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I'm putting up a batch for 18 years, made the mash on the day my youngest was born and will share with him when he comes of legal age.
Half of it is already aging and I'm doing cuts to the rest tonight.

Any tips for long term aging?
Put her up super dirty? only one stick of oak in a gallon jar?
Extra jar of heads and tails or two extra jars of tails, blood of first born?

The batch that is already aging is on oak and apple wood, been there for 2 months and is already very smooth and sweet, I think it's the apple that adds a lot of sweetness will prob pull it out when adding the rest tonight.
If I do same cut's and aging on the rest I fear it will be too smooth.

I don't want it to come out too smooth after 18 years, a bit of character would be nice, I know it's the thought that counts but I'd like 18 year old whiskey to be very good.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Cheers

I'm following this one. My wife is waddling around moaning about to pop with my first child. I want to do something similar for him. Makes me wish I knew how to do more than sugar heads.

Probably the best advice any could give you on here regarding long term aging like this is "Dont drink it!" I would blend a little more heads and tails as suggested. Remember the commercial guys do continous runs and age in bulk for years on the same oak we use for much less time. Put some into beer bottles and try one a year on his birthday.
GA Flatwoods

Well I went DEEP in to the tails i had 12 jars, on flavour I would normally have kept 3-8 now i added 9 and 10 to it as well as a bit on no 2... so deep the ABV was 50 %, i usually get about 57% to 60% keep ABV. I may have to add a early jar from the next run as well to get the ABV up a bit to pull all the goodies out of the oak

Only time will tell if it works out or not

GA, easy enough to stay out of it, I'll just consider it to be my sons, not mine. That would keep me off it.

Still learning, you do know how to do an AG, in theory anyways. It's all here, i did the Jimbo method. I got really poor convertion as I try to be lazy and take shortcuts, but still got just under a gallon of 50% from 17 kg of grain.
It's not cheaper than sugar that way but nicer gift and still a shed load cheaper than a bottle, i think that batch cost me about 10€..

The way I do my long term storage is to be sure I have plenty on hand for regular sipping.
I use casks (kind of natural for me) mark the date they are filled and the expected open date.
For proper aging I turn each cask 1/4 turn once a month, this keeps me in touch with what I am doing and they begin to be thought of as children.
I do some things most folks don't, it is just my method and has been evolving for many decades now.

When I'm making a run I have two funnels, there is a plain one that receives the first shots(those are just tossed to the fire or ground)
Then I have a large second funnel that is put into use after the first shots are done, it contains raw muslin and hickory charcoal that has been washed to get any fines off it.
The new whisky goes through this charcoal filter straight from the worm, the funnel holds 2 quarts of this fairly small charcoal.
I number each quart that comes out and set it aside.
Once the run is finished I select the heads and tails out, leaving me with the hearts jars. I then mark these hearts with the run number and set them aside.
The heads and tails will get another run when I have enough of them saved up for a full kettle.

Now since you asked about AG ( which is the only way I do it) I cook my corn until it is good and jellied, this gets put into my 55 gal mash barrel then I start adding the water to loosen it up.
Once I have the consistency pretty loose, I toss the malt in and stir more, letting that rest for a day with a cover on seems to help more sugars come out. When it tastes fairly sweet I toss in the yeast.
I beer start my yeast so there really isn't a need to have very warm mash for it to get going since the sugared beer has already go the yeast really active.
My family has been in this activity (would not use the B word here) for several generations and I just do things the way I was taught, it works well for me.

I use cracked corn for the base mash, I malt up whole corn and barley then dry it before cracking it at the time it goes into a mash, I use a lot of malt per batch maybe 1/4 of the total grain.
Letting the malt have time to work before adding the yeast gives a visual difference to the mash, when I add the malt the mash is the consistency of "loose oatmeal" after the malt is in, stirred and left to set for a day the mash is quite watery even after being stirred up again. This signals it is time to add the yeast, I stir before, during and after the yeast goes in, then it is time to cover and let the ferment work. I do a check and stir once a day, mostly because I just can't keep my hands off it. When the mash is ready, I have a big muslin bag that fits over a barrel and this is then filled with the mash, the solids are caught leaving a pretty clear wort for the kettle. I can put the grain back into the ferment barrel, add water and it will ferment some more, I have the option of adding sugar for a sugar wash or just let it go until I'm ready to strain it and feed the spents to the hogs.

Great thread Swedish Pride.

I am currently putting new gear together. After that is done my 1st priority is doing something special with it for my kids. The way I see it, I can knock up some 18-20 year old spirits for their 21st birthdays.

I will be doing a wheated bourbon for my son and an apple brandy for my daughter. The barrels will be new American white oak, medium toast, medium char, and as large as I can fill.

You're not afraid to over oak with that amount of time in them small barrels?
That's my fear and why I only went for one stick in a gallon.

I have done the same first for the first born Nephew in the family and then for my own child. Problem is that like you say it is long term. I wont know the results until a few more years and then I dont think I will have the chance to put too many more down for that amount of time good luck with whatever you do.

I am sure it will be better than a bottle of champagne that my dad put away for the day I got married. That was a nasty tasting drop of course everyone drank it regardless just for the occasion. At least a spirit shouldn't go off. I guess in saying that I would recommend going with a high ABV and making sure the bottle is full and very well sealed. Going off is about the only thing that could make a drinkable drink come out bad.

