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Tell us about the flavors. Curious how the apple compared.

God damn it, people keep posting about using apple and other wood besides oak but never say shit about the flavor profile. Even when I ask, more than once now. Guess I'll just have to try it myself with some apple and cherry wood.

Ok I did my nuke experiment. I took 2 quarts of hearts, a week old from a bourbon sugarhead, sugar wash poured over 25 lbs of spent Bourbon grains. Details here http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 11&t=39367

I nuked 1 quart and kept 1 quart as the control for test. The test quart got nuked for 3 minutes per round, 4 rounds. It went to 140F+, then I put the cap on tight and cooled it down, sometimes in the fridge, once in the freezer. It pulled a vacumn when it cooled, hell of a pop when I popped the cap cold. Then let it sit and reabsorb into the wood, and nuke again.

Bottom line, it darkened a little more than the control. Flavor wise it definitely lost some of that raw dog we all know, that young whiskey funk that goes away with age. It tasted better than the control for sure, at both full strength 56% and watered down to 35%. So I'll pitch my vote. Altho the test in general was hard for me cause Im new to sugarheads, and these high sugar things have a cidery roughness, back of the throat thing, compared to AG bourbons and whiskeys, something I recognize from sugaring up some Raspberry and Blueberry wines and brandies.

Anyway, nuked on left, control on right. The oak sticks are cut from Jack Daniels staves into 1x1x5 inch sticks and charred on all 6 sides. They look huge in the pic, its magnified by the glass, look above the liquid.

Sorry Jim I tried the apple wood and really didn't notice anything. For me the whole thing was a flop, but I'm willing to try again. Did what I said I was gonna do, more chips, and alternating the microwave with the freezer. After one round its already darker than before. I'm also using some first run hearts from a rye bread run, so they are almost a neutral- but without the big bite of the Everclear.

jimdo64 wrote:Tell us about the flavors. Curious how the apple compared.

The one I done with just apple came out light colored kinda like a crown but had a scotch/ brandy like after taste. The one I mix together almost take like an old Forester commercial. Personally I liked that on.

Shawn, I was less impressed with apple as well... Cherry smoking chips make for great color and taste.. its worth the 5 bucks to give them a try... in whiskey, neutral, or rum....

Baron, just let it cool naturally no water bath or freezer.... its faster to cool it but worth the 2 hour wait .... be sure to taste the profile after the second cycle...

Happy Stillin,

FS

Actually I'm combining distress aging with this method, I'm not cooling the batch after microwaving it. I let it in the freezer for a few hours, then take it out and let it sit all night. In the morning i nuke it then cap it. Get home from work and its cool. Back into the freezer then. I've had two rounds in the Microwave so far.
BTW trying the Everclear batch on some cherry chips now....

I have some black cherry in my shop , ill slice up a few pieces , toast em, char em a d give them a go. How much difference between cherry and oak as for as flavor?

Completely different tastes day and night different... color as well... i really like rum with the cherry chips... all said and done rum with the JD chips isn't bad either...

but everyone's tastes vary a bit comes down to personal preference

FS

Made some dark rum with BBQ apple chips last year, toasted them at 350degF for an hour and very lightly charred. Turned out great, seemed more sweetness and less tannin than oak, but I didn't do any of that batch with oak for a fair comparison. A full char on apple wood wasn't that great on UJSM if I remember correctly.

Well I've done two runs and just did my 3rd nuking this morning. After two runs between nuking and the freezer I have some observations. First off it colors alot better on the freezer run, I took it out out the freezer last night and it was alot darker this morning. Since the flavor was still a little mild I nuked it again. This one was alot darker than the Everclear i nuked for NINE runs. What do I conclude? Do it at a normal ABV for aging, 50-65% you don't need to be at a higher ABV. Nuke it then put the lid on. Wait until is cools. Then break the seal after shaking it good. Put the lid back on and put it in the freezer for a few hours. Take it out and let it cool naturally. One cycle like this gave a whole lot more color and flavor. After I get home I'm gonna sample it, I might do one more freezer run. If it tastes ok I'll take the chips out and put in a small piece of charred oak and let it rest a few weeks. That Everclear I did all that stuff too I actually cut down to 65% and put a vanilla bean in it. Two days on that bean and it did a whole lot more for it. Again i think the key is the lower ABV. There is a reason whiskey is aged like that

jimdo64 wrote:God damn it, people keep posting about using apple and other wood besides oak but never say shit about the flavor profile. Even when I ask, more than once now. Guess I'll just have to try it myself with some apple and cherry wood.

