Sugar Maple and Whiskey

[OtisT]

I’m aging whiskey on sugar maple for the first time. I’m curious if you have aged whiskey on sugar maple before, how you used it and how it turned out. I currently have no idea what to expect from this.

I’m going to document my first experience with sugar maple here. I have a beautiful SM2 Badmotivator barrel that I filled just over half way with 64% new make spirit. 4 liters exactly

The grain bill is 86/21/11 (corn/malt barley/malt rye)

[Corn Cracker]

How is this going? Im sure you've sampled. It should be starting to make some changes by now

[OtisT]

How is this going? Im sure you've sampled. It should be starting to make some changes by now

No sampling yet, it’s way too early to expect much. Maybe in a few more months.

[draoi7]

Have you sampled this yet? He's got more for sale and I was thinking about pulling the trigger on it and aging some all corn in it. I've read that sugar maple has problems with leaking, have you noticed any problems like that?

[OtisT]

Howdy draoi7. I’m sampling it right now for the first time and I’m really happy with the results so far. No leaking from the barrel at all; The face looks like new.

The whiskey is still too young to bottle but it’s pretty darn nice for only 10 months old. A wonderful nose and taste, without any bitter aftertaste like it would get from an oak barrel. I know this because I put half of this same batch of whiskey in a new American oak Badmo barrel Chris made at the same time I barreled this and I drank some of that last night. It was also very nice, but the oak is stronger than this sugar maple.

So far, I’m a fan. Excited to see what the next year brings to the spirit in this barrel.

[NorthWoodsAb]

Otis nice comparison of the 2 barrels. Filling them from the same batch makes for a perfect experiment. I'm happy that you are pleased with the Maple results.
Cheers