Airing spirits? Oaking- raw wood flavor?

[mash rookie]

Two subjects gentlemen.
I have read many mentions but nothing clear about airing your spirits after distilling. Is it recommended? In my experience recently, a bottle of neutral spirits tasted and smelled better after I left it in an open glass bowl overnight.
Is this possibly because it contained heads or higher alcohols that evaporate easier?

My second question is about oaking. I know there is a lot of discussion and threads. I have read them until my eyes hurt. I did some experimenting with different woods using smoker chips. Oak, hickory, apple and pecan. toasted and not toasted. I used small mason jars with 2-3 ounces of neutral spirit and added a couple of chips to each.

After a couple of weeks, there was color, smoky flavor, and wood character. BUT most samples tasted like I was eating raw wood !
I want to improve my spirit not ruin it.

Does the raw wood flavor go away in time? Should my wood be charred more?

In another experiment, I boiled some chared oak chips, filtered the water and tasted that as a flavor extract. The wood flavor was not present. Does any one know what causes the raw wood flavor?

Can I force age my booze and avoid the raw wood taste?

There is alot to know about this hobby and I know you guys answer alot of stupid questions, some of them many times. i will try to ask good questions.

Thank you for your patiece and help.

[rubber duck]

I recommend airing for longer then just one night, some guys pump air through their booze, some folks air for as longs as 2 or 3 weeks. I think a couple of days gets the majority of it done.

On oaking most folks say less oak and more time. I agree and that's what I do. Actually I do mostly barrels or just leave it white, but when I do use glass and chips I go light. It takes some time for that wet stick taste to develop into what your looking for. oak it lightly, put it in the shop, and forget about it for a year. Maybe crack the lid once a month for some air but leave it alone for a year.

Force aging will give you a ok product but there is no substitute for time. Force aging will give more of a wood taste then time aging.

I like my wood lightly chared and on some stuff I like it just toasted. Used wood is sometimes nice for a rum or a malt whiskey, so don't go throwing away those old chips.

There are a lot of different opinions on aging and oaking but I think the one thing everyone can agree on is time.

[Barney Fife]

I did some experimenting with different woods using smoker chips.

No, no, NO! Don't use smoker chips.... These are fine for smoking, but NOT for aging spirits. Smoker chips are made by running entire logs, branches, twigs, and the bark, the whole lot of the tree, through a chipper. Besides the obvious, and that's that it's dirty, it also has ALL the sapwood from the tree, and it's this that causes the bitter "wood" flavor and it will ruin your drink.

[Dnderhead]

there is sugars/sap left in wood or at least in white oak.under enough heat these
are caramelized,thus the caramel flavor.raw wood taste like wood,if over toasted
until chard all the way threw then you have charcoal,this is what Iv found if you use
to small of pieces.now what iv found is you need big enough pieces so when "toasting" it is in
layers,chard outside.toasted inside. time is the only way I know of that "ages".many have
tried different things.some swear by them and some dont.but I never found anything that
replaces time and Iv tried a bunch.if you do let the big boys know their also looking.

[Stilly]

Mash rookie,

If you are in a hurry to drink your new product I have a recipe that produces okay results. It isn't the same as well aged whiskey but it is good enough to serve your friends. I use light toast oak chips but only for 1 day. Then I remove them, save em in a jar for future use, add toasted oak cubes, and one stick of air dried oak that was toasted in the toaster oven. After about a week or two the 3 different flavor profiles complement each other real well.

I have a bottle of this on the kitchen counter, its the continual daily drinkin brew, add a little more shine every once in a while to make up for what has been removed. I can quickly add chips for an hour or more to bump the initial blast of oak up, but the cubes and toasted stick are what do the majority of the work. I have had product done with oak chips exclusively, not recommended, very one dimensional taste, but if you judiciously use them along with oak strips and or cubes you can get a pretty interesting product in relatively short order.

cheers
stilly

Oops, I don't think I should have posted this, I missed the mentors part, please delete!

[blanikdog]

I did some experimenting with different woods using smoker chips.

No, no, NO! Don't use smoker chips.... These are fine for smoking, but NOT for aging spirits. Smoker chips are made by running entire logs, branches, twigs, and the bark, the whole lot of the tree, through a chipper. Besides the obvious, and that's that it's dirty, it also has ALL the sapwood from the tree, and it's this that causes the bitter "wood" flavor and it will ruin your drink.

I bought some of these smoker chips about five maybe six years ago but there was something about them that just didn't seem right so I still have an unused pack of them. Now I see why that my being hesitant was a good move. They just looked a bit 'plasticky' and it turned me right off.