Wood Experiment:Wheated Bourbon recipe on 8 woods

[magnetic_tarantula]

I am by no means an expert, but I chose to go by weight instead of surface area. I started with 5 to 10 grams (yes I have a scale). That's roughly 3/4"×3/4"×3/4". In retrospect I think you can go higher on the fruitwoods since fruitwoods has little to no tannins (i.e. cannot "over oak"). In that sense I would double it next time to see if it it's more intense flavor and if that is good or bad. If you have enough liquor I would do 5, 10, 15 and so forth if yo really want to find out. Ron, the guy I got the crabapple from I think puts quite a bit more in than that to good effect (so he says). I also would give it ample time for the new make aroma to good away.....it gives way to very pleasant aromas/flavors.

As far as the char goes I will see what I can do about pics. I just searched online for char levels in barrels and tried to match it by sight with a torch....the toasting I did per some of the toasting threads here on the forum.

[magnetic_tarantula]

I think with the fruit woods there are no tannins(I have researched a little). Which means little to no bitterness of overoaking. In the future as I am able I will likely go with more of the fruitwood to get more of the flavor. I won't go crazy but more 15 grams instead of 5. I have only finished one bottle but at some point I will take a pic of the wood(yes I saved it)

[Franckrem]

Have you tasted the maple yet i'm wondering how it turn'd out.

thanks for the great review

[magnetic_tarantula]

The nose gives a hint of maple with a spiciness and "warm" flavors.

On the tongue definitely very spicy with a bit of burn, I don't think it is from the high ABV. Medium finish.....very warming in the belly.

On the nose there is a very strong hit of the maple flavors, not nearly as muted(likely from the double does of Sugar Maple)

17 was more spicy on the tongue....mouth feel for this was kind of bland, still good flavor not nearly as much maple as the nose would have you believe.

Very similar to number 17 but with a hint of the smokiness

On the tongue definitely back to the spicy, good aftertaste with a slight hint of the smokiness of the charcoal.


Overall I would say I liked these, not my favorites but good nonetheless. I think it is a very different flavor profile than is normal. I have had the pleasure of trying the Woodford Reserve Masters Collection Maple. I feel it is rather bland in comparison especially at the $120 a bottle. I read an article on their research saying the charred barrel didn't taste good so they stuck with a medium toast no char.....I chose to do the same, no need to walk a path already shown to suck.

[Swedish Pride]

This is a really cool experiment, lots to learn here for everyone, noob and old heads.

I hope you are well, was not able to post in your "busted" thread, how are you getting on, still fighting your corner or is it all done and dusted?

[magnetic_tarantula]

It's too bad the government confiscated everything I had made. I was getting ready to put wood into roughly into 70 bottles of 100% malted Rye. I had initially hoped to make around 120 bottles of the barrel proof Malted Rye to age on 28 different types of wood that I had tracked down(different hard woods and fruit woods even different types of wood within the different types of fruit woods). That would have been a beast of an experiment(like a 15 year supply of whiskey for me). Beyond that I was collecting different species of Oak from around the country/world to start experimenting with the different species of Oak(I think there are around 500 species worldwide). I had hoped to collect a few from each continent......so many ideas that cannot be done commercially to explore. I had hoped to use this research to open a distillery down the road. Just imagine if you had 2000 unique whiskies to taste and decide the best of the best get to be re-created and sold. If all goes well my wheated Bourbon on Japanese Oak, as well as the one run through sugar maple charcoal may be released(legally) by the end of 2016.

I would talk more about the case but I go before a judge in the next couple weeks. I am being told that it'll be dismissed upon community service(which I have already done). I will definitely update once everything is finished 100%. Thank you for the interest.

[Swedish Pride]

Fingers crossed it goes as well as you think it will, I'll be rooting for ya!

[jb-texshine]

Our thoughts are with you mt-
Thanks for the update!
Jb-t

[HDNB]

It's too bad the government confiscated everything I had made. I was getting ready to put wood into roughly into 70 bottles of 100% malted Rye.

That's an absolute tragedy.

bonne chance Laddie! you have been punished far too thoroughly already.

[magnetic_tarantula]

You can't keep a good man down. I just handed off some various woods for a local small distillery to re-create some experiments and test it on his Whiskies. I was really looking forward to trying the Japanese Oak aged Rye amongst other jars.

Who knows though it may be federally legal soon enough. This appears to keep coming up before congress, just hasn't passed yet. There is a small section legalizing home distilling.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-con ... /1562/text

[Swedish Pride]

love it, get the legal boys to do your experiment for you.
Now just tell him you need to make the cuts for this experimental batch
next thing you know you got your foot in to the legal world

[still_stirrin]

...Who knows though it may be federally legal soon enough. This appears to keep coming up before congress, just hasn't passed yet...https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-con ... /1562/text

SB1562. Good language for us there. Keep pushing...
ss

[jb-texshine]

Mt is not around much these days...
I'm guessing that he is using either domino sized and snap pieces or finger sized pieces(3/4" x3/4"x4"). For the size wood you have I would go 1" x1" x4" per quart jar.

