Home Distiller

I would like to try out the oak spirals but they seem like they are pretty spendy. at least the ones ive found online. like 8-10 dollars each. maybe im not looking in the right spot. anybody have a cheap tried and true source for them? are they any better than sticks?

I have used them. That was a few years ago and was not happy with them at all. Most if not all coopers will agree that end grain gives off tannins and should be avoided. They are a single use product by design and wasteful to the oak dowel they are made from. If IMO they were the marvel of oaking tech you would find they everywhere. Surface area is important but not all surfaces are equal. Give this a thought.

AC

Edited for spelling

Mostly I have used Smoking chips. JD oak and fruit woods in a bag.

Always made fun of people that bought fire wood at the grocery store.

Last week I saw a bag of American White Oak Kindling for the fire place. $7.50usd for 10 pounds...suddenly sounded cheap.

I have used cherry wood from my yard, left set a year and split into strips. It is beautiful.

Toast it yourself in the oven or on the grill...go light on the charring. Plenty of posts on this.

And remember that not All wood on a barrel is toasted or charred.

Check out oaking the tp way. Ive been doing it very similarly with a used bourbon barrel from my local hardware store. You see them everywhere in the spring time sold as planter boxes.

I just cut up a bunch as bearriver ^^^ described. I use my jig saw and cut 3/4" strips, sand them and soak them clean... then a toast and a char.
These barrels can last forever if you just harvest sticks as you need them.
Or you could just rip it apart and cut them all down to size and process at once... but I would lose my end table next to the swing chair if I did that
The barrel was $25 I think on sale and has a Jack Daniels label and markings.
and check out the T-Pee way for sure.

find a local wood supplier,call and ask if they have any American White Oak boards for sale. They stuff isn't overly expensive, I think I just paid like $6 or$8 per board foot for 1" thick quarter sawn furniture grade stuff (a board foot is equivalent to 12" x 12" x 1" thick).

If you cant find it locally, try this link: http://www.rockler.com/quarter-sawn-whi ... -thickness" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

If you want pieces you don't have to cut to size, try the link below.
http://www.woodturningz.com/Curly-White-Oak-Pen-Blank" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
(Note: the "curly white oak" is still white oak. It merely has had the grain form in a wavy pattern, and is otherwise the same as standard white oak)

Woodturningz.com also sells pen blanks (3/4"x3/4"x5" pieces of wood) cut from Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, Wild Turkey and Makers Mark barrels. While they aren't overly expensive at $4.25 each, they are more costly than $1 each for standard white oak. However, I plan to try a few of each, out of curiosity really.

Woodturningz.com has a very large selection of woods available, so if you are curious about aging on other types of wood, such as maple, pecan, beech, butternut, etc, etc, it is a great place to source woods. With most available at $1 per blank, it makes for cheap experimentation and you don't need to hunt endlessly to source the different woods.

This link has a list of safe woods to use for aging: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =4&t=33487

ive used them and think they work good . I use about two inches a qt and about 1 inch for a half quart. I get 2 10 inches spirals per bag. they last a little while.

well i think ill just stick to my oak sticks. they havent done me wrong. i was just reading all the hype about spirals. mainly on the spiral website. the tp way is pretty cool too. ive got a few barrels to play with as well.