Home Distiller

FlintHill wrote:Well the verdict is in, 4 cycles in the microwave/ freezer and this jar seems like it has been aging on spirals for 6 months. This is a beautiful thing, rear end was puckered up the whole time, but now that I have some well aged whisky I think I can relax and have a sip.

One thing...it still isn't "well aged". It is just "oaked". It has picked up color and flavor, both of which will grow and mature over time. But to really experience the smoothness imparted, it still takes time in the barrel/jar with wood. What you've done is to get the wood to open up and impart some of it's character.

Have a sip...but hold your horses. Patience is still your best friend.
ss

still_stirrin wrote:

FlintHill wrote:Well the verdict is in, 4 cycles in the microwave/ freezer and this jar seems like it has been aging on spirals for 6 months. This is a beautiful thing, rear end was puckered up the whole time, but now that I have some well aged whisky I think I can relax and have a sip.

One thing...it still isn't "well aged". It is just "oaked". It has picked up color and flavor, both of which will grow and mature over time. But to really experience the smoothness imparted, it still takes time in the barrel/jar with wood. What you've done is to get the wood to open up and impart some of it's character.

Have a sip...but hold your horses. Patience is still your best friend.
ss

SS, first, I agree with what you're saying and hope this doesn't re-stir the hornet's nest of arguments that are likely to come. I use this technique as an ADJUNCT to aging. I've never thought that what I get from 3 cycles of nuking accomplishes anywhere near what comes from age. If anything, the nuke process shortens the amount of time to get a decent tasting drop by quickly extracting the flavoring components from the wood. After that, some other complicated act of science happens between those wood components and the alcohol over time that I don't pretend to understand.

I think one important benefit from this process is that it puts a handle on the wood flavoring process for the non-barrel-using hobby distiller. With some experimentation it can give a lot more control to the extraction of the wood components. It's a matter of fine tuning to your own taste. I continue to experiment as I pick up on other techniques to incorporate along with the nuking technique. Nuking is a good tool to have, but not the only one in the box.

I completely agree. I generally start sipping( due to limited stock) at about 3 months. I will have a jar or two that makes it over the 8 month mark, but that's about it. I think I am going to lose this jar for a while along with one with just the chips.

I totally agree with you SC. And FlintHill, I didn't mean to imply "don't drink" it after the quick nuke treatments.

What I meant was that the "artificial aging" isn't really aging, it's color and flavor transfer. Heating and cooling does help to release volatiles which could give flavors which obscure the whiskeys true flavors. So, the whiskey benefits from the treatments for sure. But with age, even at 6 months, it will be much better...the flavors will be married and you'll notice more of the flavor from the wash/mash in your product. It just smooths out with time.

Building up stock affords you the time for it to mature. 6 months...good. A year...better. More...fabulous. I wish my stock was that old...I seem to run out at 6-8 months...too many friends, I guess.
ss

I suggest nuking it and then letting it sit and try it... if you like it fine ....if not... you let it rest a day/week/month/year... try it and see if you like it fine.... if not let it sit another day/week/month/year... and try it... and so forth till the jar is empty empty happens...

Since most of us are not in the business as professional distillers... and we don't sell our booze ... we make it for our own taste.... so make something you like... and have fun...

nuke on

FS

I've found a nice method that works for me. Does anyone else do anything similar?
I age in 3L jugs with 2 25x25x150mm charred oak sticks.
I take 500ml out and nuke on one stick. Cap jar while still hot and put in the freezer. I do it three times, morning, noon and night. Next morning it comes out of the freezer and get out back with the rest in the jug with the oak stick. Gets a real nice start on the color. Haven't had a jug last 2 months yet.

The Freezing is not needed other than to reduce the cooling time... in my opinion...

I would venture to say i have used this method more than anyone.... I have rapidly cooled after nuking in ice water, as well as in the freezer... I cannot tell any difference in the product over normal convection cooling... IE sitting on the counter space... There maybe one variable... with convection cooling the distillate has a longer time on the wood while its heated, possibly opening up the structure maybe a little more allowing deeper pentration into the chip or wood... this is conjecture on my part...

Once its cooled and the vacuum is formed is slowly pulls product out of the chips, staves or whatever chunks you have used during the nuking process...

again... I say make something you like and enjoy where ever your method takes you...

