Home Distiller

If I don't want JD color, but want to keep it clear. What is the aging process from beginning to end?

Leave it capped in the jar for a few months. Open and drink. Seriously.
From what I understand there's a chemical process that happens only with time that smoothes out the liquor and it has nothing to do with wood.

tp

+1 on what T-Pee stated...

Aging is just that - time... Using charred oak barrels simply augments the flavor profile as is common practice with commercial spirits and required by some legal definitions...

Seems about 4 months for the way I do my cuts. Something molecular definitely takes place. Read some shit somewhere about esters attaching to the long ends of the ethanol molecule or some such. Im no chemist so thats about all I took from it.

Anyway, oxidation too. Open the jars from time to time and pour between a couple jars.

On glass and from time to time open it up and let it breath a bit.

Should I put it in a quart jar and cap it completely and open it once a week or can I prick a small pen hole in lid?

Come spring (please) I'll be experimenting with 1 gallon glass jars w/cork stoppers (lids) for aging white dog. Figuring the cork will allow it to breathe a bit.

rad14701 wrote:+1 on what T-Pee stated...

Holy carp! I got it right?? I must be learning something around here after all!

tp

I think/believe that all alcohol should age to some extent...even my vodka gets left to age in glass for around 6 months before it gets bottled, and anyone touches it. And with Gin, I am doing similar.

I guess it's an advantage to building up a bit of stock. Right now I have vodka and whiskies bottled, while I have more in large glass vessels ageing, and I don't have to sit by their side watching them and wondering which day they'll be ready

I'm usually questioning when people mention that they have aged their rum/whiskey for 3 weeks on oak and are ready to crack into it, and then even my vodka sits for 6 months

MDH just made a terrific post, and deleted it. why? About aging white spirits in the rest of the world.

I agree, all spirits need to be aged. My rum got good after a year! Much different than the initial spirit. Some other white stuff, corn whiskey, gumballhead etc. changed dramatically for the better at 4 months.

Ah sorry to confuse jimbo. I have high posting standards for myself.

MDH wrote:Ah sorry to confuse jimbo. I have high posting standards for myself.

Lol ok. I guess I have lower standards. I thought it was a great post. Haha

Jimbo wrote:MDH just made a terrific post, and deleted it. why? About aging white spirits in the rest of the world.

Yeah that's what I was adding to

I thought it was a good point too

MDH, would you please reconsider and repost your thoughts of aging white spirits in the rest of the world? I need the wisdom.

Awhile ago I had a bottle of real nasty white dog.... kept it in the cupboard for those that I didn't like
Anyway was desperate about a year later and decided to try it..... DAMN that was some nice stuff.
Twelve months in glass and in the dark.... something happened... it didn't last long after that.

Ageing white dog does give it a smoother feel and taste... even the rough stuff.

But that was before I had a 50ltr keg set aside for ageing. And before using a 5 plate bubbler.

TAF

we you guys are aging white dog, what proof are you doing it?

55%

tp (and his single key)

I agree with you all

I had some cornflake whiskey and it tasted barbaric off the still. Threw it in a bottle for 8 months and the flavour profile changed. It's not bad but I'm now trialling UJSSM

It works for absinthe. I had a batch was almost undrinkable. Lost a bottle in a cupboard for 15 months. It was some of the best I ever had, bar none. I was incredified.

I age all my stuff in glass with cork tops. (3 gal glass carboys are real handy for this.) I figure that will allow the angels to extract their share leaving me with the "devil's due".

it's amazing what a little time will do.

jloftin60 wrote:it's amazing what a little time will do.

I said the same thing lookin' in the mirror this morning.

tp

T-Pee wrote:

jloftin60 wrote:it's amazing what a little time will do.

I said the same thing lookin' in the mirror this morning.

tp

Those lines are pretty hard to take, when they're staring back at you. (name that tune)

Some of the best compliments I ever got were on a Birdwatchers that I had aged in glass for a year.

I tasted through some eau de vie's I made a few years back. Stashed away in quart mason jars, white. Wow are they nice now.

Ive noticed this even with feints jars. Some whiskey feints I had stashed and forgotten about, white, was so tasty I considered bottling it and drinking it as is. really surprised me.

Time is your friend. Whatever molecular thing is going on is very real, and just takes time.

Jimbo wrote:
Those lines are pretty hard to take, when they're staring back at you. (name that tune)

Bonnie Raitt "Nick of Time".

Love her.
ss

still_stirrin wrote:

Jimbo wrote:
Those lines are pretty hard to take, when they're staring back at you. (name that tune)

Bonnie Raitt "Nick of Time".

Love her.
ss

Me too.

More white dog, nick of time, examples. My vodka and white rum both taste better now than they did at 1 yr old, and much better than they did at 6 months. I guess Im not really answering the question, 'how to age' more just making a statement 'to age'. It really is important. Whether youre oaking or not.

Jimbo, I found another one this morning: James Taylor "Copperline", from the New Moonshine album. Try it....
ss

Oh yes, long time (3 decades) JT fan too. Thats a great song. Seen both Bonnie and JT live too, incredible musicians.

For those of you interested in the magic of age (In alcohol) I suggest you read the following:

http://www.shakestir.com/features/id/55 ... rrel-aging" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I've copied a few of the more interesting bits in this article here:

This research shows that basically all the effects of aging occur by fifteen years (99.5% when assuming that no signs of change in the product are noticeable after a period of thirty years, a consensus among many distillers). In fact, almost a third of the full effect of barrel-aging occurs within the first year, and almost half after the second. Many bourbon producers claim that eight years is the magic aging number, and by this mathematical approximation 93% of aging effects will have taken place by this point. Interestingly, most Scotch ages twelve to fifteen years. This spirit is very often aged in used barrels, which would slow down the reaction rate between spirit and wood. As for very long-term aging, this mathematical explanation shows only a 0.5% change in chemical composition from fifteen to thirty years in the barrel.

Exposing a distilled alcohol to oxygen will cause chemical reactions with the unwanted congeners mentioned above, facilitating their removal from the product. Wood is porous, allowing for only small amounts of air to pass in and out of the barrel, controlling the rate at which the congeners are oxidized

Warm climates will cause faster reactions, and the aging will cause changes more quickly but more harshly, occasionally removing desirable components as well.

So it sounds like time is a chemical magic, but someone with some time on their hands can potentially speed things up.
I believe I asked this question a few years ago- what would happen if you were to oxygenate the spirit before putting it into storage?
If the above is correct, the added o2 will speed up the process of aging in that the less stable components would break down faster.
This would also be the case in a spirit stored in a place that sees temperature changes- like a shed that gets hot in the day and cold at night.

These things seem counter-intuitive, since this sort of treatment encourages degradation. We instinctively try to store our spirit the same way we would store food- in a cool, dry, temperature stable place- generally sealed up away from fresh air. These are all practices used to mitigate the impact of time passing- preserving our food stores for longer.

It would seem, however, that for our neutral spirits, we should be doing just the opposite.

Who wants to keg a gallon of spirit under, say, 10psi of oxygen