Aging/oaking for TPW? + torrefied maple?
Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2016 2:47 pm
Hey guys,
My father loves the idea of playing with spirits post-distillation but isn't too interested in doing the distillation part himself. He's asked me a couple times if I wouldn't mind trying something with the birdwatcher's TPW I turn out- I don't think it's nice enough to keep around that long, and I'm not sure what flavours you'd end up with there, but it's probably worth trying anyways.
Anyways, I'm putting together an "experiment kit" for him for Christmas- a litre, litre and a half or so of cask-strength TPW (can't really spare more right now or else I would), some numbered pint jars, and then a couple different types of wood for him to play with. I've got some nice untreated white oak heartwood that I'm gonna split into appropriately-sized fingers and toast, and some torrefied maple I might use, but I'll get back to that.
I wanna give him some flavouring options, what's a good spread of oak toast/char combos to start with that'll work with birdwatchers' base flavour? I'm thinking something like 280F/no char, 280/char, 400/char, 400/no char, untoasted/char n untoasted/no char, let him mix and match those to his heart's content, show him how to do the fast-oaking microwave trick so he doesn't have to commit a whole pint to something that might suck.
I've also got that torrefied sugar maple. It's untreated beyond being kiln-baked at an unknown temperature, enough to caramelize all the sugars at any rate. I don't know anything about sugar maple for flavour, is it worth using this stuff as-is/charring it some, or is maple typically used untoasted?
My father loves the idea of playing with spirits post-distillation but isn't too interested in doing the distillation part himself. He's asked me a couple times if I wouldn't mind trying something with the birdwatcher's TPW I turn out- I don't think it's nice enough to keep around that long, and I'm not sure what flavours you'd end up with there, but it's probably worth trying anyways.
Anyways, I'm putting together an "experiment kit" for him for Christmas- a litre, litre and a half or so of cask-strength TPW (can't really spare more right now or else I would), some numbered pint jars, and then a couple different types of wood for him to play with. I've got some nice untreated white oak heartwood that I'm gonna split into appropriately-sized fingers and toast, and some torrefied maple I might use, but I'll get back to that.
I wanna give him some flavouring options, what's a good spread of oak toast/char combos to start with that'll work with birdwatchers' base flavour? I'm thinking something like 280F/no char, 280/char, 400/char, 400/no char, untoasted/char n untoasted/no char, let him mix and match those to his heart's content, show him how to do the fast-oaking microwave trick so he doesn't have to commit a whole pint to something that might suck.
I've also got that torrefied sugar maple. It's untreated beyond being kiln-baked at an unknown temperature, enough to caramelize all the sugars at any rate. I don't know anything about sugar maple for flavour, is it worth using this stuff as-is/charring it some, or is maple typically used untoasted?
