Distress aging with heat

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Distress aging with heat

Postby Lowndsey » Tue Jan 01, 2013 7:35 pm

After a discussion in another thread I thought I would start a new thread in the aging forum with a technique put up by croweater. Firsty it must be said that there can be no replacing or duplicating years of aging with anything other than years of aging.
Firstly his technique.

croweater wrote:one day of distress aging and this stuff really is incredable guys, one seriously nice dram. I think what really helps speed this up is using termite eaten timber as there is probably more than 10 times the surface area :handgestures-thumbupleft:
This stuff picture is Quircus robar (limousine oak/English oak) and what I do is burn it blow it out and drop it into 65% alcohol with a cap of maple syrup. I then put the jar into hot water, once warmed up I seal the jar and put it in even hotter water then after say 1/2 hr i put it in water that is 1/3 hot and 2 3rds boiling and leave it until it slowly cool . one yrs barrel age overnight ;-)

croweater wrote:
Lowndsey wrote:Interesting topic. All the info I have read on heat distress aging suggests you need to be careful as the heat pulls out a lot of tannins out of the wood. I've always been tempted to try it as I quite often do the freezer distress thing.

Yeah naturally ya want to be a bit careful. Weathered timber think this stuff is better staves from and old barrel like wise if using new oak i would taste it regularly as the reason for using hot ethanol is to strip dissoluble compounds out or the timber in a very short time which will include tannins, some tannins are needed it part of the oak flavour but to much and its going to taste...well like tannin (bitter). The other wise thing to do is don't distress age the whole lot, just do a percentage at a time and there is way less risk of over doing it :handgestures-thumbupleft: .I put the wood in still smouldering well aware of cause that a spark of flame could ignite the ethanol but i figure 1.5 ltrs in a jar could be smothered in one second should that happen (it never has) , i probably wouldn't really advise ppl to do it like that but it does infuse the char flavour almost instantly . the distress aged whiskey was about the colour of strong black tea when I decided it was infused enough to be added so I drew of two ltrs then added the 1.5 infused ltrs and began to age what I drew off, hope that all makes sense
Edit yep MR-E just 1.5 ltrs at a time out of 9 ltrs all at around 65% barrel strength. I would be a little more patient with it except xmas is in a few days so I need to get something like 2yrs aging in under a week


Now all this has inspired me to give it a go and I must say I can certainly say I am impressed with what I have done so far.
Lowndsey wrote:I gave this heat distress aging a go on some UJSM I had. I had 5 litres of it at 65%. It had been on oak staves for approx 2 weeks. I took off about 1500ml and did this treatment to it in a jar with 2 oak staves about 5 inches long and maybe 1.5cm squared..Only difference being that I didn't add any maple syrup. Just had a taste between the 2 and the diff is night and day. I reckon the distress "aged" stuff has probably "aged" an extra 2 months or so compared to the other stuff. Still not ready to drink for a bourbon but has certainly accelerated the process taste wise and colour wise.
I found that it really dragged out a vanilla aroma from the oak.

I have been experimenting with a wheatgerm/malted barley hybrid scotch style wash run through a detuned boka. These pictures are of the wash i distilled 2 days ago and were taken 12 hours after heat distressing it. 4 litres at 65%. 4 sticks of 5 inch x 1.5cmx1.5cm oak staves. 2 toasted and 2 charred. The colour is looking amazing after 12 hours with a golden maple colour and again a slight vanilla smell already beginning to appear. It tastes like something I would expect from a 4 or 6 week old oaked spirit. I am quite fascinated with this technique and think it is an awesome way to get a "jumpstart" on your aging before blending and letting it settle in for longer aging. Could also be a useful way to play with different levels of char and oak amounts to get a taste you are after before longer aging. I must thank crow for opening my eyes up to it.
Image

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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby kiwikeg » Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:07 pm

To distress age I stick a bottle in the dishwasher for a few cycles it does wonders. not perfect but as you say its a good jump start on ageing
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby pulsetech » Tue Aug 05, 2014 11:08 am

Bringing back this old thread. I'm trying this out now with some rum I ran last weekend. I have a lot so I am trying many different things and making lots of notes along the Way. Not too worried if it doesn't turn out . You need to crack a few eggs yo make an omelette
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby TheMechwarrior » Tue Aug 05, 2014 11:14 am

pulsetech wrote:You need to crack a few eggs yo make an omelette


Well said.
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby pulsetech » Tue Aug 05, 2014 11:20 am

That's the great thing about distilling. If you stuff up you can just Chuck it back in and make neutral
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby crow » Tue Aug 05, 2014 2:48 pm

