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Well, I finally got around to doing this a couple weeks ago. Used JD chips with about 2/3 quart of 65% ABV SF. Nuked it 3 times and let it sit for several hours with the vacuum. Turned out OK I guess - definitely changed the flavor and smoother. Has the taste of a nice sipping whiskey. I probably should have lightly charred the chips.

I just picked up 3 bags of chips - apple, cherry, and pecan. I have enough SF white dog to do a couple of quart jars. I'll probably try the apple and the pecan first - maybe with a little char. I'll post the results in the next few days.

S-C

Remember, the concept does not replace long term oaking ... at least my take on it was it would never replace it

But

It does improve a white dog dramatically, and if needed, can produce a superior product to white dog, that is enjoyable. Using it to replace 15 years in a barrel will be impossible, but using it to give a 3-5 year soak a run for it's money is highly doable. As always, garbage in, garbage out ... depends on what you put into this process that will determine if the result is good.

Sorry, just checked in to see if anyone turkey fryer'd their microwave with likker yet ... umm ... anyone? Bueller, bueller?

I finally tried this for myself. I thought it was crazy, but I wanted to experiment a bit. I put some 52% UJSSM on JD chips, and it tastes dull even after a year. I thought "this can't be any worse.".


I got some 60% white dog and some chips and put them in the microwave. I did the three cycles, and it definitely started smelling like JD. I tasted it, and it was way too oaky. However, when I diluted to 40%, it was dead on! I think I like it better at 45%, though. I've always preferred 90 proof.

Holiday Candycane Peppermint Stick Nukins

I quart of 40 abv neutral or light flavored spirit,
4 peppermint candycanes the hard ones not the soft ones
4 to 6 tablespoons of sugar (sweeten to taste)

Crack the candycanes up in small pieces and drop them in the moonshine, add 4 tablespoons of sugar,
microwave for 2 minutes or until the product is warm to really warm. Shake it up to melt the cracked candy canes and sugar. Then let it rest and cool. Once its cool shake it again to make sure everything is dissolved.

Light a fire in the fireplace or pit and you can sip it from the jar or pour it on the rocks with a sprig of spearmint or peppermint.

Its not something you will drink gallons of but.... it is tasty and refreshing when with good company.

Happy Holidays to you all,

FS

FullySilenced wrote:Holiday Candycane Peppermint Stick Nukins

I quart of 40 abv neutral or light flavored spirit,
4 peppermint candycanes the hard ones not the soft ones
4 to 6 tablespoons of sugar (sweeten to taste)

Crack the candycanes up in small pieces and drop them in the moonshine, add 4 tablespoons of sugar,
microwave for 2 minutes or until the product is warm to really warm. Shake it up to melt the cracked candy canes and sugar. Then let it rest and cool. Once its cool shake it again to make sure everything is dissolved.

Light a fire in the fireplace or pit and you can sip it from the jar or pour it on the rocks with a sprig of spearmint or peppermint.

Its not something you will drink gallons of but.... it is tasty and refreshing when with good company.

Happy Holidays to you all,

FS

Thanks for this idea! Now I have something to do with all these leftover candy canes.

S-Cackalacky wrote:Well, I finally got around to doing this a couple weeks ago. Used JD chips with about 2/3 quart of 65% ABV SF. Nuked it 3 times and let it sit for several hours with the vacuum. Turned out OK I guess - definitely changed the flavor and smoother. Has the taste of a nice sipping whiskey. I probably should have lightly charred the chips.

I just picked up 3 bags of chips - apple, cherry, and pecan. I have enough SF white dog to do a couple of quart jars. I'll probably try the apple and the pecan first - maybe with a little char. I'll post the results in the next few days.

S-C

I did the apple wood and pecan nukes a couple weeks ago. I toasted the chips in the oven for about 1.5 hours on 300 F. I charred both with my propane torch. I think I may have over charred. After nuking both (3 cycles), they had an overpowering smoked taste - like licking the inside of a BBQ pit. So anyway, I have some feints and think I'll run these two bad batches with the feints, clean them up a bit and try it again without the charring.

I had the last of the stuff I did on JD chips last night (neat). I have to say, it was notably better after just sitting around in the bottle for a few weeks. This bottle was at 50% ABV and I think I like it at that strength. I'm thinking the JD chips will be my go-to wood chips - really enjoyed that bottle of likker. I think I'll also experiment with time aging - that is, put the nuked stuff up in half filled jars for a month or so to see if there's some improvement in flavor.

I'm also looking forward to trying that peppermint candy recipe - sounds great.

S-C

I have shared this LINK with a few people... hope this helps you with your nukin pleasures... and experiments....

http://www.danish-schnapps-recipes.com/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Happy Stillin

FS

Someone asked the question earlier, but I did not see a response...can I soak many pieces of oak in let's say Crown Royal and microwave with the soaked chips and get a flavor of Crown Royal? Please tell me someone has tried this and it works!

so did my first spirit run with my new still the other night,with some low wines I made from 18 gallons of oxidized wine (let the airlocks to dry for a month while I got sidetracked with work) made my cuts, got 1 gallon of good stuff, then I took a jar on ethier end of the cuts that were "iffy" and blended them and did 3 rounds of nuclear ageing with JD chips, very very nice super smooth.

just for kicks I took one jar of definate heads (last one before the iffy jar) and did an quick age with it, but a bit more aggressive, basically nuked it till it started boiling, then stoped the microwave, then when stoped boiling capped it. idea was that the the bad stuff boils first so 3 rounds of that would eliminate alot of the bad headsy stuff, and I was right. took a 75% cut down to 70% diluted down to 45% and its quite smooth.

