Nuclear Whiskey / Nuclear Rum and Spirits Rapid Ageing

[zed255]

For those who uses oak dominoes (i personally use block of 1/2 x 1/2 x 3"), can we reuse them severals time or after nuclear agein we used the most of its flavors and we should discard them?

Regards

The wood won't be full spent, though the amount of time needed will increase and the result will be milder. You can also split and retoast / rechar to expose fresh wood surfaces to get more life out of your wood.

[VLAGAVULVIN]

Yeah: split in two (or four) and rechar the freshly cleaved side(s).

[NZChris]

Do an experiment. Start with three times the amount of wood that you think is enough, then reuse the wood at least two more times, keeping notes.

I've done something very similar and ended up blending the three to make an ok oak tea style product that was good enough if you had an empty drinks cabinet and aged very well on the same wood in the following years.

[VLAGAVULVIN]

I have sorta "solera vat" (a big jar with different spent wood chips in it). I keep my single malt spirits of different ages there, adding them periodically and making selections from that jar. Sometimes I take out exhausted wood chips and throw them into sherry for a month. Then I dry the chips at high temp and throw them back into the solera. All I need is to periodically aerate my distillate by means of pump or big siringe.

Imo, it's worth to make the chips of the bigger used dominoes. Especially if you are interested to wait for your drinks for years. Dominoes are to be removed after weeks or a couple of months. "Retired" chips are safe for your jar's stuff even for decade (where dominoes should cause the taste of plinth).

In general, my schedule is: gator-style charred staves for bourbon -> then they go in for scotching the newmakes -> finally they become chips to sink in "jerez" and to polish my scotches again. I hope the previous phrase was English enough, lol.

[squigglefunk]

I hear they make a whiskey flavored extract, you could have your "aged whiskey" in seconds with just a few drops.

[VLAGAVULVIN]

If only it were really that simple

[Evil_Dark]

I tested used dominoes that I used for whisky/bourbon ageing to make aged rum, and worked perfectly.
I've read that they use some used boubon barrels to age some of the carribean rum, so I kept the oak staves from my whisky for my rum aging jars.
Tasted good, but I had to be careful as rum usually don't have the oak taste predominant, but more as a complexity. So not too much cycles with a low amount of oak staves (only one in a 1L jar).

[VLAGAVULVIN]

Yeah... those used bourbon thangs are OK for rums and single malts

[icrazy]

Ok so ive been reading this a bit latley and was thinking of setting up to do some crash aging here is what im thinking

1. Heat in microwave with lid off then put the lid on and cool in the freezer. Repeat 6 times

2. Put into ultrasonic bath for 5 days with uv on it. for the first 2 days with oak in then remove oak and uv. and run ultrasonic only for the last 3 days.

4. Remove from ultrasonic bath and bubble air through for 1 day or 24 hours

5. Leave for 4 weeks before proofing down and botteling

Anyone have any thaughts on this


Ive read that in one blind test bubbling after ultrasonic was the best order by far

Im curios about the uv being combined with the ultrasonic process first and then finishing with just ultrasonic

Is 6 cycles prior to much

I could start with 4

Any way wanted to get some feedback before i start purchasing the gear

Im looking to try get a combo ultrasonic bath that does 28khz or 40 khz

[still_stirrin]

I hear they make a whiskey flavored extract, you could have your "aged whiskey" in seconds with just a few drops.

Still Spirits has several different whiskey essences available for flavoring homemade spirits. But they’re not particularly elegant, just marginally satisfactory, and not without expenditure.

In the beginning (before I learned to have patience), I too invested in some of the flavorings. Now, real oak staves + time are my preference.
ss

[squigglefunk]

In the beginning (before I learned to have patience), I too invested in some of the flavorings. Now, real oak staves + time are my preference.
ss

yup, I agree, I was being a little tongue in cheek - i find the short cuts are just that... I like wide cuts and long times...

