the next day. It still tastes and smells good. It was my best batch of bourbon to date. It’s just really hazy
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NZChris
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Re: Cloudy after aging

Post by NZChris »

I'm doing an experiment with green oak, 350F for 2.5 hours, alligator char. It's been two and a half months and it isn't cloudy.

What proof is yours at?
Copperdog
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Re: Cloudy after aging

Post by Copperdog »

NZChris wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 2:31 pm I'm doing an experiment with green oak, 350F for 2.5 hours, alligator char. It's been two and a half months and it isn't cloudy.

What proof is yours at?
Proof is 110. It was crystal clear when I added it
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