How do YOU cut and age your UJSSM

Treatment and handling of your distillate.

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Dougmatt
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How do YOU cut and age your UJSSM

Post by Dougmatt »

I‘m into my 5th ujssm generation and began wondering what people do with theirs. Obviously it’s a GIANT thread with lots of posts, but thought I would ask this specific question to pull out the detail around “so you did it, now what”. I’m purposely asking it open ended as stated in the subject, but I mean things like (I do a wide cut and barrel age for a year or make a narrow heart cut and use for liquors, etc).

For my answer, so far I’ve made narrow cuts for early drinking and creating some holiday flavored liquors, but beginning to think I might go wide on this next lot now that flavor is coming in more, and barrel.
I just read an article about the dangers of drinking that scared the crap out of me.

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NZChris
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Re: How do YOU cut and age your UJSSM

Post by NZChris »

When I started making it, I put most of it on oak, wide cut, but my narrow cut white dog was so nice that I was always running out of that. By keeping about two thirds white and mostly drinking that, I've built up a good stock of well aged product.
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Saltbush Bill
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Re: How do YOU cut and age your UJSSM

Post by Saltbush Bill »

Occasionaly I keep the very heart of the hearts as a white dog for drinking but mostly that cut gets used for preserving things like cherrys, sliced peaches or kumquats in jars.
After 6 months the fruit is good with icecream or just eaten straight from the jar. the left over juice/ booze is just as good.
Usually though I make a fairly narrow cut and it all goes into a 96 Liter used American Oak Barrel which in a previous life held Commercially made Bourbon.
This barrel is never emptied......I take some out , I top it up.
When I say a "narrow cut " I do venture a little way into heads and tails.....but only a little............I'm not fond of either in my final drinking product.
Over the years Ive had one person take a taste and spit it on the ground, but ya gotta know him to understand :roll: ..........other than that it mostly gets compliments and even has a couple of hard core fans.
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Re: How do YOU cut and age your UJSSM

Post by Bushman »

Been a while since i made UJ but have made variations of UJ by adding some malted rye. Never saved the hearts as white dog but always aged. As for cuts I would say I have a tendency to be on the tight to moderate side.
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Steve Broady
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Re: How do YOU cut and age your UJSSM

Post by Steve Broady »

Mine was some of the first stuff that I made, before I knew much about how to run a still or make cuts or anything. I ran far too fast and smeared all over the place. After about 5 generations, it started tasting pretty good, so I put it in a BadMo. A year later, it’s a very nice sipper.

I’ve stopped making UJSSM, just because I want to focus on other things, but if I were to do it again I’d definitely go with wide cuts and barrel aging, though possibly saving a little white because it’s a fine drink either way.
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Re: How do YOU cut and age your UJSSM

Post by Jstroke »

As many newbs I cut my teeth running UJ. It is to me one of the perfect recipes to learn on. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just focus on learning the fundamentals. I do not fool with heads/tails in my product. So I take roughly a third, by taste not volume. It’s a house favorite white, or makes excellent apple pie. Let it sit for a year or so it makes a damn fine sipper.
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Re: How do YOU cut and age your UJSSM

Post by TwoSheds »

I like to do it all, and this has helped me learn. I do 3 strips then a spirit run. Fraction that out to about 20 jars (after the unusable foreshots) and then...

Take 3, 4, or 5 jars from hearts that seem good right now and set them aside to drink white. Enough to wet the whistle for sure. I then take about half of the obvious hearts that are left and mix them with some late heads/early tails and some oak chunks to age. The rest of the hearts go in with the rest of the near hearts and some deeper heads/tails to age.

Label everything. Dates, toast/char levels, hearts, narrow cuts, wide cuts, deep cuts, feints... You won't remember otherwise.

And before you get far into what you made, make some more. Good things come to those who wait, but that doesn't mean you need to be a teetotaler while you wait. Recycling your feints will up your yield and you'll get even more product to drink white and age.

I am just getting to the point where i have stuff that's aged a year and getting much better. Not surprising, the cleaner it went in, the cleaner it comes out, but... the more interesting it went in, the more interesting it comes out. Now I need to make a bunch more and forget about a few more bottles.

Admittedly, it's a bit of a shotgun approach, and not everything is going to come out great, but you can always throw stuff back through the still if it's not going how you want it to (I will do this with some sugarheads soon.) YMMV, but I bet you'll learn something.

Hope that helps.

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NZChris
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Re: How do YOU cut and age your UJSSM

Post by NZChris »

I should add that, making an enjoyable narrow cut white dog UJSSM also keeps my greedy mitts off my aging AG likkers. I'm sure that many of the demijohns of whiskey and rum that I have aging on oak would have been long gone if it wasn't for my narrow cut UJSSMs. I proofed myself a bottle of 2015 whiskey last week and didn't empty the demijohn, which still contains the wood.
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Re: How do YOU cut and age your UJSSM

Post by Dougmatt »

Great responses so far showing the variety of solutions. I was a bit backward I think, starting my UJSSM after building up some aging stock of Rum and HBB AG similar to Chris with the goal of keeping my hands off the “good” stuff. I had been doing sugar washes for that simple white and decided to do this instead for some flavor, BUT I now I’m up in generations I’m trying to figure out what else to do with this and if I keep it going.

So funny that when I started like many others I was rushing to get something drinkable, now that I have some aging stock, it’s much more about how to make a better product. These responses are helping me and hopefully will help others. Thank you.
I just read an article about the dangers of drinking that scared the crap out of me.

That’s it. No more reading!
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6 Row Joe
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Re: How do YOU cut and age your UJSSM

Post by 6 Row Joe »

Dougmatt wrote: Fri Jan 20, 2023 2:40 am Great responses so far showing the variety of solutions. I was a bit backward I think, starting my UJSSM after building up some aging stock of Rum and HBB AG similar to Chris with the goal of keeping my hands off the “good” stuff. I had been doing sugar washes for that simple white and decided to do this instead for some flavor, BUT I now I’m up in generations I’m trying to figure out what else to do with this and if I keep it going.

So funny that when I started like many others I was rushing to get something drinkable, now that I have some aging stock, it’s much more about how to make a better product. These responses are helping me and hopefully will help others. Thank you.
Just for fun, you can add some rye flavor without mashing. A pound of flaked rye to 5 gallons of UJ in a hops bag will add some nice flavors. More rye, more flavor obviously. There may be a slight carryover to the next batch but all in a positive way. Because the rye is in a bag it doesn't stay in the corn bed and is refreshed with every batch. Just something fun and a bit different. Malt, wheat, oats, and other grains can be added as a adjunct to add subtle flavors. Think of all the different malts available and let your mind wander. There's a lot of toasted malts out there. Just for fun of course.
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Re: How do YOU cut and age your UJSSM

Post by n_plains_drifter »

I started my UJ project with the expectation of getting some spirit to age on oak in glass. I've been pretty conservative with cuts on everything I had made to that point and was with UJ too. The first couple of gens were delicious.

After a few gens, I decided to fill one of the 2 20 l new barrels I had picked up a number of years before. Got 12 l into stainless and time to prep the barrel, which I then figured out was actually 60 l. Now I had a wet barrel and nowhere near enough spirit. So I went into overdrive and started doing 120 - 140 l of wash each gen. After 11 gens I had topped off the barrel.

I've pulled a couple of bottles out to taste test; in retrospect I should have gone deeper into the tails, the existing is pretty one dimensional. Right now I'm doing up a 20 l batch of AG mixed with gumball from the AG, and will pull 20 l out to bottle and top with new make with the intent of making the next pull more complex.
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