Happy Stillin,

FS

I doubt that freezing is of any benefit at all. Try doing two identical jars at different extremes, one freezing, the other wrapping in as much insulation as you have to keep the temperature up.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 44&t=55301

I just freeze to cool quickly so I can do three cycles in a day easily.

Tokoroa_Shiner wrote:I just freeze to cool quickly so I can do three cycles in a day easily.

Now, that is the best description of haste I've seen for a while.

I put a 4" fan in my freezer when I'm in a hurry, (but that ain't for my likker )

I'm finding that with one nuke cycle and packing with towels in a Styrofoam cooler to hold the heat, I get a lot of color and wood flavor extraction. I leave the jars in the cooler for about 24 hours until the temp comes back down and then into the freezer for a few hours and then back to room temp again before unsealing them. I just do the freezer step for shits and grins to give it the extreme temp swing. just one cycle of the whole process seems to give me enough color and flavor and then I continue to age it off the wood in a glass jar. I can't say that it's any better than the normal 3 cycle nuke process. It's just the way I do it.

still_stirrin wrote:What I meant was that the "artificial aging" isn't really aging, it's color and flavor transfer.
ss

It's not artificial aging as much as it is rapid maturation. It's enticing the spirit to do something in weeks or months that would otherwise take 7 plus years. If I can seduce a single malt whisky to behave like a 20 year old, and it's not 20 weeks old, I think I'm well ahead of the curve here. (And by "behave" I mean. Look, smell, taste, in every way indistinguishable of a warehouse aged 20 year old single malt) This is not just happening within the hobby, there are commercial outfits that are starting to follow our lead.

kiwi Bruce wrote:

still_stirrin wrote:What I meant was that the "artificial aging" isn't really aging, it's color and flavor transfer.
ss

It's not artificial aging as much as it is rapid maturation. It's enticing the spirit to do something in weeks or months that would otherwise take 7 plus years. If I can seduce a single malt whisky to behave like a 20 year old, and it's not 20 weeks old, I think I'm well ahead of the curve here. (And by "behave" I mean. Look, smell, taste, in every way indistinguishable of a warehouse aged 20 year old single malt) This is not just happening within the hobby, there are commercial outfits that are starting to follow our lead.

It's neither rapid maturation nor artificial aging. It's a method of flavoring, and nothing more.

I use nuking from time to time, but it's a settlement. I much rather have a 3 year aged bourbon. It's an entirely different product.

ShineonCrazyDiamond wrote:It's a method of flavoring, and nothing more.

That's all aging is as well.

Bagasso wrote:

ShineonCrazyDiamond wrote:It's a method of flavoring, and nothing more.

That's all aging is as well.

Tell that to my lumbar spine would you...?

Bagasso wrote:

ShineonCrazyDiamond wrote:It's a method of flavoring, and nothing more.

That's all aging is as well.

Yes.

You can achieve flavoring by aging, but it defies physics to say you can achieve aging by simply flavoring.

I don't pretend to know the science of it, but I do believe that there is a symbiotic relationship between the wood compounds and the alcohol and whatever it is that takes place between the two happens with time. The extraction of the compounds (flavors) from the wood, I believe, is something that can be accelerated with heat and vacuum. That said, I also believe that time is required for the extracted wood compounds and alcohol to make the transition to the flavors that we desire. There seem to be some recent studies that indicate that the aging process (maturing) can be hastened using some particular techniques. A few folks here are experimenting with some of those techniques, but I'm not sure what's going on with that. I think what we're doing with the nuke process is leap-frogging the wood compound extraction process. Time is still required for the flavor transitions to take place.

That's my take on it, but I may be way off in left field.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =4&t=56196
Here is a good article I posted many distillations ago, on cask aging from the Mag " Aussie bartender"

I'm with SCD...unless you can show me how 15 seconds in a microwave can whisk that jar o' likker around the sun 7 times...when it comes out, it is 15 seconds older, perhaps tastes better (i know the one time i tried it worked pretty damn good at flavouring up some UJ)...there ain't no way in hell it is 7 years older, until it makes 7 trips around the big yellow orb in the sky.

