Light and Aging

[The Stig]

Is light bad when aging ?
Would this be a bad idea (see pic)

[chipboy]

Light oxidises, think why are beer bottles dark?

[The Stig]

But this is alcohol not beer .
We have all aged in 5L glass Demi’s before now

[RC Al]

Looks a bit exxy for a bottle or two of booze

The wood to volume ratio is pretty high, would age fast, but sticks in demi's is a better way to go than that until you splurge on a barrel.

The bain marrie / badmo is a much cheaper, better option.

[The Stig]

That pic is something a friend is experimenting with.
It’s a 6” glass tower with a volume of about 5L
This is basically a proof of concept for bigger things .
But, if light will be an issue it’s going to be dead in the water

[renedox]

Light does affect whiskey. If you can get over the silly over-reactions to everything, this is an interesting video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZkprx8Gp28

But also, it usually isn't too difficult to store something in the dark, cover the glass, or away from direct sunlight

[chipboy]

Without going into quantum mechanics, lets just say light is energy and as such does something to everything, it will cause issues with beer, spirits, fuels, skin etc

[Wellsy]

All my ageing was initially done in 3 litre jars from the $2:00 shop. They were however stored in a dark cupboard.

They look fantastic Stig but I suspect they might only be able to be put on show for special occasions. Might make a good pouring vessel instead of aging vessel. After all almost all decanters are made of glass, and most bottles are all clear glass.

[MattSmith]

I saw this on FB yesterday. I think the benefit would be that you can re-char (or replace) the wood and therefore get more life (infinite life?) out of the "barrel".

Light strike shouldn't be a showstopper. In the beer world they just store the glass bottle products inside a shed rather than out in the open.

[bluc]

I like it is the wood pressed into the ferrule?

[The Stig]

@MattSmith , Gowit and me have been chatting about this for some time and it finally came to this first incarnation .
@Bluc , yes this recharging was a major thing that we needed to have in the mix of things
And the whole idea was to utilize items that we already had at hand , press fitting the wood aside :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Wellsy]

Would look great with a tap in the wood :)

[The Stig]

Would look great with a tap in the wood :)

Already onto that one :laughing-rolling: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[chipboy]

And keep it away from light, how hard would that be? A lot harder if it never saw the light of day. Abstinence.

[RC Al]

And definitely Don't feed it after Midnight :-D

5l is worth playing with for sure

[lest1]

it looks sexy but really its a waste of money , looks like another gimmick

[nuddy]

Why not use a piece of stainless steel tri clamp tube in place of the sight glass section... work out the surface area to volume ratio for whatever barrel you are trying to replicate. Design the oak ends and SS tube ratio to match that.

[Wellsy]

I might be the odd one out here but I like the idea of seeing the colour change, lift the tea towel check the colour without pouring some , then back under the tea towel. Of course if the colour is right you simply pour some into a glass :)

[Negan]

Saw this one the weekend and thought it might some food for thought after doing some searching. Basically this guy uses UV lights to age whiskey.
Pretty interesting tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm37Huf_g8M

[lest1]

Saw this one the weekend and thought it might some food for thought after doing some searching. Basically this guy uses UV lights to age whiskey.
Pretty interesting tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm37Huf_g8M

i read an article where they tested light aging in scotch (tried to find again but couldnt ) and there was negative effects

the test was quite decent not just a dude with a bottle in his backyard