Home Distiller

Has anyone used any Hardrock Maple or Sugar Maple for aging or flavoring? I was thinking of using some cheery wood hearts roughly the diameter of my bottle, about 8 inches long or so... most of the maples, and cheery wood have plenty of sugars... like apple and pear wood.. hmmm....

just looking for previous experiences..

thanks

I'm trying to track down sugar maple at the moment to do the Lincoln country process. I've used some other hardwoods such as NZ mountain beech (tastes pretty much like oak actually, but slightly more astringent so I stoppped experimenting) and Manuka (really good but very strong). Fruit woods are good but need quite a lot of time.

I've used maple often; it's one of my favorites! Most hardwoods should work, but all will be different in flavors. Do avoid all exotic woods(woods from the equator belt) because many of these trees have strong defense mechanisms, with some being near poisonous to individuals who would be allergic to them. Usually the dangers come in the form of fine dusts when working with these woods, but the same chemicals that cause the dust to irritate your skin should also irritate your soft tissues even more if ingested.

Bottom line, unless you really, really know your woods, stick with the tried and true. Cherry should be fine, as as maples, oaks, ash, birch, sycamore, and likely many, many others. I would avoid walnut, as it, too, has a few chemical tricks up its sleeve. All softwoods would be too resinous and bitter, but their gums could prove interesting(gin comes to mind).

Any new wood type you are going to try needs to be researched carefully. I know that at least some of the local native tree species around my area are highly toxic.

Stick to oak, maple, ash and traditional fruit woods. (Apple, pear, cherry)
Beech adds a very peppery note, may be a good choice for some rums.

Has anyone tried any citrus woods? (Orange, Lemon, Tangerine...) I have plenty of access to that.

I've done some searched and can not find a good definitive list of the properties/chemicals in the wood that are safe and good, or safe but yucky, or unsafe!

So I made a sugar wash with brown sugar... I distilled to 180 diluted to about 130 aged on sugar maple that I charred quickly with a propane torch. It took on lots of color and smell within 24 hours I diluted and filtered and got this... The taste might be a little dark for me so next time I will try toasting the sticks slowly instead of charring quickly. Anyone have a suggestion about this is maple better with a slow toast or a quick char? what about apple or others. Anyone think walnut would be any good?

Nothing wrong with that colour, it will look lighter in the glass.

I heard somewhere that Citrus is OK. I can't remember where I heard this so a bit of research would be in order before trying it. I've always been going to try it but time seems to always run away from me. Be interested to hear if anyone has done it.

blanik

i have about 2 liters of blackberry brandy @ 140pr. I havent added any wood yet. I did alot of berry picking and there is alot of blood sweat and tears into these bottles. it smells and tastes good white, but I want to age on wood. I would like to try something exotic but i dont want to fuck it up. I think I might try to get some wine barrel staves. any thoughts?

I just charred some maple and wild cherry, the wild cherry smelled great when the torch hit it. Does anyone bake/toast these woods like they do oak before charring?

In Bulgaria they use mulberry wood for seasoning rakiya.
My mother puts sticks of it inside some of her bottles, but I have also sampled a rakiya that sat in mulberry for thirty years - a friend's grandfather made the barrel when he was born and then stored it in the basement until his thirtieth birthday. Indescribably delicious.

IIRC, mulberry casking is also one of the steps in making balsamic vinegar.

K

I've been using pecan (the tree was a casualty of Hurricane Gustav) that's been either fire-charred or oven toasted this year on corn whiskey and a couple fruit brandies with good results.

I've been using old grape vines on the BBQ to smoke my chicken and it turns out quite nice. I've also used apple wood.

I have yet to try these in my distillate because I'm out of wood.

Anyone used grape vine wood before ?

scarecrow

I've got a brew I'm fiddling with, Corn and Rice spirits with toasted Mesquite. Some might think the addition of rice would ruin any credibility it once had as a whiskey, but I'm kind of proud of it in an "all american spirit" sort of way. Having been born in southern Texas, mesquite is such an obvious choice for me I had to try. I'm not making Tennessee Whiskey or Scotch or Shine or anything else.... I'm making something new, something Texan.

If I ever get the proportions all figured out I'm going to call it Snakebite, but it still needs some work. Probably be better if I weren't distress aging it, just letting it go, but since it's still in testing I'm not too worried. The first (and so far only) round of tests was 4L of 70% in four different mason jars; Air dried (astringent, not right), Light toast (some flavor, still kind of woody and astringent), Medium toast (best mesquite flavor, something still distinctly missing), and Char (like standing downwind of a brisket joint, very smoky).