A barrel is like a lung. It breathes in and out due to changes in atmospheric pressure/climate, bringing in fresh air and expelling unwanted congeners that work their way out of the wood. The spirit is also on a very slow journey into the wood. A journey it never completes. It does this over many years, many seasons and almost exclusively in darkness. After 15 years, an inversion happens and the wood starts to become dominant and releases more water soluble tannins into the spirit. This can attribute to older whiskies being referred to as 'over-oaked'.

What do we do at home? The complete opposite...
Glass, tightly sealed, exposed to light, with the wood suspended in the spirit, reaching full saturation in a matter of days... The microwave and the freezer will not address this inversion. They may hurry things along, but its still an inversion of how maturation occurs naturally.
It is what it is. It may be a shortcut to getting a smoother drink in a shorter period and in the most easily accessible way we can do it at home, but its not a shortcut to maturity. We shouldn't be attributing anything we do to calendar years. Its just not comparable.

Someone thinks they can do it, why not us?

Here are some photos from the news, of Cleveland's set-up. They put cut, used bourbon staves into corny kegs and pressurize them, with air I assume. They say they do several pressurization and releases cycles over three days and get spectacular results. I don't think these photos can be the production set-up as they did 10,000 plus bottles in their first year. They say they did their first tests using mason jars in a pressure cooker.
So to answer the question why speed age? The US has a whiskey shortage. Brands like Makers Mark, Black Jack. Granddad, Old Crow etc are being hogged by the Chinese, who will pay over twice as much as the distillers can get domestically. Cleveland whiskey's "Black" is going for $35.00US IF you can find it. Not a bad gig!
Kiwi Bruce

ShineonCrazyDiamond wrote:You can achieve flavoring by aging, but it defies physics to say you can achieve aging by simply flavoring.

Good thing I didn't say that.

While traditional aging also includes airing out, at the end of the day "aging" is really just a complicated way of getting flavor.

I have only read the first 12 pages of this thread but this process has me wondering if it would clean up a jar that has to much heads in it.

It seems to make a huge difference there give it a try without the lid on ... bring it up to 150 or 160f not more don't boil the booze..

So you have to watch your first jar until you get to temp... every microwave is somewhat different on times required...

have fun and Happy Stillin,

FS

Anyone made an Peach Nukin's lately if so please post your recipe...

Using fresh or canned peaches...

thanks in advance,

FS

With the holidays approaching here is an easy recipe for those looking to nuke something up that's really easy and tastes great...

ButterScotch Nukins

Was looking to make something for the holidays that could be enjoyed by most adults... or given as a gift... this is the first one i am sharing...


Holiday ButterScotch Vodka


750ml of clean neutral/vodka at the amount can be adjusted so your final ABV is 40 to 45

22oz of "Premium" butterscotch hard candy


Put the candy in a quart mason type canning jar..

Pour the neutral over it... (for you instruction sticklers take the candy out of the plastic wrappers please...)

Nuke it in the jar, open no lid... for about 2 minutes then screw the lid on. (Just getting it warm to help melt the candy)

Shake it occasionally till the hard candy has melted. ***OPTIONAL put it in a blender while its still warm and blend it***

Let it cool.

Nice clean tasting butterscotch drink for the holiday season...or just anytime

It's good straight up, on the rocks or even in coffee...

Happy Stilling and NUKE ON

FS

Gonna have to try some of that .

FS how many pieces is 22 ounces of butterscotch candy? That is an awful lot of butterscotch. You could make red koolaide taste like butterscotch with that much! Is that weight or volume in a quart jar? Still seems excessive especially for one who does not like butterscotch.
Ga Flatwoods

ga flatwoods wrote:FS how many pieces is 22 ounces of butterscotch candy?

I've seen that there are around 5 pieces of candy to an ounce so that would mean 110 pieces of candy. Would they even fit in a quart jar? Even if they did, it wouldn't leave much room for the likker.

Maybe he meant 22 pieces?

IT WAS A LARGE BAG... .... START OUT WITH 12 OUNCES AND SEE HOW YOU LIKE THE TASTE... adjust it to your likes and taste

You can always add more butterscotch to it ...

***when i used up all the candy and the neutral... it had more than a quart of butterscotch booze if i remember correctly...


I can say i made up several jars and every one of them left really quickly when company came over...

happy stillin,

FS