Use of oak casks

[Uncle Jesse]

brought over from the old message board system:

Blanchy
11/12/02 06:24 AM
Use of Oak Casks

Hi everyone,

I am working on a barrel aged corn whiskey and purchased a 1 gallon barrel. The evaporation rate from such a small barrel seems overly high. Obviously a small barrel has a high surface area to volume ratio and thin staves, but 1/4 cup per day is ridiculous. On the website it was recommended that 5 gallon barrels be used. This would obviously be better, but manufacturing that much 130 proof spirit is time consuming with my equipment. Does anyone have any recommendations. I know that aging in glass with wood chips is one possibility. One that I thought might work would be too wrap the barrel tightly in aluminum foil to reduce the air exchange around it somewhat. Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

Blanchy


Anonymous
11/12/02 06:57 AM
Re: Use of Oak Casks [re: Blanchy]

might try coating outside cask with hot bees wax


Blanchy
11/12/02 10:21 AM
Re: Use of Oak Casks [re: Blanchy]


Beeswax might work. I was thinking about oils, but was afraid that they would permeate too deeply into the would and would give an off flavor to the product.


chvori
11/12/02 03:56 PM
Re: Use of Oak Casks [re: Blanchy]


Shellac would probably work well. Make sure they are natural shellac flakes, and not something synthetic. You can mix it up using pure alcohol instead of the denatured alcohol that the instructions will probably suggest.
Seems like it would be a good use for those heads...


unclejesse
07/09/03 05:28 PM
Re: Use of Oak Casks [re: Blanchy]


i aged 2 gallons of corn whisky for a year, using the simple sour mash method and got a tennessee whisky which puts jack daniels to shame. there's no issue with my cask of losing so much volume. are you sure the cask is sealing?




It was the whiskey talkin', not me.


Anonymous
08/12/03 05:14 AM
Re: Use of Oak Casks [re: unclejesse]

I found a defect in the wood of the cask which may have contributed to some of the liquid losses, although there were no actual drips. I replaced the defective 1-gallon keg with a 2 gallon which seemed to work much better (I know it's unscientific to change 2 variables at once).

It's has amazed me as to how fast the liquor has aged in these small kegs. Obviously you have a much higher surface area to volume ratio on a small keg which would account for most of the difference.

Chuck