That said, I'm still rather new at all this so please be gentle if someone else has been here before me... I can make a damn fine rum and passable corn shine (and fair to middlin wine/beer), but this is my first real foray into whiskey. Not that I'm calling it whiskey, some people get real specific on what *defines* a whiskey, but still only a first entry into the field. Just sticking my toe into new waters and seeing what happens.

More than likely if I decide to pursue this, gonna give them all a few months to settle before round two of tasting, I'll try to mix in a few bit of char in with the medium toast. Also must look into how some distilleries doctor their spirits with sugar, molasses, honey, etc.... Initial tests tasted better after clearing pallet with salty tortilla chips, maybe a touch of salt and molasses? Not trying to make BBQ liquor here but the flavors should be considered....

I like toasted and chared apple... I have tried cherry, "the kind from the woods" like what furniture is made from, it has an astringent aspect that I don't care for but my wife is OK with it. Walnut has some herbicide in its nature so might make for some bad mojo, besides the color of walnut would leach into the spirit and stain your teeth, lips, tonge and mouth, brown... for a very long time.

S&S

I'm Not sure about American Walnut , But I have heard that Black Walnut has some toxins... when I worked in a Cabinet shop we had to seperate the Black Walnut sawdust-chips from the other hardwood sawdust-chips that were used for animal bedding.......

I sell my wood chips/sawdust to a wide variety of end users and the folks that use wood chips/sawdust for horses claim walnut will cause a horse to founder.

S&S

Anybody ever tried regular Southern USA Live Oak?

I can get new sweet chestnut barrels as a slightly cheaper alternative to oak. Supposedly adds a slight pink and sweetness to dry white wine. I have tons of cut sycamore and loads of cherry. I am currently trying apple brandy, so I suppose it would make sense to use apple wood chips or staves.

TonyHibbett wrote:I can get new sweet chestnut barrels as a slightly cheaper alternative to oak. Supposedly adds a slight pink and sweetness to dry white wine.

Cool i havent heard that one - my dad has sweet chestnut at his place so i might have to go and drop one of the less productive trees and try it!

Anyone read or hear anything about alder from PNW we have doing some wood work with it smells sweet , have done searches on it but have not come up with anything that says it is toxic. It is one of the softer hardwoods and is in the same family as birch.

alder should be fine,

should aways be careful with what wood to use:
yohimbine = spontaneous erections

only oak i can find around here is red oak, anyone know if it will work in place of american white oak
I'm wanting to char it for a whiskey
bobtail

I have tried it, but it is so permeable that whiskey and wine take on much more flavor than with white oak. It can overwhelm the other flavors present. That being said... I do like what it does if I do an extended aging after removing the Toasted Red Oak (about a year and a half). I think of the Toasted Red Oak as a short steep... one to six weeks.

S & S

red oak has a lot of tannens and little or no other flavors.

Has anyone tried Pecan wood?

I have 5 big pecan trees on the property and used the wood for smoking meet.
Wonder what it will do the the likker?

As long as you stick with an oak in the white oak family, you should be fine. I have toasted and/or charred white oak, bur oak, and swamp white oak and they are all very similar in taste. Red oak or the oaks in the red oak family (i.e. northern red oak, black oak, pin oak, etc.) like Dnderhead said are heavy on tannins. If you are in the woods in the fall, white oak acorns are harder to find as having less tannins, they are more palatable and preferred by most wildlife.

This past summer, I made mulberry palinka with some neighbors which was great until we aged it on air dried mulberry. Big mistake! Lesson learned, I won't use mulberry not toasted or charred again.

Thanks every one, I finally gave up and just bought a jack daniels whiskey barrel half. knock it apart and getting ready to clean an char some on the grill

i bought some wood to burn for heat.
i think some of it is oak
and i think i got a few log of maple but what kind?

does it matter what kind?
i know that the sap of silver maple stink really awful but once dried i don't know.
what about the others popular maples?
and oak is there any type of oak you don't want to use for aging?

any tip welcome

o and ya i got my new boiler 50liter keg freeking awesome any new builder out here get a keg.
if your in quebec check kijjiji ontario they can unlike us buy a full keg for domestic use(in quebec you need a alcohol license to buy a keg"isnt that pretty mestup?").
if not on gas get one or 2 electrical element(need to get 1"half coupling welded on"check ebay").
i got 2x1500w still using my boka head (using only one for actual distilling 2 for boiling"awesome 1hour and 15min") and after 2 batch i can taste the difference in cut you just cant get that from smaller i use to have a 4gallons boiller, never again...

i try tomorrow or soon to post picture of the wood i got hoping someone could identify.