My attempt at rapid aging

[Steve Broady]

Having read a few comments, most notable by NZChris, about rapid aging by holding spirits in a hot water bath, I knew I wanted to try it. My first attempt was to simply use an immersion cooker to keep the contents of a cooler at 62C for six days, and the results were remarkable. Not quite “20 years in 6 days,” but certainly good enough to be drinkable, and hopefully a great head start on more traditional aging.

The sous vide cooker isn’t all that practical, though. I can’t close the lid of the cooler, so I had to keep topping up the water to keep it from shutting down after evaporation. And, I don’t like having it tied up for 6 days at a time. It was a good proof of concept, but I could do better. I tried a homemade heater using a 30W heating element out of a curling iron, but that failed after about a day. So I spent a couple more dollars and came up with this:

I have a WiFi Inkbird controller ($50), a 300W immersion heater ($11), and a small pump ($10). I zip tied the temperature sensor to the side of the heater, and wrapped the whole thing in a stainless scrubber to keep it from touching anything directly.

My homemade test heater (using the same Inkbird controller) tended to overshoot by a couple degrees after turning off. For that reason, when I made up my new system, I put the pump on the cooling circuit. Logic being that it could come in and circulate the water a little bit. In retrospect, my new setup doesn’t overshoot that badly and the pump never turns on. I’m not convinced that I need it, but I could power it in parallel with the heater if I want.

It’s been running for about 12 hours now. The temperature is remarkably stable even without the pump. I can close the cooler lid without difficulty, and everything seems nice and happy. The only issue I’ve had was that with about 50% head space in the 1/2 gallon jars, it blew both corks out as it heated up. Easy enough to deal with.

This isn’t original, and maybe it isn’t the best way to go about things. It’s certainly cheap and easy enough, though. For less than $75 and in under a week, I can have something that’s at least presentable, if not perfect. It should at least help give a good idea of how things will taste when aged properly.

[NZChris]

I doubt that the glue holding the composite cork together will last for very long.

[Steve Broady]

I’m curious about that myself. They were sold as 100% cork, and I have heard of composite corks being bonded with heat (and pressure?) that somehow bond the lignin itself. If they fail, at least they’re not in contact with the alcohol, and they’re not on anything too important to me. It would be nice to keep them, of course.

[NZChris]

Because the top of the vessel is colder than the charge, the bung is in contact with the alcohol. If your charge is 64%, the vapor condensing on the cork and the neck of the vessel and refluxing back down into the charge is about 83%. You can see it happening.

I use new natural wine corks, and they go hard and need to be replaced every so often.

I have witnessed a composite cork disintegrating into a bottle of rum, (not mine), that had been aging at room temperature for a few months.

BTW, I've never used 62C.

[Steve Broady]

BTW, I've never used 62C.

You obviously know far better than I, but I would have SWORN that I asked you about 60C in another thread and you responded that you’ve been using 62C lately. Clearly, I misunderstood. It does make me wonder how much difference a could delete makes in this process.

[jonnys_spirit]

Are those widgetco corks? I use them often for large mouth ball jars and in this similar setup. Never had an issue or any indication of disintegration. Less wood is better because a week @ about 150*F extracts very well. When it over extracted I blended with new make and put it in a badmo. I use a 7.5 gallon or a 5 gallon stock pot with sousvide cooker, and a larg'ish heavy duty aluminum cooking pan thing formed to fit down into the stock pot and some towels on top to limit evap - still needs to be topped up but no biggie.

Yeah it's not 20 yrs in 6 days but it's also not new make and it also ages and blends well. Like you said - good for a wood quantity test or some early drinking.. If you use raw cherry it makes a beautiful deep red and takes very little wood

The large stock pot can fit seven large mouth ball jars plus the sousvide for me - that's close to a full gallon of barrel proof with different wood in each. Great to blend and age further on a full large batch run.

I did have one batch of this protocol get cloudy which disappeared once I blended new-make into it.

Cheers!
-jonny

[Steve Broady]

Are those widgetco corks? I use them often for large mouth ball jars and in this similar setup. Never had an issue or any indication of disintegration.

They are, and that gives me some more that they’ll survive. Of all the challenges I anticipated on this hobby, finding suitable lids for containers wasn’t one that crossed my mind.

I tried cherry once, and found it overpowering. Maybe I used too much, or too fresh. I’ve got some cherry firewood that’s been sitting outside for several years, and I might try splitting some staves from that. If you have a favorite toast treatment for it, I’d be happy to hear about it.

If you have the sous vide cooker already, this is free to try. If you’re buying just for the purpose, the arrangement with the teacup heater seems like a viable and much cheaper option. With an inexpensive standalone controller, you could be in it for well under $20. That said, I like the WiFi Inkbird, both for ease of use and the nice temperature graph it gives.

[jonnys_spirit]

Are those widgetco corks? I use them often for large mouth ball jars and in this similar setup. Never had an issue or any indication of disintegration.

They are, and that gives me some more that they’ll survive. Of all the challenges I anticipated on this hobby, finding suitable lids for containers wasn’t one that crossed my mind.

I tried cherry once, and found it overpowering. Maybe I used too much, or too fresh. I’ve got some cherry firewood that’s been sitting outside for several years, and I might try splitting some staves from that. If you have a favorite toast treatment for it, I’d be happy to hear about it.