Sorry jim. I just saw that you asked me a few pages ago. I dont visit HD much so I had some catching up to do. I wish I had some great adjectives to describe to you what I thought about my tests but I dont. Im not much of a whiskey guy so all I can say is they all taste like wood to me and the apple was my least favorite. To refresh Ive nuked on JD staves, cherry chips and apple chips. Strangely everything ive made has turned cloudy after nuking and then cutting with distilled water. Unfortunately I nuked about a gallon on each wood so I cant really experiment anymore right now. Running low on white. Happy stillin.

Thanks guys for all the responses on the fruit woods. Sounds mixed bag of results. Did y'all toast and then char the wood all around? Ive found there's an unpleasant 'woodyness' if I dont char the sticks on all 6 sides and there's bare wood in contact. Also i think they need to be toasted first to caramelize the sugars in the wood and bring out the vanilla and almond flavors. Seems it should be easy, but proper oaking is quite an ordeal. For raw wood I toast at 400 for 2 hours, then char the sticks all sides with a propane torch. For used JD staves (already toasted at 450 for 4 hours, then the inside of the barrel is charred) I cut into 1x1x5 inch strips and then char the 5 sides that are uncharred. All wood after charring gets soaked in water overnight. Finally, it gets used on some hooch. I use 1 stick per quart for new spirits, or half a stick in spirits I pull out of a barrel or have some aging on wood otherwise (I have 2 used 5 gallon balcones barrels).

Im curious to try some fruit woods, maybe on some apple brandy first. Any suggestions let me know.

Cheers. Shit, seems im diverting the thread off topic, sorry for that. The charred sticks I describe above were used in my nuke experiment tho

No Jim you didn't go off topic, the reason for these threads is to pick up tricks and tips from other members. You then combine it with your experiments and go for it. So my last experiment is all done, with a twist. I planned on doing 3 heating/freezing cycles then give an honest answer since my first try was a flop. Results? It worked this time. For some context my wife hates whiskey and bourbon, she will literally gag when she even smells it. Been that way for years. Then she tried some of my 8 month old UJSSM. She loves it, she now drinks it on the rocks. Unreal. Commercial stuff makes her gag. So the test for this batch was i let her take a sip, she loved it! Then she admitted while I was at work she wanted to play too so she nuked it a couple of times to help. So mine actually has been nuked for 4 or 5 times. I think the real key is the lower ABV, sorry if I'm stepping on toes there. I got PM's from guys who told me they do stuff like this with 40% abv vodka all the time, they just wanna keep it off the boards because you kinda get attacked by the old guard for daring to step outside the box. The point I'm trying to make is this is just for sipping stock to have while the bulk of my runs are aging long term on oak. Its not meant to replace long term aging, just complement it
Lets do some more experiments! I'm gonna use some cheap vodka next

baron4406 wrote: I got PM's from guys who told me they do stuff like this with 40% abv vodka all the time, they just wanna keep it off the boards because you kinda get attacked by the old guard for daring to step outside the box.

Experimenting is good, and old guard or not, I dont think anyone around here is winning Nobel prizes. Forums are opinion central, by definition. And opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. Take them all with a grain of salt. The old guards opinions are founded on years of experience tho, so any offered regarding safety or things that just wont work (cause we tried and failed), should be heeded. But going outside the box otherwise is great. We keep a stream of young engineers coming through at work to keep injecting fresh new ideas. Its hard for the old hats to sit back and not impose our ways, but we do, sometimes, and some good things come out of it.

