how long to oak?

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how long to oak?

Postby bradsgonetrekkin » Thu Apr 14, 2011 10:47 pm

Yeah I know, its like "how long is a piece of string?" but I'm after a rough guide to start with.

I'm currently experimenting with the following oaking options for straight corn UJSM (mix of up to 6 gens) @ 65% X 5litre demijohns:

1- 2 toasted american oak sticks (raw offcuts from cooper, cut roughly with axe into stick size bits to fit into neck of bottle, toasted in little pizza oven at 220 degrees for around 3 hours)
2- 2 toasted recycled french oak wine staves cut into sticks (retoasted as above)
3- 3 toasted american oak
4- Combo 2 ao, 1 french oak
5 - 2 toasted plus charred on bbq grille american oak
6 - 2 toasted plus charred recyled french oak stave sticks...

I'm up to around 21 days on oak for bottles 1-4 and around 14 days for 5,6.

The colour varies from light straw(bottle 1) to light amber/slight reddish (bottle 5/6).

Ive tasted bottle one watered down to around 40% with cola and its got a nice nose and taste, as has bottle 5.

Now there is colour and definite oaky / vanillas from the oak do I remove it, or do I wait some more?

I have heard if you wait too long you can over oak and its crap, hence why I didn't overload the sticks inititally.

comments or opinions anyone?
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Re: how long to oak?

Postby MacStill » Thu Apr 14, 2011 11:40 pm

over oaking sucks, it's like chewing on a wet stick.

Once you get the taste "you like" bottle it! and put it somewhere safe.... my safe place is my liver :mrgreen:

Color is good but not that drastic in the big scheme of things, if it tastes right who gives a fuck what the color is like... right?

You've got some good stuff going on there, really got a good handle on it, but the object of what we do is to have a cleaner, better product than the commercial stuff you can buy for $40 a bottle.

After talking shit for so long all I can say is, once you got the oak flavor you desire....... bottle it, we're not doing things on a commercial scale so we can speed the process up a little by doing small batches.

I just wish my liver could get past the required flushing time of under 3 months :mrgreen:
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Re: how long to oak?

Postby Brigand » Mon Jul 25, 2011 5:17 pm

Hi Brad

Did you have any results tabulated for the above experiment?

Cheers
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Re: how long to oak?

Postby bradsgonetrekkin » Sat Aug 13, 2011 9:00 am

Hi Brigand,

I ended up initially removing all the oak after around a month. To my palate I couldn't tell much of a diff between the french v american oak, but there is definitely a taste diff between toasted and charred.

I like the toasted best for taste, for colour the charred gives a more dark amber colour as opposed to the straw colour from the toasted.

After leaving it for a week or 2 I couldn't help myself, I ended up putting 1 toasted stick back in per 5 demijohn to see if it would get a better flavour profile.
I've been tasting every week or two since and the flavour to me keeps getting better. I'll probably take most of the sticks out after 6 months and leave 1 bottle with 1 stick for as long as I can to see if it keeps developing or goes too far...

For me, what I found to work best for my taste is to start with 2-3 toasted oak sticks per demijohn @ 65% for around a month (with lids opened and stuffed with paper), then cut back to 1 stick per sealed demijohn for around 5 months if you can wait that long, with regular tastes along the way to check how it develops.

Very happy with results and looking forward to trying with different grains in the mix in the future to compare to the straight corn likker.
bradsgonetrekkin
 
Posts: 184
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:44 pm
Location: newcastle nsw
equipment: 18 gallon (80litre) ss keg boiler with 2400w and 1200w elements
65-50-35-19mm copper pot head/ stripper
2m high 65-50mm copper vapour management column with cross flow condensor head
630mm long 3/4 over 1/2 inch leibig and 32mm outer, 1/2 inch inner 'double barrel' interchangable condensors

Re: how long to oak?

Postby Nardy » Sat Aug 13, 2011 10:21 am

No lids for a month? Is this what everyone does? Hmm, maybe I should go take the lids off my ageing booze.. :?:
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Re: how long to oak?

Postby R-sole » Sun Aug 14, 2011 5:06 am

I leave the lid cracked and propped up for a few days or a week.
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