[Ben]

Anyone have any thaughts on this


Any way wanted to get some feedback before i start purchasing the gear

My thought is save the money from the "gear", put it towards a 10l or 20l barrel and start working on a fill, take a portion of the hearts from each run and nuke age it (or drink it white, white can be delicious) to get you by. This way you will have decent whiskey in 6 months or a year and be on top of the curve. By the time that one is ready to pull from the barrel you will probably have another barrel resting away, and you will then have a once used barrel to work with.

Once you start getting stock piled the ultrasonic will just collect dust... I would rather have a barrel collecting dust, full of deliciousness.

[icrazy]

Im aging naturally at the moment in glass and am doing this for fun not to speed up the process for drinking. The fastest way to get hooch for drinking is to grab some from the supermarket
Im from nz and know all about still spirits and flavouring which tastes like watered down rubbish and felt like a waste of time.
At the moment im in the uk and getting a 20ltr barrel of booz back to nz feels difficult so thaught id play with something new.
Im still storing up booz in glass but will probably give it away if i leave.

[icrazy]

I will be buying some empty barrels and sending them home when i do decide to go back though as there hard to come across in nz

[NZChris]

Any way wanted to get some feedback before i start purchasing the gear

It's very likely that it doesn't work as well as you hope it will. If it did work, we would all be doing it already.

If it's a new idea, somebody has to go first, why not you?

[Yummyrum]

I will be buying some empty barrels and sending them home when i do decide to go back though as there hard to come across in nz

A bunch of us in Aussie did a group buy of 96litre ex bourbon barrels from the states . Initially it looked like the’s be around $100 each .

Well by the time every transport and shipping company and customs inspectors had taken their cut , ended up costing us shy of $400 each ….. just say’n .

[icrazy]

https://www.foodmag.com.au/mountain-dis ... d-at-iwsc/

Ive stumbled across a few news articles now of people winning awards for crash aged spirits so there must be something to it

[NZChris]

If you have found something new and innovative, it would be better to start a new topic than to let it get lost in a slightly related thread.

[icrazy]

https://whiskyadvocate.com/alternative- ... s-whiskey/

[NZChris]

https://whiskyadvocate.com/alternative- ... s-whiskey/

None of those ideas involve using a microwave, which is what this thread is about.

[icrazy]

Appoligies Someone to post here i had originaly posted in a ultrasonic thread but someone told me to post here

[icrazy]

My idea was to combine these ideas as im reading im going off the uv part as it seems to create off tastes

So my idea is to use the microwave first then cavitate the resulting product with ultrasonic and then bubble air through the product and after that leave it to sit for 4 weeks

On some of the threads here they talk about oxadising last being the best option and that the drink keept changing for about 4 weeks after ultrasonic treatment so thaught this migjt be a good combination

[icrazy]

Would i be better to start a new thread on combining alternative ageing methods?

[Dancing4dan]

Yes .

[Dancing4dan]

A while ago I tried a variation of the nuclear aging process. This was posted on another forum at the time. It worked very well. Was a bit finicky and I have been barrel aging since that time. However, because of the cost of barrels and shipping them I may revisit this method.


"This is an attempt to simulate how a used barrel imparts flavour and colour into distillate. Nothing new I’m sure but it seems to be working well. It’s a variation of nuke aging without nuking the distillate. Here is the process I.use.

What you need.
Spiral cut oak staves with your choice of toast and char.
A narrow mouth Mason quart or litre.
A pint or 250 ml jar.

What to do.
Break the spirals in half so they will fit in the narrow mouth Mason canning jar. Two staves broke in half to make four small staves.

Now choose what flavours you want to infuse INTO the oak. This will be later imparted to your distillate. I personally like Scotch that has been aged/ finished in Sherry casks. Like some Glenmorangie so I chose Sperone Marsala and A small measure of Glenmorangie original. You can chose others, this is just what we had so it was used.

