Home Distiller

I think I burnt my oak too much. I have cut them into 2cmx2cmx15cm long sticks. I then covered in foil and coojed in oven for 2 hours at 450*f. I then charred with mapp gas until they were well and truly on fire. And large cracks appeared in the wood. Then into a bucket of water.
After ageing my uujssm and sweetfeed on these sticks, both appear to have a smoky or burnt taste. Have I charred too much?
I added a vanilla bean to a bottle overnight and it appeared to smooth the flavour out and take away most of the burnt flavour. And tastes pretty good, but no burnt flavour would be better.

Thebigthumpa wrote:I think I burnt my oak too much. I have cut them into 2cmx2cmx15cm long sticks. I then covered in foil and coojed in oven for 2 hours at 450*f. I then charred with mapp gas until they were well and truly on fire. And large cracks appeared in the wood. Then into a bucket of water.
After ageing my uujssm and sweetfeed on these sticks, both appear to have a smoky or burnt taste. Have I charred too much?
I added a vanilla bean to a bottle overnight and it appeared to smooth the flavour out and take away most of the burnt flavour. And tastes pretty good, but no burnt flavour would be better.

I had the same problem after charring some aplewood and pecan chips. It was near undrinkable. I tried a make-shift carbon filter, but that didn't help much. I finally ran it through my pot still again with some feints. There was still some of the smoke taste, but it wasn't too bad - made a very interesting white dog. This was an XXX distilation so most of the original SF flavor was stripped away. I think in the future I'll be going light on the charring, or not at all.

Oak char should be more like looking at alligator skin not big cracks. I would never char a fruit wood, you would burn the sugars and that would lead to a bad taste.

The white (unoaked) tasted fine. Can anyone put a pic of what oak that is medium to heavy charred up.so I can look at it? So I know for next time.
I added a vanilla bean over night and it now tastes pretty good. But cant help thinking how good it would be without a slightly burnt taste.

Nice examples of different chars.
http://www.diffordsguide.com/class-maga ... inner-geek" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Found it with a quick Google images search.

I typed in charred oak n only got pics of burnt trees, wood fires and kitchens. Lol
Thanks alot

The cracks in my char I had done were alot deeper and now its pretty obvious that I carred way too much. Thanks for the link.

just curious how long you had it on the oak. I like mine heavily charred, even fruit woods like cherry. Never do I get burnt or smokey. Except when very young.

I had it on oak for about a month. When I realised I put too much in there. Since iv found out its best to oak little for a longer time, than alot and fast.
It is now 2 months old and has changed in taste and smells no where near as harsh. Especially after putting the vanilla bean in over night.

Thebigthumpa wrote: I then covered in foil and coojed in oven for 2 hours at 450*f. I then charred with mapp gas until they were well and truly on fire.

You only need to toast or char, not both. You dont need to get them blazing when charring, just enough to get a look like alligator skin as someone has already said.

Will a toast put a decent colour into the product? Ujssm and sweetfeed whisky.

Yes, toasting will bring color and over time vanilla and many other flavors. The charring is more for filtration and a smoke flavor.