Hickory smoking in the jar

[Spowers2]

So I have a couple jars with small holes drilled through the lids, they are connected with aquarium air hose. The pump pushes air into the first jar, the air leaves the first jar and travels into the second jar, it enters through a hose that goes to the bottom (like a thumper) then air escapes through another hole with a short hose in it (just to prevent fluid loss)

So I've been burning the hickory with a propane torch in a small pan, once it's burning I dump it into jar 1, then quickly put the lid on and begin pumping smoke.

It sounds easy enough until you get a few facefulls of smoke and burn your eyes!

My question is, could a person put the wood in the jar, and just torch the bottom of the jar to burn the wood, or would the glass just break?

Anybody else have any good ideas or ways to go about this?

Thanks in advance!

[juana_b]

I wouldn't torch a canning jar unless I was actively trying to go to the emergency room with glass in my eyes.

[Spowers2]

I just found stainless steel single walled mason jars for sale, maybe this is the way to go.

[still_stirrin]

This whole process sounds ridiculous. You actually want to bubble smoke through your spirits?

That’s gonna put a whole lot of “trash” into something you just distilled to take the “crap” out of. This is gonna make your “whiskey” taste like an ashtray.

But, if that’s what you want .. so be it. I think you’ll make something so esoteric that you’ll be drinking it by yourself.
ss

[subbrew]

I was recently at a craft distillery and they had a smoker that burnt a small pellet and blew the smoke on top of a glass of whiskey. It probably only had the smoke on it for 2 to 3 minutes but it gave a nice smoke flavor. So if you are bubbling through the spirit I would say no more than 30 seconds or so. You can always try more.

As for the smoker jar I would not use glass but any metal pot or container that you could cover and put a hose from should work.

[still_stirrin]

I was recently at a craft distillery and they had a smoker that burnt a small pellet and blew the smoke on top of a glass of whiskey.

Novelty.

If you really want to taste some smokiness in your whiskey, simply use smoked malt. And yes, you can smoke malt with hickory wood. I’ve done it.

When smoking your malt (I wet it before putting on a cookie sheet in the smoker) it will caramelize some of the grains too and that will add some complementary flavors to the beer too which will come over nicely when your whiskey ages on wood.
ss

[MihiT]

Rather than pressure I would do it with vacuum.
If it does go to sh*t, it will implode rather than explode. But probably the likes of a computer fan on the output side, or a water/fluid syphon to create the vacuum. So no major forces involved.

Wood will gassify at a certain point, and you'll want to avoid that, especially with a flame (wood gas will run an engine...)

Definitely wouldn't put a torch to glass.

Interesting experiment... I'll think on it a bit more and see if I come up with something.

I used to "smoke" my drinks in a brandy snifter...just exhale cigar / rollies smoke into the bowl and swirl it a bit. Probably more of a wanky party trick than any meaningful flavour though.

[Saltbush Bill]

One of the better home made Scotch Whisky's I've tasted was infused with peat smoke using a similar apparatus.
IMO there is some merit in the idea....it can work if used in the right way.

[jonnys_spirit]

Use copper going into your spirits not plastic tubing.

Doesn’t take much.

Good luck!
-j

[subbrew]

I was recently at a craft distillery and they had a smoker that burnt a small pellet and blew the smoke on top of a glass of whiskey.

Novelty.

If you really want to taste some smokiness in your whiskey, simply use smoked malt. And yes, you can smoke malt with hickory wood. I’ve done it.

When smoking your malt (I wet it before putting on a cookie sheet in the smoker) it will caramelize some of the grains too and that will add some complementary flavors to the beer too which will come over nicely when your whiskey ages on wood.
ss

I have made several Rausch beers using smoked malt. Hard to get consistency because the smoke flavor on the malt fades with time. Smoking my own would solve some of that problem.

Smoking the glass or a small amount would let you experiment with what you want before committing to an entire fermenting, distilling and aging process.

[Ben]

Why not just collect liquid smoke and add it... skip to 9:15 for the process:

You don't need anything special either, you can use a couple terra cotta pots for the smoke generator, and any old stainless bowl with some ice for the condenser. Make your smoke, add a drop at a time till the spirit is the smoke level you want, done.

[Spowers2]

I'm impressed with all the responses, and great ideas from all of you! You've given me a lot of ideas to ponder! Thank you all for that. I took the one experimental bottle I made and let several buddies try it and they all loved it. One of them couldn't taste any difference from the non smoked, but the others could and loved it. It is a very young creation with charred oak in it, the char taste is a little strong, but the smoke seemed to lessen the char taste a bit. Thanks for all the feedback everybody!