Safe wood

[brewmaster2014]

Ive been buying white American oak small planks from local wood working supply store.much cheaper than other sources marketed for spirit aging. Hoever,how ,and is it even possible to tell if wood had been treated with chemicals? I called them and asked,they said it's raw untreated,im just not sure if I 100% trust it.cheers

[NormandieStill]

I would guess that a small supplier has not been treating the wood, especially oak (which is naturally resistant and requires no treatment normally).

But if they're fresh-sawn green oak, they'll need seasoning, and if they've been kiln-dried or air-dried then they've not been seasoned in the way that is recommended for oak staves, and you may find that they make very tannic booze.

[brewmaster2014]

I would guess that a small supplier has not been treating the wood, especially oak (which is naturally resistant and requires no treatment normally).

But if they're fresh-sawn green oak, they'll need seasoning, and if they've been kiln-dried or air-dried then they've not been seasoned in the way that is recommended for oak staves, and you may find that they make very tannic booze.

The planks are really dry ,so I'm guessing it's nit green wood,but I doubt they've been seasoned to staves specification.how would I go about this process?

[NormandieStill]

Staves are normally weathered. Air-dried outside so that it gets rained on. The rain helps wash out some of the tannins which stops your booze from ending up very astringent. You could try soaking it and then letting it dry (a few times) but this process will probably distort the planks.

[Ben]

Wood used for craft is treated a bit differently from barrels. It is usually air dried under shelter to a certain moisture content then kilned at between 150 and 200° to drive the moisture content down to <10% so its stable for indoor use. It is somewhat precious, but I haven't ever heard of it being treated with anything, the kilning process kills all insects and molds. Oak for barrels is usually air dried only, without any shelter. And it usually sits for several years. It helps mellow the wood out some.

Run what you got, see if you like it. I have used red and white oak that were kiln dried, and didn't prefer it. In the mean time cut some of your plank to your desired size and put it outside where it can get sun and rain. The smaller the lumber is to start the faster it will weather.

If you need some aging bits look for barrel chips or chunks for smoking, you can get some pretty exotic stuff off of places like amazon.

[NormandieStill]

Also, if you're wanting to approximate barrel ageing as closely as possible, you should be splitting your wood and not cutting it. When split, you open up fewer fibres so there's less end-grain exposed to the alcohol. This is how staves for barrels are made.