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After doing this for several years now, I've gotten my corn/barley/rye mash bill under control and fairly predictable. I put the distillate from last summer into the big glass carboy and added burned white oak pieces as in earlier years. Previously I've used wood scraps from furniture building, but last fall I got some pieces from a white oak tree that had come down in a storm. At least it certainly looks like white oak, and the tree had been down for at least a year before it got cut up. Anyway, I sliced up the chunk on my bandsaw and burned it as usual and into the carboy it went last November.

Now, I'm fixin' to bottle it come Memorial Day and I drew out a sample to taste it. It is nice and smokey, but has a weird smokey aftertaste that lasts a long time. Like an hour or more later, I could still taste it. Like licking an ashtray.

This is particularly puzzling in that I was the most selective I've ever been about what went in the barrel. Anything that had any heads or tails character was not used. Purely hearts, which took my volume down a bit over previous years. So now I have a few gallons of product that I'm not sure I want to drink. Maybe toss it back in the still and start over?

Ideas?

Thanks.

On further thought, might charcoal help solve this? I've never tried it, but am willing to give it a go.

Some ideas ...
Does it taste the same after you water it down to drinking proof?
Try getting some verified white oak, toast & char it and put it in a test jar for awhile. Might help.
Go ahead and test some with activated carbon.
Re-run a little of it and see what happens.
Blend it with some of your other aging stock.
Do nothing, let it age and breath longer. Was the carboy you aged it in stopped up tight, maybe it didn’t have a chance to breath while aging.

Yes, the taste survives dilution. I have a few more weeks to wait before bottling, so I'll take off the lid and let it breathe. Nothing critical about doing it Memorial day. No bottling party this year, sadly.

I'll also try charcoal. I've wanted to do that anyway just to see how it works.

Re-running it is a desperation move, but as they say, "You can't scrap scrap."

Thanks!

One other thought: did you use heartwood? If you used the outer sapwood/bark layer, that might be part of it.

Just re-read your OP. Six months is not enough time to properly age a bourbon. Strain out your suspect oak, get some good toasted and charred white oak heart wood, and start aging again for at least another 18 months. Leave the stopper a little loose for air/vapor exchange.

Pierrot Lunaire 55 wrote: ↑Wed May 06, 2020 7:35 am added burned white oak pieces

I'm wondering how burnt "burned ' is ? sounds harsh.
Also how much oak you are using in what quantity of spirit. A little oak for a long time is far better than a lot of oak for a short time.
As has already been mentioned ...6 months isn't long.

I suppose I tend to go with charred wood more than toasted. A typical piece is 4 to 5 inches long with a cross section of 3/4 to 1 inch square. Usually I let the piece catch fire, so maybe I'm overdoing it. In this particular case, the chunk that I cut up was from a large branch rather than the trunk, but still around 7 inches in diameter. Probably still sap wood more than heart....

OK, so I should probably return to furniture lumber scraps which I can verify are white oak, and stick with heart wood. Get rid of what's in there now and replace it with fewer pieces, probably less burned, and let it sit for another year or so. I'll work on that.

Any other thoughts? Thanks gents.

There is nothing wrong with charred. BURNT sounded a bit like maybe the wood was completely cremated from end to end.

Saltbush Bill wrote: ↑Wed May 06, 2020 3:07 pm

Pierrot Lunaire 55 wrote: ↑Wed May 06, 2020 7:35 am added burned white oak pieces

I'm wondering how burnt "burned ' is ? sounds harsh.
Also how much oak you are using in what quantity of spirit. A little oak for a long time is far better than a lot of oak for a short time.
As has already been mentioned ...6 months isn't long.

Sounds like to much charred oak
Imho,strain out all of it and add a chunk or two of toasted
You got enough smoke flavor in there

Pierrot, do you know what Acrid is and what it smells like? I think that is what you may be describing. I’m with SaltbushBill and think possibly you over did the charring. I toast a lot of wood and when it is toasted at a temp that is too high, I get that acrid smell/taste. Excessive charring can do the same.

Otis

I think y'all are on to something there. My wood is pretty burned. Probably too burned. Here are a couple of typical sticks, including one I cut to show the internal cross section. You can see the nice white oak structure with the med rays in the end grain. The one lying down is about 6 inches long.
Thanks.

Honestly, that ain't nothing compared to how far I char mine sometimes. That's a baby char.

One important step most people forget. After toasting and charring, I immediately put it in a Mason jar full of water. I leave it over night or a day, THEN put it in my liquor. I also rinse and rub the sticks together after the water soak. Taste the water... you'll see where all that smoke went. Then put in the whiskey, and forget about it.

Honestly, I would leave it up there for a couple more months, then bottle. It will calm down. Whiskey taste better when pulled during the hot months for some reason. Don't panic.

So back to this old string to update the events:

Based on advice here, I pulled the wood out of the jug last May and let it sit over the summer. It didn't get any better. Same aftertaste.

So last November, I added a few more pieces of wood to the jug and left it sitting over the winter. Tasting it again last week, same problem.

Soooo, I cobbled together a charcoal filter setup. Yesterday I ran the whole batch through the filter and it came out much better. Still kind of smoky, but the aftertaste is much reduced. Far easier to drink. I'll bottle it in a couple months.

Thanks.

Well, lets consider what you say took place:
1. Very tight heart cuts only. A bourbon needs a little heads & tails for complexity IMO.
2. Unseasoned, untoasted & charred sapwood that might have been white oak. Your picture indicates that it looked like oak, so maybe choose a better aging wood source?
3. Aging in glass works, but surely not as well as in a cask.

Maybe run another batch, with wider cuts. Age on toasted and charred white oak for a couple of years. Then you will know.

Good point about including more heads and tails. This batch was pretty much HEARTS ONLY! I probably overdid it and the overall flavor profile suffered.

Fortunately, a new brewing season will be upon us very soon. A clean slate, and opportunities to learn.

Thanks.