Home Distiller

I was lucky enough to aquire a whiskey barrel that has only been used once because it was leaky. I was given some small wedges and pegs to fix the leaks with, but I realized that I'd never be able to fill it, "55 gallons is a lot of whiskey lol". I cut some peices just long enough to fit into a quart jar and then split them down to about 1/2 inch wide, so they are the thickness of the staves x 1/2 " x 6 or 7 inches. My question is that there isnt much char on a peice of that size, with the taper of the stave it's less than 1/2 inch wide. Just wondering if I ought to char maybe about 2 more sides of it....the fresh split sides? or char all sides like I do with the jack daniels chips?

my vote goes to "char all sides" but being only 1/2 in. do not over do it or you will have charcoal.

I recently picked up a half barrel at the nursery that was a former wine barrel and had a beautiful red stain on the inside.

When I got it home and took it apart, I noted that it was made in France (white French oak) and had been full of a cabernet savaugne.

It had a beautiful aroma, so I cut each stave into 1/2" widiths, sanded the outside of the stave on the belt sander until I got nice fresh oak, then toasted the pieces on the BBQ on three sides, and left the wine side as is.

When they were hot I pulled them off the barbi and dropped them in water for two reasons. One I had read that when they char new barrels, they always quench them with cold water, to put out the fire but also it seems to make the pores in the Oak pop and expand and as well fixes the sugars that have carmelized in the wood by the heat of the fire.

Secondly, it washed off the soot that may collect on the wood. I have noticed that when I charred the oak in the past, on a couple of batches I had oaked, I got good colour, but it tasted more of smoked salmon or smoked sausage then aged whiskey.

So I am now aging some nice bran/corn flake double run spirits with my new oak barrel staves and I will let you know how it turns out.
I have just started a polenta(corn)/malted barley wash this week so I will let you know how the all grain run goes as well.

I quench mine with a good, long cold water rinse off too beelah.

Sounds like a nice find (your oak).

Quality of your posts are getting good.

Ah Shucks ....thanks for the praise LWTCS. I have to thank all the other contributors here as I have sure learned a lot and still learning. Only trying to give back what I have got of this site.

I bought a bourbon/scotch barrel from a guy here in Scotland. Holds 55 Gal which is just a bit much for me. I de-banded the staves, used an electric plane on the outside to take it down to clean oak and cut sticks at 1/2" x 1/2" x 4" and 7".
I then soft toasted, medium toasted and heavy toasted some of the sticks.
I then charred a batch of the sticks on the BBQ in kitchen foil... My recipe is as follows:

2 sticks normal
1 stick medium
2 sticks charred

I then fill the 5L glass demijohns with 65% sour mash, (UJSSM, Sweet feed).
The bottles are then placed in a darkened cupboard. The change happens within a few hours, but if left for a few weeks can make a good whiskey, great.
It gives me a lovely dark ambered/red colour, there is a hinted smokieness in the smell, vanilla, caramel. The smoothness imparted to this aging
is down to the 2 charred sticks added. I have made this discovery by using the 4" sticks in 1/2 L glass coffee jars recording temps, proof, times soaked,
smells and tastes imparted in my 1/2 L trial jars.
I even blended some of the trial jars to get the results from 50ml - 100ml shots recording my finds from this.
What I ended up with was a whiskey that had the colour of a rich deep bourbon but the nose and taste of a seasoned scotch.
The trials continue and I have 2 x 5L batches that have both been aging for 2 months.

My wife bakes a rich fruit Dundee cake laced with scotch. She used to use store bought whisky but now uses our own home varient.
Still tastes just as good and it has had the added benefit of Mrs S. helping out when making cuts during a run. Great to have another nose and tastbuds when doing this.
She also is experimenting with brambles, (blackberries), rasperries, strawberries, gooseberries, plumbs. etc; all whisky's, with a hint of fruit.

Suprisingly, they taste very good indeed and very distinctive.... Don't you just love summer?