Hell, if I wanted to do that, I'll stick jars in the attic during the summer. 150 degrees seems about right!

Skeena wrote:Someone asked the question earlier, but I did not see a response...can I soak many pieces of oak in let's say Crown Royal and microwave with the soaked chips and get a flavor of Crown Royal? Please tell me someone has tried this and it works!

No...!!!

GO RAD!!!! That would be awesome if we could transfer flavors that easily... but rad is correct NO!

An old timer near me told me to just char a small piece of wood, scrape the char then wash it, drop it in the goods. Tried it with pecan and got results that were about the shade of medium tea with no more heat than what my shed gives off on a 90 degree F day. Got rather a bit more smooth too.

rad14701 wrote:

Skeena wrote:Someone asked the question earlier, but I did not see a response...can I soak many pieces of oak in let's say Crown Royal and microwave with the soaked chips and get a flavor of Crown Royal? Please tell me someone has tried this and it works!

No...!!!

No...No...No. Now wait a minute here Rad! Let's assume this might work, then let's take that whole concept one more step....

Let us take a $100 bill, and cut it up in itty bitty pieces, and put them in a jar, then toss in, oh let's say 100 ones. Then we can fill up the jar with some Whitedog, screw the lid on tight, and microwave it a few times. If it works, when it cools down, we ought to have enough Whitedog left to have a quick drink, and maybe we end up with a lotta $100 bill's right? Or maybe only $50s or $20s if we don't let it age long enough?

What do you think?

BoomTown wrote:
Let us take a $100 bill, and cut it up in itty bitty pieces, and put them in a jar, then toss in, oh let's say 100 ones. Then we can fill up the jar with some Whitedog, screw the lid on tight, and microwave it a few times. If it works, when it cools down, we ought to have enough Whitedog left to have a quick drink, and maybe we end up with a lotta $100 bill's right? Or maybe only $50s or $20s if we don't let it age long enough?

What do you think?

Seems legit. :-/

Only one way to find out.

Skeena wrote:Someone asked the question earlier, but I did not see a response...can I soak many pieces of oak in let's say Crown Royal and microwave with the soaked chips and get a flavor of Crown Royal? Please tell me someone has tried this and it works!

This is interesting. I'd presume if ya used straight up activated carbon - a larger pellet size - in yer Crown, microwaved and agitated a bit... I hypothesize the carbon granules will take on a ton o' the organoleptics of the Crown... Try puttin them in some fresh distilled all grain, and microwaving again. Perhaps seal the fresh right after treatment, toss in yer freezer, wait till cool, then either taste or treat it again. My guess is that much electromagnetic hydrodynamic agitation would impart at least a noticeable amount of Crown flavor to yer likker...

Experiment and post results!

Well if you use JD smoking chips with neutral and nuke it a couple times the neutral will pick up the JD taste... works well with chips for the first use ... so your theory is correct in some ways... but it will never be the parent liquor just a shadow of the original...

FS

read the start of the nuking thread and i passed that on in the first couple of posts...

Just done this with half a pint of JD chips in 1.2ltrs of cornflake whiskey split into two mason jars. Put it on full power for two minutes, temp coming out of the microwave was 50oC, letting it cool down before giving it another blast. I love this place.

no follow up. did he blow up?

Nah no one has blown up yet....

I'm still here, did use a mason jar with the lid to get the vacuum though , I'm not going to throw it away but the next time I do this I will turn the disk upside down so as to not get any contact with the plastic underside.

Metal lid in microwave???

No, I'm not that daft , after I took it out.

Why would you not use the lid at is was intended to be used... let the seal do its job and seal...

FS

FullySilenced wrote:Why would you not use the lid at is was intended to be used... let the seal do its job and seal...

FS

That's what I do . Clap the lid on as soon as I pull it out of the microwave and let the vacuum begin . When it cools , pull the lid and let it air briefly . Then back in it goes for the next session .

I was worried about the plastic seal around the top of it, should I not be?

I don't think they would put dangerous anything on a food jar lid... even if it were never intended for ethanol storage... use...

And there is such a small contact area to begin with...

I have done this process probably more than anyone and have not had an issue other than something failing to seal a time or two when reusing lids...

FS

Ok, thanks for the heads up.

Just finished reading the whole thread.... Amazing. Well done guys for all the great info and experiments. I am also glad there was a couple who started to spice the spirit in the last couple of pages. This is what I want to try. I have followed the insctruction on page one with some rum hearts and american oak stave and a vanila pod. First round done, now wait.

I was thinking of doing the same procedure with another rum batch with the following to get a spiced rum...

american oak stave
Vanilla pod
orange peel
cinnamon stick
star of anise
maybe a clove????
nutmeg

I will post my results when finished.