If you have the sous vide cooker already, this is free to try. If you’re buying just for the purpose, the arrangement with the teacup heater seems like a viable and much cheaper option. With an inexpensive standalone controller, you could be in it for well under $20. That said, I like the WiFi Inkbird, both for ease of use and the nice temperature graph it gives.

My sousvide is also wifi but it did receive a bit of condensate into the controller portion. Probably not the best for long term. I like the teacup heater and inkbird and might change over to that in a more dedicated setup.

I only used the cherry raw - BBQ chunks. Chipped off a couple pieces and went with it. It did come out a bit strong but it ended up being one of seven jars plus new make to blend and worked well for that. I'll use much less of all wood next time

Cheers,
j

[Steve Broady]

My sous vide has a 99 hour limit, meaning that for a 6 day treatment I had to reset it half way through. Hardly a big problem, but now I don’t have that limitation. I also found that it kept tripping its low water alarm because there was a fairly fine line between enough to keep it happy and so much that it floated the carboys up out of the cooler.

[NZChris]

BTW, I've never used 62C.

You obviously know far better than I, but I would have SWORN that I asked you about 60C in another thread and you responded that you’ve been using 62C lately. Clearly, I misunderstood. It does make me wonder how much difference a could delete makes in this process.

To avoid Chinese whispers, go straight to the source. I use numbers I got from Bryan Davis' patent.

[Steve Broady]

You’re absolutely right, first sources are far better. Just to satisfy my own curiosity, I went back and found the post I was thinking of. You said “ I think I usually use 67C.” I have no idea how I filed that away at 62, but it’s 100% my mistake. I apologize for misquoting you, sir.

One nice thing about the Inkbird.. I can change the temperature without even getting up.

[mrfee]

Is it a benefit to keep it at a stable higher temp? Reason I ask, is I've been using a cooler with a lightbulb in it on a timer. Goes up to 155° during the day and drops down to mid-70s overnight. I was under the impression that the swing in temps is beneficial in getting the penetration into and out of the wood.

Thoughts?
M.

[Steve Broady]

Interesting question. The simplest way to find out would be to test it. Split the spirit into two identical batches, then cycle one and hold the other one constant. Assuming a 50% duty cycle, you might want to run that test twice as long so that the total heated time is the same. Or, on the theory that the change in temperature is the important part, then maybe equal times for both. Then compare results, and see which you prefer.

[Evil_Dark]

Is it a benefit to keep it at a stable higher temp? Reason I ask, is I've been using a cooler with a lightbulb in it on a timer. Goes up to 155° during the day and drops down to mid-70s overnight. I was under the impression that the swing in temps is beneficial in getting the penetration into and out of the wood.

Thoughts?
M.

I always heard from distillers that temperature swings are good for wood exchanges. Now, the warmer temperature is good to evaporate slowly the unwanted congeners... So I would continue making temperature variations, but depending on what your newmake profile is, you may wat to extend the hot cycle longer as needed!

[NZChris]

I always heard from distillers that temperature swings are good for wood exchanges. Now, the warmer temperature is good to evaporate slowly the unwanted congeners... So I would continue making temperature variations, but depending on what your newmake profile is, you may wat to extend the hot cycle longer as needed!

I've read that many times, but never seen anything to convince me that it works for likker in glass with wood. Ambient temperature and barometric changes around a barrel in a rickhouse would not have the same effect as temperature and pressure changes when the wood is in glass or SS with the likker.

[NormandieStill]

I think the temperature swings might have most effect in a barrel where there is a temperature (And thus pressure) differential between the inside and outside of the wood. If all the wood is completely immersed and especially if the temperature swings in the likker are not that great (due to thermal mass) I don't think you'll see much of an effect.

But I don't have a heating control setup like this so I'm working from theory and gut feeling. If one of you wants to do a side-by-side comparison I'd be willing to help with experiment design.

[NZChris]

But I don't have a heating control setup like this so I'm working from theory and gut feeling. If one of you wants to do a side-by-side comparison I'd be willing to help with experiment design.

Don't wait for someone else to do it for you. If I'd done that, I wouldn't have learned as much as I have.

[NormandieStill]

Don't wait for someone else to do it for you. If I'd done that, I wouldn't have learned as much as I have.

I've added it to my list of "stuff to try" but it's probably not going to happen this year. I've yet to start my single grain series which was supposed to be last year's project!

[Zacher]

I decided to put a couple of jars in the sous vide at 152F to test this out. Should I keep the lids tight or loosened a bit?

[Zacher]

Just to follow up. I kept 4 jars at 150F for 6 days. The color, flavor and depth of mouthfeel change was palpable compared to my controls which definitely need more time on the oak. It's only been 2-3 months for them But now I'm wondering if I should remove the oak cubes and call it done. I'm wondering if there is now a downside to keeping it on the oak longer after the sous vide?

[Steve Broady]

I can’t say for certain about what you have, Zacher, but I can tell you that the stuff I left alone for 6 months on oak has definitely improved beyond what it was when I first heat treated it. I’d vote for leaving the oak in there.

[NZChris]

As the wood keeps on breaking down and providing flavoring components, I don't know what the upside to removing it would be, so I leave the oak in until I finally empty the jar, months or years later.

[jonnys_spirit]

And if you keep some white or make some later it provides an option to blend down the oak if desired. A month or few to meld after blending is also nice

Cheers,
J

[Zacher]

Thanks to Steve, NZ Chris, and Jonnys. I will leave them as is and report back over time.....

Happy Holidays!

-Zacher