The trick is not to over do it, remember not all compounds dissolve readily at the same rate so when speeding things up you will get a higher concentration of the more soluble compounds. Unfortunately that means a higher concentration of tannins as far as oak is concerned. It can turn out pretty good if you are careful but unless using a mix of previously leached timber you wont get the same ratio of compounds acquired with a passive long term aging :-B
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby pulsetech » Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:04 pm

The dominos I used are on their 3rd useage
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby Brendan » Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:33 pm

Yeah, Crow's saying a mix of oak which has had different levels of use, so that the compounds extracted are more balanced. If they are all 3rd usage, you will just pull excess of some things out of it, and none of other compounds.
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby pulsetech » Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:40 pm

Gotcha. Anyway it's done now so we will see what happens. The 3 jars 1 with a medium toast 1 with a light char and the third with a heavy char.
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby Doubleuj » Wed Aug 19, 2015 10:56 am

:handgestures-thumbupleft: tried this out night before last. I didn't have any neutral on oak, and didn't want to go back to essence if I could help it.
it was easy and did give a fairly good flavour. im no expert on oak yet, oldest stuff I have is 2 months, and that only a single bottle with 1 charred and toasted domino I've managed not to drink..
in a straight comparison of the 24hr distress oak and the 2 month old, there is a stronger oak flavour, and more rounded?? in the 2 month, as expected. But the 24hr does have a good, smooth flavour with a distinct oak hint.
I know that this isn't a long term solution, long slow aging would be best, but in order to get away from essences it seems like a viable short term solution.
certainly drank nicely. :obscene-drinkingchug: :obscene-drinkingdrunk:
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby crow » Sat Aug 22, 2015 12:19 pm

Yep you can make a nice drink this way, you just wont get that smoothness that comes with long term ageing . Its a handy quick fix :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby Mad » Sat Aug 22, 2015 6:24 pm

so glad i stumbled accross this post as I'm hopefully on my last lot of neutral for essence and wanting to head to real rum. and the whole time I was like "....but what if I run out and it's not ready :crying-blue: . Well there will be a lot going on slow age but there will be a good handful having this sort of method applied to it. I like the idea of chucking it in the dishwasher haha that's my sort of solution :dance:
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby brisvalleymoonshiner » Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:29 am

Doubleuj wrote::handgestures-thumbupleft: tried this out night before last. I didn't have any neutral on oak, and didn't want to go back to essence if I could help it.
it was easy and did give a fairly good flavour. im no expert on oak yet, oldest stuff I have is 2 months, and that only a single bottle with 1 charred and toasted domino I've managed not to drink..
in a straight comparison of the 24hr distress oak and the 2 month old, there is a stronger oak flavour, and more rounded?? in the 2 month, as expected. But the 24hr does have a good, smooth flavour with a distinct oak hint.
I know that this isn't a long term solution, long slow aging would be best, but in order to get away from essences it seems like a viable short term solution.
certainly drank nicely. :obscene-drinkingchug: :obscene-drinkingdrunk:


How long did you do each temp setting for Doubleuj
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby bluc » Fri Dec 27, 2019 4:29 pm

Anyone doing this with a sous vide circulator? I am as I speak trialling some limoncello in a water bath 57c for 3hrs.
I am wondering about if the production of methanol by soaking oak in warm spirit is an issue?
I gave heard of distilling wood to make methanol but cant find info on it...and no I dont want to make methanol but would like to try distress ageing.
Anyone recomend a temp to do this at?
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby Nathan02 » Fri Dec 27, 2019 5:29 pm

Hey bluc I reckon it could possibly change the flavour of the lemons? Maybe stew them instead of having a fresh lemon flavour? Just a thought that came to me.
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby bluc » Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:27 pm

I will find out in half hour...dont reakon its hot enough to cook it.. i can still handle the jars...
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby bluc » Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:41 pm

The skin is same as aged 12 weeks stiff as little colour. Colour looks good. Will whip up some sugar syrup and water back with sugar syrup soon..
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby bluc » Fri Dec 27, 2019 7:46 pm

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Sucess!!!
100% DO NOT PUT 95% NEUTRAL IN A BATH OF BOILING WATER!!!
I used an anovo sous vide circulator at 57c(water bath ethanol and lemon skins in mason jar with loose lid) for three hours and got awesome extraction. I cant tell the difference..
Anyone want to try I can put a recipe in recipe devrlopment..
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby Nathan02 » Fri Dec 27, 2019 8:14 pm

yes please looks amazing mate
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Re: Distress aging with heat

Postby scythe » Sat Dec 28, 2019 4:55 am

Have a look at the posts by Doc in the tincture thread, I think.
He mentions azeotroph at 60°C for 3 hrs I think
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