Put about 200 ml Marsala and about 50 ml of Glenmorangie original into the mason jar with the oak staves. No actual measuring took place... Place in microwave without the lid! My microwave isn’t tall enough to stand a mason jar in it. So, I lay the jar on its side and decant as much of the liquid as needed into the small jar to allow the Mason jar to lay on its side without spilling and leaving a little room between the top of the liquid and the lip of the jar.

At this point there is a mason jar with a small amount of liquid and the oak staves. There is also a pint jar with the remaining liquid. Place them both in the microwave without lids. Metal bad! The large jar with the staves is on its side providing a large amount of contact between the oak and liquid. The small jar contains the rest of the liquid and goes in the microwave upright. No lids.

Run the microwave just long enough to get fine foaming or bubbling along the oak staves. Time will depend on your microwave So I don’t have a set and forget time. Once the liquid is bubbling remove both jars from the microwave being careful not to spill on yourself or any wood work! :scared-eek: It will burn you and stain the woodwork.

Pour the contents of the small jar into the large jar and put the lid on the large jar containing the staves. Tighten the lid. You have just canned the oak staves in the flavour of your Choice. Initially the jar will make a small amount of pressure then as it cools it will make a vacuum. This moves the liquid into the wood. Shake it up. Lay it on the side and allow it to cool to the touch. Repeat heating and coolin several times. Not an exact science. After about four cycles when the jar of staves comes out of the microwave and are still hot pull the staves out with a set of tongs and drop the staves into your chosen distillate. Watch the magic! :-B

Repeat heating the wood staves in the liquid and then placing the staves into the distillate. Both colour and flavour change pretty rapidly. 9.5 L takes on a light straw colour after two sessions with the flavoured oak. By time the hot oak and distillate equalize in temperature the process slows. When the staves are hot you can see the colour moving into the distillate. Heat the wood repeatedly in the Marsala and put the staves back in the distillate. Back and forth. Repeat till the colour and flavour are what you want."

[FullySilenced]

Glad to see my thread is still stirring...

I may have done this a couple of times...


Happy Stillin !

[Housemoney]

2nd long thread I’ve finished on HD. Have a pint of UJSSM getting ready to in for it’s 3rd round.
Thanks FS

[Copper]

40% ABV Solution
Freezing Point: -27C / -16.6F
Vapor point: 78.4C / 173F
Reference: NTP (Normal Temperature and Pressure of 20C/68F)

1. Putting the mixture under vacuum at NTP (Normal Temperature and Pressure of 68F) will succeed in filling the pores of the wood grain. But,

2. Surface tension is a function of the intermolecular forces. Water is dominated by the H-O bond and Ethanol is dominated by the weaker H-C bond (plus one H-O bond). Water is 72 dyne/cm and Ethanol is lower 23 dyne/cm at NTP. 40% ABV is 30.7 dyne/cm and decreases with temperature. Warmer temperatures mean lower surface tension, which means better penetration into the wood pores.

3. Viscosity of 40% ABV changes a factor of 7 from cold (0C/32F) to warm (40C/104F). Surface tension can be conceptualized as a function of viscosity. Once the fluid gets warm, the law of diminishing returns happens. Getting the fluid a bit hotter (i.e. 65C/150F) continues to increase performance with plenty of safety margin. Warmer fluid will penetrate better into the wood pores due to lower viscosity.



4. Kinetics and chemical reactions are determined by the Arrhenius Equation, which is proportional to Temperature. So soaking at NTP (Normal Temperature and Pressure of 20C/68F) compared to hot (65C/150F) will result in proportionally faster mechanisms. You can find the Arrhenius Equation on Wikipedia. Warmer fluid will result in faster and more efficient extraction of compounds from the wood pores.

Therefore, higher temperature is absolutely more effective. Higher temperatures compound substantial increases in both kinematic viscosity and Arrhenius kinetics. The OP's recommendation of 65F/150F is a safe temperature with even the most rudimentary precautions. I demonstrated in my laboratory a beaker of 40% ABV at 150F with a flame source 1cm from the surface of the liquid. This did not cause a fire, let alone explode.