Home Distiller

I picked up a box of barrel off-cuts and a box of shavings from the cooperage up on the peninsula. Cheap as. About 20Kg for $40. Considering my local Brew shop wants $5.95 per 100g.

I placed the shavings in a foil tray, about 1" thick, covered it with foil and stuck it in the BBQ at 200C for 45 mins. I'm not an expert but I would say this is a dark toast?

I also cut down some of the staves and wrapped them in foil. They got 2 hours at 200C for the light and an extra 15 mins at 225C for the dark.

Would you classify them as light and dark or light and medium? The lot on the far left are un-toasted.

I am going to char some of them with a propane torch. Should I char the new, light or dark?

scarecrow

I don't know the answer, but thanks for posting the great photos.

I've been wondering about charring as I've just started using oak in glass, but it looks like oak sawdust and is untoasted.

I've managed to get some oak shavings from an old whisky barrel and will toast them like you've shown in the photos.

Have you used any of these yet?
Is there any indication of a colour change?

I couldn't believe the colour change (and reduction of bite) after only a week of adding untoasted brewshop oak to spirit.

I threw into the oven some of my chunky whisky barrel shavings at 220°C for about half an hour and they've gone as dark as the shavings that you've shown. There was a hell of a lot of smoke from the oven!!

I was wondering what their effect would be.

I have various grades of oak, either in shavings or blocks. I got a box full of oak barrel staves and lots of shavings. I toast my own.
Temperature is always 200C, and I just vary the time depending on the colour I want. I do all of this on the outside BBQ. (I don't want to fill the house with smoke....and it WILL smoke).
Left to right in oak, medium toast, dark toast and alligator char.

I don't like using caramel, so I use the shavings for quick colour. (Use a lot over a very short time)

Long term I use the blocks.
1/2 blocks for aging in bottles. Full blocks for 2 litre aging jars, and the bigger blocks for 5 litre aging jars.

This is how I use the oak:
Scotch – new oak
Corn Whisky – new oak
Bourbon – charred new oak
Whiskey – charred new oak
Spiced Rum - Medium shavings and new oak
Dark Rum – Dark shavings and dark toasted oak
Light Rum - Oak shavings and new oak

This is how they age:
All oak gives a degree of “yellow” tinge
Charred oak gives a dirty, dark burnt look. Golden Yellow when filtered. Very different taste than toasted oak
Dark Toasted gives a reddish tinge
Medium Toasted is slightly cleaner with a very slight red tinge
New Oak is clean and bright with a slight yellow tinge

That's it in a nutshell.

scarecrow

Fantastic!

Thanks for that reply. I agree completely with using shavings for colour - they are so fast.
I used three grades of toasted shavings for 12 hours and it made a huge difference.


http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =4&t=12063

I'll now get on and mellow it with a stick of oak over a period of time.

Thanks again - great photos!

Sounds like you're on top of it Photonic.

Here's a shot of a Bourbon and a Spiced Rum at about 2 weeks. The Bourbon will end up like your likker, a nice pale golden yellow, once I filter the soot out of it.
The spiced rum is full of shavings, oak, peppercorns, ginger and cinnamon. This usually gets 2 or 3 filters to make it sparkle. It is already very easy to drink at 55%.
scarecrow

That rum sounds delicious.

What are you filtering with? I use a funnel, coffee filter and a bit of cotton wool in the neck of the funnel.

I've GOT to have a go at some spiced rum

Photonic wrote:What are you filtering with? I use a funnel, coffee filter and a bit of cotton wool in the neck of the funnel

Same here. My first pass goes through double cheesecloth to get the roaches and rodents out first, then three passes through the coffee filters.

I'm currently making some large felt bags and a stand to hold it. Filter papers take a long time to filter 5 litres, especially if you do it 3 times.

My large felt bag can hold up to 5 litres and you just fill it up and walk away till it's finished.

scarecrow

Photonic wrote:
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =4&t=12063" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

!

Great info in this thread for folks gettin started. Wonderful photo presentations.

This particular one looks like it would have come out of a magazine.

Keep it up guys

EDIT: I'm considering doing this with apple wood. Any reason I wouldn't want to do this??

thanks