Hell, one of our old guard dogs here in HD is trying to get his ferment time down to 42 seconds with tricks like garden fertilizer. Hows that for outside the box Will I do it? No. But its fun to watch everyone bring all their whacky ideas to the table. And occasionally I jump in. Like this one in this thread. 4 nuke cycles definitely helped the flavor.

Yea Jim I look at it this way, if I can make good drinking stock from Everclear, or cheap vodka......that's awesome it keeps everyone's hands off my prized long term aged stuff that is truly heaven in a bottle. My beautiful wife however presents a problem, she has developed a taste for my good stock. I don't drink very much anymore, but she drinks more than me. So there is a problem I have enough UJSSM to last me thru the summer and winter no problem, but with her liking good stuff now i need a way to hold her off my good hootch...hahaha. One big benefit? I now have a green light to make whatever still or setup I want, its no longer me "spending too much time/money on a hobby".

Need more guys inputting experiments with other ABV's. 40%? 50%? I'm doing 50% next time and comparing results.

baron4406 wrote: My beautiful wife however presents a problem,

I know a guy.........

bellybuster wrote:

baron4406 wrote: My beautiful wife however presents a problem,

I know a guy.........

That ain't right

Funny. Made me actually LOL.

After great personal debate over whether I'd try this, I decided I will. Going to try it next week while I'm off work. I'll post my results.

wv_hillbilly wrote:After great personal debate over whether I'd try this, I decided I will. Going to try it next week while I'm off work. I'll post my results.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Just taste after you second session and go from there. Not sure what spirit you're using but with SF a couple of sessions on JD chips then a couple on lightly toasted cherry chips is a hit around here.

Works really well at macerating berry's as well. So far I have done Blackberry's, Strawberry's, and Cherry's. Then I mix a shot of one of my berry with a shot of white or a shot of nuke and wow what a taste.

jarheadshiner wrote:

wv_hillbilly wrote:After great personal debate over whether I'd try this, I decided I will. Going to try it next week while I'm off work. I'll post my results.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Just taste after you second session and go from there. Not sure what spirit you're using but with SF a couple of sessions on JD chips then a couple on lightly toasted cherry chips is a hit around here.

Its very similar to UJ's. Just a little different. Got me some JD chips, anxious to get started. I'm like a kd at Christmas that was allowed to see my Christmas present, then it was wrapped up and put away.

bellybuster wrote:

baron4406 wrote: My beautiful wife however presents a problem,

I know a guy.........

Hey now, I ain't no heavy metal singer (topical comment)

Haha,


I'm noticing something with my nightly comparison. The nuked stuff is changing flavour dramatically. Much more woody now on the unpleasant side. The colour is less than appealing as well, brown is just weird
The aged stuff is holding its flavour and colour, no woodyness, at least not the chewing on a piece of wood flavour.

Bellybuster, are you using chips? Read my post at the top of this forum section, if you are using chips the majority of your wood contact is with toasted wood, NOT charred wood. Its very easy to overoak with the chips

Yes I'm using the JD chips, the nuked stuff was fine and has been bottled for a couple weeks now. I've been tasting it pretty much every night alongside some that was just aged on the same chips. The nuked stuff is changing in flavour rapidly to an almost unpleasant wood taste. The aged stuff just gets better even after being bottled.
Strange..

bellybuster wrote:I've been tasting it pretty much every night

Be careful you dont taste it gone before it gets good. (Ive done that )

bellybuster wrote:The nuked stuff is changing in flavour rapidly to an almost unpleasant wood taste. The aged stuff just gets better even after being bottled.
Strange..

Strange. maybe nuked stuff needs to get pulled off the wood right away. In other words use the heat and nuke cycles to suck as much oaking flavor as you want, as many cycles as it takes, then pull it off the wood and let it sit and harmonize (molecular aging) for a bit.

I did remove the chips as soon as it cooled.

bellybuster wrote:I did remove the chips as soon as it cooled.

That's a new one. I left mine on some toasted staves overnight and it got woody in that short period of time. Haven't had anything but good results after using the JD and cherry chips though. Of course mine doesn't last long after it's nuked because I only do a quart at a time. Maybe next time try one less session in the microwave if you plan on letting it sit in the bottle for awhile. Just a thought.