Tips on aging

[Mmdistill]

I am thinking about aging a bottle of all grain for a long period of time and gift it to my son when he becomes of age. Any suggestions on how long oak cubes can sit in glass bottle if I want to seal it? Also how many cubes to use to not destroy flavoring

[contrahead]

Oak is overrated and my opinions on aging might be a little contentious. Can't answer your question directly because I don't use oak cubes.

But I do have a few filled 750 ml glass bottles in the cupboard that are 10 yrs old or better, and they have matured very well.

My method (from 10 yrs ago) involved cutting small diameter hardwood or fruit-wood twigs to bottle length and then turning them into charcoal. Very delicately though, so that they were very charred, but still strong enough to be handled, or sloshed around in the bottle without crumbling apart. After making this charcoal, I'd be lucky to see 5% of these twigs turn out optimally, and those I saved. [Now I use it all].

By trial and error I eventually determined that about three pencil sized twigs to a bottle of clear, cut-down raw neutral was about right for long term coloration. Any less turns out too light, any more turns the liquor too dark.

Assuming proportions are right, there is no particular reason to ever remove the wood from the bottle. The wood charcoal should have acted like a sponge to hold and trap some of the undesirable microscopic elements (like the amphipathic lipids that make liquor hazy). After a year or so the wood charcoal in a glass bottle has become saturated, to a point where little or no more chemical exchange is occurring.

If, after a period the bottle is opened to remove the wood and then re-sealed, then any maturation after that would be due to the new oxygen introduced into the bottle. To a wine that should be catastrophic. But to a high proof spirit like whisky, a gasp of oxygen might probably prove to be beneficial.

[MooseMan]

My method (from 10 yrs ago) involved cutting small diameter hardwood or fruit-wood twigs to bottle length and then turning them into charcoal. Very delicately though, so that they were very charred, but still strong enough to be handled, or sloshed around in the bottle without crumbling apart. After making this charcoal, I'd be lucky to see 5% of these twigs turn out optimally, and those I saved. [Now I use it all].

By trial and error I eventually determined that about three pencil sized twigs to a bottle of clear, cut-down raw neutral was about right for long term coloration. Any less turns out too light, any more turns the liquor too dark.

Now this has really piqued my interest contrahead!

I showed my kids years ago (My dad taught me) how to make charcoal sticks in a tin on a fire, we had great fun using them to draw on some rocks up in the local quarry!

I very briefly thought about it for spirit aging once I got into the hobby, but then I read that heartwood is the cut used to make barrels and discounted the idea completely since twigs are almost all sapwood.

Does the charring process drive all of the sap and resin out and therefore make the sapwood good for aging?

May I ask how you make yours?

[contrahead]

Does the charring process drive all of the sap and resin out and therefore make the sapwood good for aging?

True charcoal is made by the process of pyrolysis.
And true charcoal has the lighter fractions of combustibles driven off.

Charcoal can be made several ways. Native American potters today sometimes just dig a big hole in the ground, fill it with wood and set it on fire. But an the apex of combustion the fire is quickly smothered and choked out of oxygen. They accomplish this by throwing sheets of scrap roofing tin over the fire pit and then throw blankets or shovel dirt over the top of that.

I made my own little crucible furnace years ago, and I use that to make my charcoal. It only has a couple of holes that need to be blocked off with wet rags. I think I posted some pictures of it here on this forum a long while back. Too hard to look up though.

There are some pictures on this old website however.

[MooseMan]

Thanks contra, very interesting link too.

I was taught how to do it with an old lidded tin in the embers of a fire. Drop your lengths of wood in, poke a couple of holes in the lid of the tin and that's it!

On the back of what you're saying, I'm going to give this a try. I know where there are several fruit woods growing so I'll cut some and try a few charring experiments with small portions of my aging stock.

Thanks for the brain food!

[JustinNZ]

Hey man. I mostly age rum but also a little whisky. I have three-year-olds that continue to improve (richer flavour, smoother) but I can’t talk about any longer periods.

I don’t use cubes but the dominoes I use are possibly ball park. They are finger-sized and weigh about 20g or 3/4 of an ounce each. I use exactly 10g per L if spirit at between 55-60abv in glass jars with flip-top lids and coffee filters as seals.

I like 10g per L, but some others use more or less. You can always take some out after a few years.

Hope that helps.

[Powder Monkey]

If you have the ability to build up some aging stock, you can then make blends from it and bottle them for kids birthdays. My goal is to have a bottle either distilled or bottled from each of their birthdays and then gift them when they’re of age. So they won’t be aged a long time (until I have a solid aged stock at least) but they will be “old”.

My other goal is to fill a 53 gallon when I’m “old” with instructions for bottling after X date and then those bottles will be distributed/held for my grand/great grand kids. I think the multigenerational aspect is super fun.

[OtisT]

I am thinking about aging a bottle of all grain for a long period of time and gift it to my son when he becomes of age. Any suggestions on how long oak cubes can sit in glass bottle if I want to seal it? Also how many cubes to use to not destroy flavoring

I don’t think there is such a thing as a chunk of oak sitting to long in whiskey unless you have too much oak.

I don’t have any experience aging in a sealed bottle. My understanding is that some air exchange is needed over time for proper aging, so I age in oversized jars giving headspace for air, and I occasionally open the jars to let in fresh air.

The amount of wood to use is very subjective. If I had a liter of 60% whiskey I’d use a 1500 ml jar and place a 3” to 4” long stick (3/4” x 3/4”) of toasted oak in it. Open the jar once a year to let in fresh air.

And I should mention, I’m no expert. Just my opinion.

[FL Brewer]

I use 3/4" x 3/4" x 8" oak sticks cut from Jack Daniel's barrel staves, toasted in the oven in foil for 2 hours at 400F into gallon jugs about 3/4 full of 110-120 proof new make. I give the sticks an alligator char after letting them cool completely (usually overnight), and quench/soak in clean water for an hour. Let them dry a few hours, then into the glass jugs. That process gives me plenty of color and flavor at the one year mark (that's when I first sample a batch), and it's not overoaked at 7 years, which is the oldest I've been able to keep from drinking earlier. I age in my barn's attic, which gets up to a good 110F in the summer. I also uncap the gallon jugs every couple of months (when I remember to do it) to exchange the air in the head space and get more oxygen in the jugs and recap. I've made some pretty good whiskey with this process.

[FL Brewer]

I should also echo Otis' comment how you can't leave the oak in too long unless you've got too much in there. The only time I've ever made a batch too dark or too oaky was when I used two of those sticks per gallon jug.

[jonnys_spirit]

When I gift a bottle of finished whiskey, I'll cork seal it, label it, and put about 1/3 to 1/2 of an oak finger in there too... Mostly for the dog and pony but no-one ever complains about free whiskey lol and it probably doesn't las that long either.

Cheers,
jonny

[NZChris]

I should also echo Otis' comment how you can't leave the oak in too long unless you've got too much in there. The only time I've ever made a batch too dark or too oaky was when I used two of those sticks per gallon jug.

I have deliberately massively over-oaked and fast aged some product for an experiment. As expected, it was nasty a few weeks in. A couple of years later the excessive tannin and astringency had dissipated and it had a very dark color. I successfully used it as an 'age essence' in blending to fool friends into thinking that yesterdays new make was moonshine that I had made a couple of years earlier.

Edited to add:
I just found the bottle, Dec 2017, still some left

[FL Brewer]

Good Point NZ. The stuff I overoaked did end up being very drinkable after a total of 3 years. It was darker than I like, but the rough oak tea flavor did mostly go away. I ended up blending the rest of it with some younger stuff and it was not bad.