Home Distiller

Before my bourbon goes in a charred oak barrel I pre age it in this little contraption I put together. I use reusable tea bags and place them in the empty filter housings and the 1 gallon jar. I fill them with pieces of toasted and or charred sugar maple,cherry, oak, port wine and jim beam barrel pieces. I run this for 4 or 5 days and then place it in oak to continue aging. The color in the picture is after only 3 days . The pump is food grade 3 gallon per minute 24v pump.

Interesting to say the least. How do you find it affects the flavor profile as opposed to dropping it straight into oak?

I am not one of those who can take a sip and say i taste vanilla, Biscuits, toffee, a forest or a corn field etc . I do taste the sweetness of the sugar maple and the smokiness of the hickory. Works for me and it is Unique almost everything on the store shelf is just aged in oak.

Heh, what a smart extractor, Sir! Me, I'm the lazy one to create recirculating systems. My way sounds like "aeration-heat-frost-UV" X 2 or 3 times.

Some shiners in Russia use the similar systems for running their low wines thru the activated charcoal and it takes about 36 to 48 hours with an aquarium pump... Imo, they get rid of the fair amount of fusels... the same time getting rich in aldehydes! Waisting the time? Dunno... Rarely, I use sorta coal column dropping for some of my corn-on-rye newmakes... sorry for the off!

There is no way I would pump my new make around all that plastic for a few days.

My method uses glass or SS and PTFE or natural cork, plus temperature. I've found that after a few months the naturally aged product catches up with the 'oak tea' from 'fast aging', so I only use this kind of trickery for experimenting with samples of new wood or products, then aging the bulk of the make naturally.

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NZChris wrote:I've found that after a few months the naturally aged product catches up with the 'oak tea' from 'fast aging', so I only use this kind of trickery for experimenting with samples of new wood or products, then aging the bulk of the make naturally.

Talking of the "Central European Oak" staves,,, - it doesn't matter if they burnt or just toasted, cooked in NaOH or only soaked,,, - I put them into my corn new make for 24-48 hours only. Otherwise I catch the baseboard tea, for sure. After 3-4 short sink-or-swim series the tannins get a bit exhausted. Then I drop such staves to a sort of apple "port wine" for 2 or 3 months. And only after all the mentioned before, they may meet my single malt new make.

yeah, what Chris said.
Thats a whole heap of plastic.

Have you compared this process to leaving the aging items in a mason jar and shaking every day?
Just curious.
That is a lot of plastic that you’re running your spirits through. Plastic is a no no here on HD.
I’d look for an alternate route for your pre aging technique.

Best of luck to you!

Cheers
Irish

Sorry Ozzy, I applaud your creativity, but yuck!

All that high proof spirits in plastic. Yuck!

I have done something similar to your “pre aging” with jars to add some extra oomph to few bourbons and I think it turned out nicely. I use badmo style barrels, which are slower agers than a 55 gallon barrel. (Badmo style barrels are approximately 70% the surface area to volume ratio of a 55 gallon barrel, so they are not aggressive agers). With bourbon I have soaked the new make for a week or more in jars with toasted/charred sticks using vacuum to first soak the wood then I release vacuum. I go through a few vacuum cycles over the week to extract lots of toasted oak essence from the wood. Then the oaked spirit goes into the barrel for aging. In the barrel it gets enough breathing and more oak/toast/char, and is more than drinkable at 8 months. At one year i think it tastes pretty darn good and mature for only one year of aging.

Otis

OzzyDog153 wrote:I am not one of those who can take a sip and say i taste vanilla, Biscuits, toffee, a forest or a corn field etc . I do taste the sweetness of the sugar maple and the smokiness of the hickory. Works for me and it is Unique almost everything on the store shelf is just aged in oak.

But you don’t taste the plastic you’ve infused in your liquor?
Sorry Dog, good concept, not a great execution.
Keep at it though. Glass? Stainless steal?
JBC

JBC

He did say "Unique", maybe that's the plastic notes coming through. LOL

Sorry OzzyDog, don't want to beat you up.

I have read that apple juice concentrate and I believe it was elm wood bark can rapid age a spirit.

Read up and keep on playing!

I'm sure you'll come up with a safer process in time.

Cheers
Irish

at least i used food grade plastic lol i thought it said chemical safe. will look into stainless or copper tubing or just use glass jars. Thanks for the heads up!

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what about this ??

Not a bad idea, need to get rid of plastic lid.
I think copper pipes and mason jars would work just fine.
Add a tea strainer or small brewers spider and you’re set.

Keep working on it and let us know what you come up with.

Cheers
Irish.

One problem with using food grade is that alcohol / ethanol isn't food......it's a solvent amoungst other things.

OzzyDog153 wrote:at least i used food grade plastic lol i thought it said chemical safe. will look into stainless or copper tubing or just use glass jars. Thanks for the heads up!

I wouldn't bother as there is not much available at home distiller scale prices.

Chuck it in a demijohn, 2/3rds full, with a natural cork, and shake it every time you go past it, sit it on a speaker playing your favorite music, stash it in in a moored boat...

isnt food ? sure tastes like it and very nutritional.

Rule #8 violation. Why has no one flagged this?