Fusel Oils & Aging

[Bee]

Do you guys filter out the floating fusel oils when you blend for long-term aging (>5 years) on oak?

Do you use any pot distillate that has fusel oils in it in your aging cuts?

[Dancing4dan]

Question #1. If oil was evident after cuts and blending, I would likely re distil.

Question#2. No. Not intentionally.

I do strip / spirit runs. After a spirit run the distillate is clear with no floating oil.

When I do cuts I have to be careful to take a larger tails cut to avoid a product that louches. My cuts based on taste and smell seem to go to deep into tails as evidenced by louching.

I seem to have a higher tolerance for tails based on taste and smell when making cuts.

[still_stirrin]

Do you guys filter out the floating fusel oils when you blend for long-term aging (>5 years) on oak?

Do you use any pot distillate that has fusel oils in it in your aging cuts?

Greater than 5 years??? None of my whiskeys EVER live that long. However, anything I’ve aged on wood for 2+ years usually gets pulled and placed in glass (at cask strength) to finish. Then, I temper and serve as needed. I have not ever had a problem with fusels accumulation in any of my products.

If I do collect offstill down to the backend when fusels would come over, I usually stop before they get too deep. And then when blending, if the backend is too “husky”, I won’t add too much. Remember, you don’t have to add whole jars when you’re blending. Just add the “right amount” to make the taste you’re aiming for.
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[Dancing4dan]

Remember, you don’t have to add whole jars when you’re blending. Just add the “right amount” to make the taste you’re aiming for.
ss

[Renhoekk]

You must have a lot of fusels in your final product if it has floaties! What is the ABV?

With whiskey louching, that’s to be expected even with a more typical tails cuts. The only reason we don’t often see it in commercial products is because they either chill filter before bottling, or bottle at 46% or higher ABV.

[TwoSheds]

Remember, you don’t have to add whole jars when you’re blending. Just add the “right amount” to make the taste you’re aiming for.

I'd add to this, you don't have to only make one blend from a run. You can take half your obvious hearts and late heads/early tails and age that (tight cuts) then blend the other half of your hearts with a little deeper tails and maybe just a touch more heads (loose cuts.)

You'll probably like one better than the other after it ages and I bet you'll learn a lot!

Doing this with some UJSSM yielded some great drinks and taught me a lot with minimal investment.