aging on oak

[workpress]

Does anyone have opinions on how a run of all grain sparge water with sugar will taste once aged?
I have done an experiment to try to capture the grain flavour in sparge water mixed with white sugar to create the alcohol.
Starting OG 1.065 FG 0.989 wash is about 9.8%abv

I want to age this spirit at 62% abv on toasted and charred oak for about a year.
I am curious about the flavour and if the sugar wash will create off tastes.

Any feedback from guys who have aged a sugar wash on oak would be appreciated

thank you

Workpress

[still_stirrin]

It’ll taste like CRAP! Seriously, you’re trying to cheap-out and short cut a real grain brewing process. And now you’re asking here how it will taste?

A low gravity 2nd or 3rd running (sparge) water is going to be dry and husky, not rich and flavorful like the beer wort will be. And adding sugar to ferment it out won’t miraculously add flavor to your fermenter. Sure, you may get some alcohol production. But you’ll also have a lot of the tannins from the recycled water.

If I were going to (try to) use the gallons of sparge water, I would use it to make an all grain (distiller’s) beer adding enough malt to get to a 1.065 gravity EXCLUDING consideration of the sparge water’s SG.

Don’t try to “make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”.
ss

[workpress]

"It’ll taste like CRAP! Seriously, you’re trying to cheap-out and short cut a real grain brewing process. And now you’re asking here how it will taste?"

well since this is a discussion forum with hundreds of users it is only logical to ask the question, as someone out in the world has probable done this exact same thing and it would be wonderful to not have to re invent the wheel all the time.

[Ben]

I only have a decade and a half of brewing under my belt, so compared to still_stirrin I am a bit of a newb, but I will give it a go.

It will be tannic, astringent, bitter, thin and very low on sugar/flavor. In addition you will very likely need to modify the pH. You have pulled the good out of the grain, you are left with the pale colored junk, there is a reason even mega breweries stop at ≈1.020. In short: it will taste like CRAP!

You are set on the equipment, why not just run a batch of grain? You can dedicate the fermenter space, the still time, the labor and love to something that will be delicious?

Or, do a dedicated split run. Runoff the strong beer to your boil kettle, second runnings to the whiskey fermenter, stop drawing when you see the pH start to rise or when you hit 1.020 (depending on your equipment). Most of the specialty grains used in home brew will add scrumptious things to your whiskey, all winning.

[workpress]

Fellas I see what you are saying and I am now realizing that it is an effort in futility. You guys here are a wealth of advice, thank you.
I do use the brewhouse to make my mash, and it is so nice to use it as it is so efficient I am spoiled for sure.
I am running a batch this morning and I will see what it is like, "crap" seems to be in the lead, if it is I for will save it to make hand sanitizer for our local butcher... and barter for a steak, at least that will taste good.

Cheers Guys

Workpress

[rubberduck71]

Instead of using the sparge water, why not do a sugarhead on the "spent" grains? I think that may be more what you're after.

All Grain batches' flavor always > sugar washes, BUT you can get decent tasting sugarhead from the second use of those grains. I invert sugar, let it cool & pour back into the fermenters with nutrients & oyster shell. The side benefit is it helps keep your paws off the A/G for aging.

Check out this thread: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=39617 and/or check out UJSSM in T&T.

Duck

[Oatmeal]

You might check out Jimbo's wheated whiskey and "gumballhead" over in tried and true. He adds sugar to the leftover grain from a whiskey ferment to get something to sip on while the good stuff ages.

I like to add some allbran and cornflakes into the ferment for some more flavor.

(Posted at same time as rubberduck71, who beat me to it)