Over oaking

[Mookie]

Hello everyone,

so I got my 8Liters of 95ABV alcohol diluted to 40%, I got approx 19L of diluted whiskey.
I bought crushed toasted to almost powder oak from the winery and added to it to age in two 10L demijons.
yeah I know I should have been aging first at around 70 and then diluting, however it did work for me in the past and in about a month I got a nice whiskey.
Well, my problem is that I added too much of this crushed toasted oak.
It works much stronger than I thought it would!
My whiskey is now brown and cloudy instead of gold and brighty.
I already removed the oak after it had been 5 days in the whiskey.
What would be the best easy and fast way to clean it up?
I thought about using gelatin, anyone tried this? what proportion to use?

Thanks for any help

[Bull Rider]

I use gelatin for clearing beer, works great. I'd suggest cold crashing your product and see if the oak will settle out, this method works for beer too.

I've read that some folks freeze their product, the alcohol won't freeze and you can pour off the cleared, and leave behind the debris.

Or you can rerun, which would probably be my choice and then oak at 60% (+-). The percent of ABV while oaking has a great impact on the final flavor. I try and stay right around 62-65%.


Bull.

[Mookie]

rerun is way too much work..
will freezing remove all of the oak flavour and color?
how much of it will it remove?
how gelatin works? how much it removes?

[Barney Fife]

There are clearing agents made for wines and beers. Gelatin is very similar; try Knox unflavored gelatin. First, though, run it all through coffee filters to remove the bulk of the powder.

And i'll say it again; in my opinion, there is no such thing as "over oaking". Only too little time for the amount of oak used. I often see a brownish color develop, but a few weeks or months later, it begins to run golden. and always ends up a nice rich gold in color. And as far as flavor, a lot of oak for a short period leaves a raw-wood flavor in the spirits, but if left to AGE for many months/years, the more subtle, sweeter flavors will come though and take over. A lot of oak is not the answer to "quick aging". Time, Son, it takes time. I suggest adding some very lightly toasted sticks to your drink for a few more months before filtering/clearing it. Much of the powdery crap will be pulled into the oak's pores, and the oak will impart its goodness at the same time.

[Kentucky shinner]

I have also found the same thing Barney is saying. I have thought before that I had ruined some likker with over oaking and wrote it off to a bad idea. Luckily I did not through it away. About 6 months later drug it out of the cabinet because I needed room and was going to dump. Oh may I am glad I took a taste first. It was one of the best I had tried to oak. now if i oak it I don,t even try to drink it in less than 3 months. Time my friend Time.. I would try running it through coffee filters and just put it away for along time. You may be surprised one day.

[blanikdog]

Crushed, powdered toasted oak from a winery. WHY??? Wine isn't spirits. 40abv when you knew it should be nearer 60abv. WHY???
Now you want a fast, easy way to fix it. You have just learned a valuable lesson. Nothing is fast and easy in this craft.

Good luck

EDIT: I've just read you previous posts mookie and I reckon that you either haven't read a word in this forum or shouldn't be doing anything mmore dangerous than walking around the inside of your house, very slowly.

You've stored 70% in "food grade plastic", you had 'the' answer to almost every suggestion offered to fix your stuffups and now this. Where will it end????


Very good luck, you're gonna need it.

[Fastill]

Time, let it sit and settle, also I made what I think is a mistake and make whisky and ran it at 93-95% and diluted and oaked it and it is really not good, just an oaked vodka. I am mixing potsilled allgrain with it to try to give it a little more flavor. Helping but it is still going to take time to make it good.

[Mookie]

Thank you everyone for input.
So I tried to freeze and coffee filter it, it didn't help at all.
I added some gelatin to a test bottle and in 3 days it cleared really nice!
However, the taste and color wasn't what I am looking for..
So I went for re-run it.
After all I am stripping at 12 liter per hour so it wasn't that much work anyway

[Wiorev]

I need clarification please. I just started with oaking and use 2 spirals, heavy American toast in 3 liters of UjSm. I left it in for about a week interchanging in the freezer every other day. When I taste the likker I taste a lot of woodyness.

Now, do I take the sticks out, filter through coffee filter and let sit in a bottle without adding the oak again for a longer period of time or do I leave as is and let sit for a few months then taste again?

[NcHooch]

go back and read this thread.

...suffice to say, you cant make whiskey in a week . I would recommend you stop putting it in the freezer and just let it age on it's own in the garage for 4 months minimum.

Think about what a commercial whiskey maker does. distill at 80% , dilute to approx 60% and barrel, they set it in aging houses where the temp swings 25 degrees or less every day. and they leave it there for anywhere between 2-8 years. when it comes out, they dilute to 40-50% and bottle it.
...and it aint bad . You should be trying to emulate this.

** as a side note, can you imagine how nasty commercial whiskey must be going into the barrel? ...they age it for 4 years and it only comes out "ok" .

[Dnderhead]

"...suffice to say, you cant make whiskey in a week . I would recommend you stop putting it in the freezer and just let it age on it's own in the garage ""

exactly ,been saying this for years,, really heat ages faster than cold.(its a chemical reaction)many of the things that is so called forced/fast/quick aging.should be called "half ass aging" some make a slight diferance other nothing.if "the big boys" haven't figured it out with a million dollar budget how do you expect to.

[WIski]

exactly ,been saying this for years,, really heat ages faster than cold.(its a comical reaction)many of the things that is so called forced/fast/quick aging.should be called "half ass aging" some make a slight diferance other nothing.if "the big boys" haven't figured it out with a million dollar budget how do you expect to.

Nominate Dnderhead for president!!! Common sense on every table and World Peace. Not to mention very entertaining.....

[Dnderhead]

""Nominate Dnderhead for president!!! ""
DONT git me started on that!

[baron4406]

Yes don't rush it. I had to stop distilling at the end of summer due to lack of time. I drank alot of my distressed aged UJSSM and it was decent. However I got 3 1/2 gallons socked away in the garage and I'm not touching it until next summer. One gallon has half of a oak spiral that I charred well, that has colored the least but has a very good flavor now. Next gallon has been up there 3 months already and is coloring nice, that was 50% backset and alot of rye and it has two charred oak with small pieces of charred cherry and apple.. The other gallon and a half is Barney Fife style-deliberately over oaked, 4 large charred oak sticks in the gallon, two in the half gallon . They are all done different ways and its gonna be neat to see what they taste like after a year. It takes time my friend.

[Wiorev]

Thanks for the reassurance and advice! I will take my time and see what happens.