Airstone airing for rapid aiging

[Evil_Dark]

Heard of using a SS air stone with an aquarium pump to aerate intensively spirits for smoothing it quickly.
So I did tried it myself, bought a SS air stone on Amazon, rinced it for severals minutes on sacrificial 94%abv ethanol.
I took a sample kept aside to compare with the original product after the tests...
Then I dropped the airstone on a 1L mason jar full of neutral spirit at 91% that I set aside earlier due to bad cuts from me, the spirit was a litle "headsy" and harsh.
After 3 hours of bubling, there was already a significant reduction on harshness, a lot smoother. On the nose I was barely able to smell the varnish aroma of the heads, and on the taste not noticeable. So I let it air more for another 6h. So after a total of 9h, it is waaaaay more smooth and on the taste *almost* all the heads aromas were gone, a super litle hint of nail polish remover was barely detectable. On the taste, impossible to find any heads trace. Not really a noticeable evaporation loss, maybe like 15-20ml? hard to tell, I took couples samples to taste.
%abv drop is very small, as precise I can get with the hydrometer is around 0.5% for 9hrs.
So I started another similar test on another heads jar that I have, I will let it bubble overnight.

I will also have to redo the test with a stripping run jug, as someone mentioned that it may helps get rig of fusel oils at lower ABV... It may result on less tails when doing the stripping run?

Dark

[Dancing4dan]

Aeration may help eliminate heads…. But nothing works as good as good cuts.

It is tempting to try this kind of thing to get more product out of a run / batch. In the long run you are better served by doing more batches that will give you knowledge on mashing, fermenting and distilling.

Making cuts takes practice and a willingness to “cut” out some of your product.

Don’t be afraid to pour it all back in the still and do it again. You can learn a lot.

[Evil_Dark]

Aeration may help eliminate heads…. But nothing works as good as good cuts.

It is tempting to try this kind of thing to get more product out of a run / batch. In the long run you are better served by doing more batches that will give you knowledge on mashing, fermenting and distilling.

Making cuts takes practice and a willingness to “cut” out some of your product.

Don’t be afraid to pour it all back in the still and do it again. You can learn a lot.

Sure. But I was sceptical at first... So I had to test it. The idea behind this is to have another method to fix in the pocket when a spirit doesn't come as perfect as we wanted the first time. I had to do the test myself a way that I would learn from it.

I made several run of different types (brandy, rum , whisky, sugar washes, gins etc...) But when I come to whiskey I have always and small after taste in all my spirits. I made some aging in barrels, and they still have that glingy bitterness that is hard to describe. Sure I didn't had the chance to age for several years, as i been in the hobby for 2 years now (and I am way down the rabbit hole )

Anyway I wanted to share, it's up to you to use this method if needed!

[NZChris]

Threads about it are few and far between, so are hard to find unless you use the keywords that catch them.

I played with it many years ago using an SS straw and an aquarium pump after someone posted what they had tried. It never became something that I do in my shed.

I'm sure this isn't the only thread about it, but it's the only one I managed to find tonight. viewtopic.php?f=15&t=50805

Cleaning up neutral is a very different game to capturing flavor. Aerating is not something that I would do to fast age a flavored product like whiskey, rum, brandy etc..