[magnetic_tarantula]

I actually chose to do it by weight as opposed to surface area. I believe i used small chunks of 3/4x3/4. The length was usually less than an inch to gain the desired weight(5 or 10 grams). I was reading through some of the posts and I thought I saw Odin suggest weight when aging in jars and going with less. The reason to use smaller amounts for me was the amount of time I was planning on aging. I have a glass of whisk(e)y every other day or less. I had what was probably a 10-15 year supply of whiskey in my house. I was finding it was only getting better as time went on. I had aged it 18-24 months. The next time around I probably would've doubled the oaks to 10-15 grams, and tripled or quadrupled the non-Oak woods. My understanding is that the non-Oak woods don't have the same level of tannins(which I don't like bitter flavors).

I still lurk on here JB.......as well read as I believe I am i still find there are interesting tidbits of knowledge that are helpful. I am helping a distillery a little. He is going to show me the production side of his business next month and I am going to seek out and create interesting releases for him. The first one we are working on is going to be a re creation of the toasted Japanese Oak with a light char "mellowed" in Sugar Maple charcoal. As well as a Heavily charred Japanese Oak sticks. I have some other woods as well to get started on(American Chestnut, Sassafras, French Oak, and am working on acquiring quantity of upwards of 30 more. The government actually took my wood collection of about 30 different woods I had quantity of. I was gathering a pretty extensive collection of woods to age Whisk(e)y in. I had quite a few fruitwoods, within each fruit type I had multiple varietals. I Had 10 different species of Oak, and was tracking down more......kinda sucks to be back at ground zero.

Sometimes life throws lemon at you......I tend to throw Molotov cocktails back at it.

Jail for a day for being a "Moonshiner" was interesting. The officer that drove me downtown said keep to yourself and don't talk to anyone in there...... i.e. you're a white kid from the 'burbs don't get your ass beat. When I was in there I found that everyone was interested in how I came to be there. I was pretty much the only white guy there and I was dressed for work(dress pants, dress shoes, button down dress shirt. It seemed like word got around quick as a few of the county jail employee's were asking me questions. I tend to keep my eye on the positive nature of my life. This is honestly a badass story to tell the grandkids in like 30 years. It cost me not a whole of money, I met quite a few people along the way......think of it like Frodo on his journey seeing a bunch of stuff he had no idea existed.

[jb-texshine]

Happy it all worked out for you! I suspected you were around just weren't sure. Sorry for the incorrect info.
Jb-t

[bbok]

Brilliant thread! So sorry for you loss

[MitchyBourbon]

Quite the story. Good to see you just roll with it and keep on goin.

[bilgriss]

Fantastic thread with an unexpected ending.

Glad to hear you landed on your feet! Any sage wisdom for the rest of us as an outcome?

[still_stirrin]

Quite the story. Good to see you just roll with it and keep on goin.

Yep. It sounds kinda' like an episode of the "Trailer Park Boys". MT, your name wouldn't happen to be "Ricky" would it? Maybe a brother from a different mother.
ss

[magnetic_tarantula]

I have no idea what Trailer Park Boys is, and I am definitely not Ricky.

To update. My case has been dismissed. DISMISSED!!! My lawyer requested I keep civil about it, which I have always been. Initially i was pretty pissed off, but that is largely focused towards my ex-wife. The lawyer is trying to get all my stuff back. In my dreams I hope to get my Whiskey back. I didn't care much for my keg still. At the time of the raid I had not used it for 4 months, I was hoping to go back to an old school alembic to do on the stove.

As for advice I would say never bring your equipment outside, or where it can be visible. Everyone who knows me knows this is my hobby. I wasn't secretive about it. I actually would have been ok if I had simply not had my condenser coil outside cleaning it. On top of that i was being lazy because it had been there 3 weeks and I just didn't want to drag it upstairs into storage. The initial sheriff who showed up for the child welfare check for moonshining was not allowed to come into the house unless I invited her which I did because I have manners and have no issue with law enforcement. It didn't really matter since I had that condenser visible on my porch.

I'm the type of guy who believes in the goodness of people, even the ex wife. In other words you can call me a sucker. Honestly though I'm not going to change my personality to be that person who dislikes people(even though I'm a hermit).

The advice is be careful. As far as this thread, the advice is don't do what already exists, try out stuff the industry cannot provide. For me it isn't about cheap alcohol its about creating unique Whiskies.

I hope people look at this thread and take some of those basic ideas and run. I had plans to make roughly 3000+ unique bottles of whisk(e)y. It would've taken me roughly 10-15 years. I basically have 4 friends who are whisky connoisseurs. Thats the tasting of a lifetime. and we could do it every weekend.

[pfshine]

Nice to see some law folk got some common sense. Congratulations on the case.

[jb-texshine]

Congratulations!!!
Jb-t

[magnetic_tarantula]

Appears to be without prejudice though......so in theory it could be used against me in any future court case if I was to get back to it. Glad to have that done, now if that damn divorce would finish up!

[Snackson]

Congrats on getting the charges dismissed! That is awesome.

[KYMountainMan]

2 questions for the OP ....

1) Why is your initial distillate ABV so low?

2) Why did you use Malted Wheat as opposed to standard un-malted wheat?

Thanks

[magnetic_tarantula]

The low ABV run was then combined to be run through a second time to get the higher strength to put into the jars. The two 1st runs were roughly ~36%

I used malted to make sure there was enough DP to convert the unmalted corn. The combined from the Wheat/Barley was more than enough to cover it. I also just assumed more malt would make a better Whiskey.