Long term aging in glass jars with sticks might be prone to bringing excess tannins to the party.
Many of the new craft distillers are using small casks to shorten the aging time period.

The reason you see different ages of whisky is two fold, most all will get a minimum of 6 years in a 53 gal cask, this gives it the color and some flavor enhancement.
They will add years to the process to enhance smoothness and better develop the flavors that come from the cask.
In general, the vanilla flavor is fully developed at 12 years, from there extra smoothness really comes to the front along with more complex flavonoids.
By 25 years the whisky has really mellowed and some extra tannins will start to leach in, adding some bite in the back of the throat. If you want to go longer, it is time for a change of casks.
Some distilleries will change casks at 8 years then again at 12 years (usually the stuff they are going to age all the way to 25 or even 50 year old.

Usually the new product goes into a fully water saturated barrel at 65% and for the first year it is topped up twice to keep the barrel full to the bung. (barrels are kept on their sides so this is to get rid of any air from evaporation).

When you are using small casks, anything under 25 gal. should be considered a small casks, there is a reduction in time needed that corresponds to around 1 year per 5 gal. reduction in size.
If you want to do your own long term aging, you really need to do some math to make sure your efforts don't result in a product you didn't want (over tannin for example).

A ten gal. cask will give the effect of 6 years aging in around 6 months to a year, depending on the starting ABV. I always put in cask at 65% but if say you wanted to extend the time needed in a small cask, then you could reduce the ABV to as low as 55%, any lower ABV than that and you will find excessive losses to the angel's share. In a 10 gal. cask 55% ABV starting, you would get to the 6 year old stage at 1.5 - 2 years, if you follow the rotating schedule of 1/4 turn 4 times a year in un regulated conditions. If you are storing your casks indoors, where there is "air conditioning" then you would need to up the length of time, probably by 3 months per year of aging effect.

If you are starting with a new cask, be sure to get it fully saturated by letting it sit full of water for a minimum of 3 weeks.
This will make sure it has swollen and is tight as the cooperage designed it to be.

At 63, and not in the greatest health these past several years, I don't have the luxury of putting up something for 18 months, much less 18 years!
Hell, these days, I don't even buy green bananas!

Euphoria wrote:At 63, and not in the greatest health these past several years, I don't have the luxury of putting up something for 18 months, much less 18 years!
Hell, these days, I don't even buy green bananas!

for quick aging I like to use 2 1" x 2" x 4" long light char white oak pieces in a quart of product. I just drop the two sticks in an empty mason jar, fill with 65% ABV, loosely cap and set it on a shelf in the dark for 3 weeks then I work it through 3-4 cycles of warm to cool, one cycle per week. This gives me a nicely colored, fairly smooth sipping whisky in two months time. By leaving the cap loose the atmospheric pressure can work the whisky through the wood pieces.

BTW, I'm currently 64.

Make sure you draw maps to all your long term storage areas. And don't lose the maps.

SF

SassyFrass wrote:Make sure you draw maps to all your long term storage areas. And don't lose the maps.

SF

In case you lose the map somewhere, it would be good, if you have posted it here.

Best tip for long term aging. Make 3x the amount you drink.

I just posted about a small container (actually any volume but 1 to 3 gallons is probably practical for whiskey). The design I describe (patent pending) has the same surface-area to volume ratio as a large barrel. The method uses oak only on the ends with an inert body. The math is explained in my post but any shape that is a little over 8 inches long will have the surface-area to volume ratio of oak to liquid as a 53 gallon whiskey barrel. If you can duplicate the oak, then you should get the same results as if aged in the large barrel. Just let it sit until you are ready to taste it.

The post is titled: Small 2 Gal Container = 53 Gal Barrel for Aging

Swedish Pride wrote:You're not afraid to over oak with that amount of time in them small barrels?.

No. I'll use barrels that are as large as I can fill and draw a sample every 4th rotation when the bung is vertically sticking up. If they need to be bottled early then so be it.

I've reconsidered the apple brandy and decided on two sibling whiskies instead, for logistical and financial reasons. Their grandfather is paying for the malt and grain.

Swedish Pride wrote:I'm putting up a batch for 18 years, made the mash on the day my youngest was born and will share with him when he comes of legal age.
Half of it is already aging and I'm doing cuts to the rest tonight.

Any tips for long term aging?

Cheers

Your request and also a different thread finally got me off my butt to write up an idea I've been working on. It might really help you. Have a look: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =4&t=60032

bearriver wrote:

Swedish Pride wrote:You're not afraid to over oak with that amount of time in them small barrels?.

No. I'll use barrels that are as large as I can fill and draw a sample every 4th rotation when the bung is vertically sticking up. If they need to be bottled early then so be it.

I've reconsidered the apple brandy and decided on two sibling whiskies instead, for logistical and financial reasons. Their grandfather is paying for the malt and grain.

Ahhh yes , of course you taste it and take it of early if it's done, is it obvious yet that I've not had anything aging longer than 6 months?

Don't give up on the apple idea, get everyone who comes to your BBQ to bring a bag of apples each, problem solved