Home Distiller

Hello All,
I have read in several postings that aging "on the sticks" for an excessive period of time can result in off-flavors, astringency, bitterness, etc. How or why is this possible? Commercial distilleries age their distillate for years, and if the readership should mimic their processes, how could the product be less viable? From a previous post, Husker determined that 50 square inches of wood would approximately equate to the surface area that one gallon of distillate would encounter in one standard (44gallon) whiskey barrel. If distillate was put into a glass, wide mouth jar with 50 square inches of "sticks", and sealed with a wooden (oak) lid...why would this method provide anything other than comperable results to that of the commercial distillers? Granted, the oak lid would not provide for the same surface area for "breathing", but would provide the same function, more or less.

I, of course, ment a one gallon glass jar....

Most put more wood per gal to "age" quicker
so if miss four whatever reason you over dun it
most do oak fore flavor -time can only age
Ox exchange and evaporation.
In other words they are trying to sqeeze 4or5 years in
1 month

does anyone notice a difference between very little oak for a long time and a lot of oak for a short time? and the difference with real aging, in a barrel?
how are your experiences?

well, I only used chips for 2 batches of UJSM before getting a small 2L barrel.

I really like the results using the barrel, I overoaked my second UJSM using chips and it was very bitter, although easily fixed by mixing in white dog.

I currently have another 4 barrels on the way, all different sizes (25L down to 3L) so I can experiment a bit.

Think if you have lots of time ,aging in
barrels used 4 -or more times four 20+ years would give
the best but I do not have that much time.
I have came up with things that speed this up .But WHOOM
em I I have Ben cut down for saying sour mash is sour b y
lacto not "back sets" Sour mesh to me is much like sour doe
bread once started you take out old run thrue
still add new Grain
to ferment

[sea recip-devel,Sour corn.]

Dnderhead wrote:Think if you have lots of time ,aging in
barrels used 4 -or more times four 20+ years would give
the best but I do not have that much time.
I have came up with things that speed this up .But WHOOM
em I I have Ben cut down for saying sour mash is sour b y
lacto not "back sets" Sour mesh to me is much like sour doe
bread once started you take out old run thrue
still add new Grain
to ferment

[sea recip-devel,Sour corn.]

I think, each to their own Dnder, doesn't matter much why it works, main thing is that it does. Then everyone is happy.
Cheers

I guess I must be a bit of a purist but I find that less for longer is better. IMHO
I generally make malt whisky and only use 4 gm per litre of oak, but I don't even look at tasting it until it's 6 months old.

I use 1 ounce of charred wood chips per quart. After abouta week it has taken on about all the color and flavor it can. I have let some sit longer, but very little difference.