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I have been reading around about activated carbon filtering. Most of the posts concerning this type of filtering tend to focus on filtering a neutral spirit. Would one gain any purity by carbon filtering a simple corn whiskey, and if so what carbon filtering method would be prefered. I also noticed that in the UJSM recipe that uncharred casks are called for in the aging process. What differences are there between aging in uncharred and charred barrels. thanks

nasty

nasty9 wrote: I also noticed that in the UJSM recipe that uncharred casks are called for in the aging process.

nasty

All of the oak used for aging is charred or 'toasted'. New aging casks/barrels I've seen come pre-charred.

As for carbon filtering, from what I have read here and other places, remove the flavors.

All you would be doing is removing flavors and if you want less flavor,make a sugar wash.The purity you refer to is obtained from making proper cuts,and multible distillations.If your wash is clean enough,you wont need carbon.

charred barrels are used for some whiskeys, uncharred for others. particularly, corn whiskey is aged in either a new, uncharred oak barrel or it's aged in a used oak barrel.

when barrels are bent without charring, hot water is used which creates some of the carmelization you get with a char.

My first corn whiskey I had some that aged on some charred oak. I made the mistake of trying to carbon filter it cause I heard it mellowed it out. All it did was make it taste like crap.

I toured the Labrot & Graham distillery in Versailles, KY where they make "Woodford Reserve" Bourbon and in the tour (at least at the time, the upgrades to the distillery had just been completed and the product aging was not even made there) you went by the bottling area which included carbon filtering just before bottling. It was a little 'in-line' thing over which the whiskey passed briefly, no trickle.

Maybe this is mostly for filtration.