funky tasting whiskey

[NKT]

I just finished a four-generation sour-mash bourbon project, and I'm getting some odd tastes in the finished product. Straight off of the still last night, it tasted absolutely delicious, light and crisp with lots of grain flavor, and I'm pretty sure I cut heads and tails appropriately... no hint of the acetone heads/fores smell once I started collecting hearts, and cut tails before getting into the wet-dog smells...

I combined the low wines from the first three generations with the wash from the fourth and ran it. As noted above, it tasted great just after running. Then I put it in a 5-gallon barrel, tasted it again one day later, and now it tastes funky. Really heavy and sweet, with a bit of bitter aftertaste. I smelled the barrel through the bung before putting the whiskey in, and didn't notice anything odd. Is this normal, and should I expect it to get better with age? Is there something funky hiding in my barrel? Did I just make bad cuts without tasting it at the time? I'd appreciate any input on what I can/should do to fix this, if anything.

Edit: I'm talking about an all-grain whiskey here... corn, red wheat, and barley malt. I included about 15% crystal 120 malt and 3% chocolate malt for more flavor in the last batch, on top of the base malt used for conversion. I ran sugar-head off of each batch of spent grains and never had any funky flavors develop the next day in those.

[ga flatwoods]

Remove from keg into a carboy or quart jars. Give it some time and if you still not impressed redistill it.

[NKT]

Thanks for the quick reply... I removed it from the barrel, and it still tastes funny 12 days later. Definitely not impressed; there are some good tastes and velvety smoothness there (even at 120°), but enough off-tastes to make it unpalatable. I'm going to re-distill it tomorrow.

I disassembled the barrel this evening, scrubbed, rinsed, and reassembled. There weren't any funky smells, just a little sediment that didn't have any off tastes... The barrel disassembly and reassebmbly was a stressful experience... I have a new level of respect for coopers. For an hour or so I thought I had flushed a couple of hundred dollars worth of barrel down the drain. ...managed to get it put back together and it's holding water. Yay!

[Truckinbutch]

Thanks for the quick reply... I removed it from the barrel, and it still tastes funny 12 days later. Definitely not impressed; there are some good tastes and velvety smoothness there (even at 120°), but enough off-tastes to make it unpalatable. I'm going to re-distill it tomorrow.

I disassembled the barrel this evening, scrubbed, rinsed, and reassembled. There weren't any funky smells, just a little sediment that didn't have any off tastes... The barrel disassembly and reassebmbly was a stressful experience... I have a new level of respect for coopers. For an hour or so I thought I had flushed a couple of hundred dollars worth of barrel down the drain. ...managed to get it put back together and it's holding water. Yay!

LMAO ! Been there , done that . A barrel all in pieces parts makes lonesome more than a state of mind .

[Jimbo]

Tell us about the barrel, was it new or used? If new, from who. If used what was in it before? How long has it sat empty.

I doubt its the barrel if it smelled good, but its the only variable youre giving us, between good taste and unpalatable.

[NKT]

I think I figured this one out... I had the same problem with the sugar-head tag-along (thanks for the idea Jimbo!) from the batch of grains with the crystal and chocolate malts. The sugar-head tasted great coming off of the still, then sickly-sweet and funky a few days later. The problem is that a little bit of specialty malt goes a LONG way. I used about 10lb crystal and 2lb chocolate in a 70lb grain mash, where it probably should have been 3lb and 0.25lb, respectively, for a really strong flavor.

I re-ran the AG stuff this evening, and it turned out great. The second run mellowed the flavor quite a bit. I nuke-aged a bit for a preview, and it tastes sort of like the "downtown brown" of whiskey. Once I mentioned that description, my wife LOVED it. I'm looking forward to seeing what it tastes like after a few months in a barrel.

The barrels... working with one from Black Swan Cooperage, and one from North American Barrel (bought on Amazon). Both smelled fine when I opened them up. The barrels weren't the issue.

[Jimbo]

Thanks for the follow up. Ill take note to go light on any specialty grain additions. The dextrins in crystal malt arent fermentable, generally, so maybe the sweetness came through from that? Ive added spent beer brewing grains to barrels of fermenting gumballhead (from spent bourbon grain). Some specialty malts there, but very small in % all said, and already mashed once too.