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Botanyphd wrote:I had a friend try aging on a dowel of toasted walnut. It was the taste of mothballs that made us pour it out. Not a good wood to try FYI.

He also tried a moderate soak on medium toasted white oak, then finished it off with a toasted cherry wood strips. That was a nice flavor.

Zippo wrote:Some good Information here.

Has any one tried Mahogany ?

The only reason I ask this is because my boss at work has two shipping containers FULL of Mahogany and some stuff called Iron Wood from Nigera, He use's it for building some sort of wood contraptions. ( I prefer building my madness out of steel but to each there own)


Would using ether one of these above mentioned woods add good/bad flavors to a Whiskey?

Has any one Tried any form of Citrus tree?

I live down here in Florida

sdoherty wrote:Hi all... 1st post .. I used Red Oak - made nice color in a few days - toasted oak btw.. tasted pretty good after 3 weeks but I think that it is causing some type of allergic reaction as it makes swallowing difficult but I soldiered through it. I will not use it again. I have a ton of it for firewood but no white oak. I got some via ebay so am waiting on it. YMMV but for me the red oak definitely caused an issue more than once. Never had this issue with other whiskies or the raw dog..
Definitely a differents in the oaks, stay with either American white or French white oak
I also noticed on ebay again they had jack daniels barrell bits for grilling - anyone try these?
Those are very popular here on the forum and used all the time.
On another note there is a distillery near me - wasmonds in VA that does floor maltings!! - only distillery in North America to do this. I wonder if they might lend/sell me some of their finished grain or would that just be shooting themselves in the foot.. they also sell barrels and it might be worth a trip to get a few and also take a tour.. TY
No answer to this question

sdoherty wrote:On another note there is a distillery near me - wasmonds in VA that does floor maltings!! - only distillery in North America to do this. I wonder if they might lend/sell me some of their finished grain or would that just be shooting themselves in the foot.. they also sell barrels and it might be worth a trip to get a few and also take a tour.. TY

S-Cackalacky wrote:I haven't done a taste test yet, but I just bottled up a quart of SF nuked with apple wood and another nuked with pecan wood. The apple is very dark and seems a little cloudy. The pecan is a beautiful dark burgandy brown and very clear. I toasted and charred both and hope I didn't take it too far. The two quarts were from the same jug of SF whitedog, so I have to think the cloudiness of the apple wood one is somehow related to the wood. Anyone else experienced this with apple wood?

I was also wondering if anyone has done anything with perssimon wood. I know the unrippened fruit is very extringient. Just wondering if the wood would have the same property.

And, what about tropical fruit woods - mango in particular. Any of you in those growing regions tried mango or other tropical fruit woods yet?

S-C

scout wrote:I have successfully used; white oak, pecan, pear, apple, hickory, orange and lemon tree woods (heart wood only) for making barrels for whisky aging. Most of my trials are done thusly; I make a 1 gal barrel, fill it and let it age for 6 months then draw a sample and do a three person taste test. I don't count myself as one of the tasters. Now if I were to use a "questionable" wood to make a barrel for whisky use, I would send a sample to a lab for toxic testing. The hardest for me of the above woods was the lemon and orange, I could only get 4 stave pieces from a section of tree trunk simply because the wood (tree trunks) I received was not large enough to get anymore out of them. I like to keep to heart wood for staves. I have found that my shaping has to be spot on for pecan, hickory and orange because they swell less when compared to white oak, so when making tights I have to start tighter to get a no leak barrel. I do not char orange, apple, pecan, pear or lemon wood (tried that and my tongue didn't care for the taste).

sdoherty wrote:Yes copper fox, worth the 1.5 hr drive for me. Sperryville is a neat little town. They showed the floor malting and the smoking of the barley. No tasting are offered yet though. Plus on the way back stopped at rappahonick vinery for a quick tasting. Copy fox distills their brandy for their fortified port and also sells them used barrels.

S-Cackalacky wrote:

scout wrote:I have successfully used; white oak, pecan, pear, apple, hickory, orange and lemon tree woods (heart wood only) for making barrels for whisky aging. Most of my trials are done thusly; I make a 1 gal barrel, fill it and let it age for 6 months then draw a sample and do a three person taste test. I don't count myself as one of the tasters. Now if I were to use a "questionable" wood to make a barrel for whisky use, I would send a sample to a lab for toxic testing. The hardest for me of the above woods was the lemon and orange, I could only get 4 stave pieces from a section of tree trunk simply because the wood (tree trunks) I received was not large enough to get anymore out of them. I like to keep to heart wood for staves. I have found that my shaping has to be spot on for pecan, hickory and orange because they swell less when compared to white oak, so when making tights I have to start tighter to get a no leak barrel. I do not char orange, apple, pecan, pear or lemon wood (tried that and my tongue didn't care for the taste).

That's good to know about not charring the apple and pecan. I made that mistake and may have even over-charred it. I have about two quarts I'll be rerunning through my pot still with some feints I have stored away. BTW, I'm using BBQ chips. I also had a different problem with the apple wood chips. It turned the likker cloudy and would make a foam when shaken vigorously. I suspect that maybe the apple chips weren't properly seasoned. Have you had any similar experiences with apple wood?

Thanks,
S-C