Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

has anyone tried other woods for aging (oaking)?

i just read where someone (i think kiwikeg) used plum.... what about cherry or peach wood?



ideas folks?

:-D :-D

:text-+1:

Apple??

There are a few different ones that people have tried, not sure on the results.

The main thing to remember is that not all wood is suitable, it can be poisonous :scared-eek:

Do your research well before just using anything :handgestures-thumbupleft:

no worries about poison s+l... im months away from producing anything worth oaking... and i start research early!!

i was just curious coz of the plum comment... ive cut plum trees and the wood is stinky....

apple might be nice blackened...

Have you seen this thread?

sam_and_liv wrote:Have you seen this thread?

yup.

heres the quote that got mt thinking...

kiwikeg wrote:got 4l of my first feed molasses rum sitting on a toasted plum wood stick in a glass demi, been there nearly 3months, just sneaked a taste and Holy Fritha :o its RUM!
The plum wood was from a old branch I pruned from a plum tree. I split it into quarters then force dried by fire place and toasted in oven as an experiment.
Really happy with how its turning out!
The demi is corked with a wine cork for a little breathing room,
I have to post a pick or two I am proud of this brew, i know it needs a little more colour but its RUM!! and I made it!!! from stock feed!! and bakers yeast!!!

htc 347.jpg

htc 697.jpg

i think ill move on from this topic.

That's the great thing about this hobby. We're not (well, less so) constrained by commercial factors. Our wood doesn't necessarily have to be structurally appropriate for building a keg either.

Now I just need to figure out how to get hold of some cherry wood here in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne. :smile:

After some googling I've found info on at least one distillery that uses apple and cherry wood for aging. And I just happen to have an apple tree..... *grabs a hand saw and starts hacking branches off*

http://www.copperfox.biz/products/

They also use apple and cherry wood for smoking their malt prior to mashing.

I set up a quick experiment for the apple wood. 2gm each in 100ml of 60% neutral. Samples referred to by oven temperature, 120C, 180C, 220C. Temperatures chosen using a graph on oak flavours as a bit of a guide. The wood was dried in a food dehydrator before going into the oven. Wood simply layed out on oven trays. Not wrapped in foil or anything.

The sample toasted at 120C was visibly indistinguishable from raw. But the two samples at higher temperature changed colour quite nicely. My 8yo described the raw wood perfectly when she told me it smelled like water melon. At the higher temperature the aroma changed to something more "biscuity". The aroma seems a lot less intense than oak. Stick your nose in a bag of oak chips and the smell is very strong, but doing the same in a bag of toasted apple wood and the smell is very subdued. But it's early days yet. Maybe the apple straight from the oven is too dry and needs to reabsorb some moisture from the atmosphere before it can give of more aroma??

Colour imparted to the spirit almost immediately, same as you'd expect with oak chips.

nice little experiment blackened. will be interesting to hear the tasting notes in the future. all I could find is that apple-wood gives a "light sweetness" to the spirit.

another wood that might be worth trying is hickory. it is used in smokers all the time and is a very rich flavour/smelling wood (similar richness as oak), so could be worth a try :think:

Andy wrote:nice little experiment blackened. will be interesting to hear the tasting notes in the future. all I could find is that apple-wood gives a "light sweetness" to the spirit.

another wood that might be worth trying is hickory. it is used in smokers all the time and is a very rich flavour/smelling wood (similar richness as oak), so could be worth a try :think:

Thanks Andy, the 120C sample has already imparted a "light sweetness". I'd describe the flavour as fitting well with fruity spirits, but it's not identifiably apple. But it's only been soaking for about 10 hours so too early to draw any conclusions.

How does hickory smell? I'm also keen on trying maple. From my reading about cherry wood, the layer directly under the bark is poisonous. The smoker chips that I can find seem to include portions of the bark which may make that source of cherry wood unsuitable.

I reckon exploring different types of wood is going to keep me entertained for some time to come :))

What a great idea, much fun could be had experimenting.
It'll throw up some interesting results..... And names.

Willow - Old Cricket Bat Bourbon
Hickory - Axe Handle Whiskey

Etc etc.

As for the cherry wood, I'm chuckling at the thought.... Perish the idea of putting anything into strong alcohol that might make it poisonous...... :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Marbled wrote:snip,

As for the cherry wood, I'm chuckling at the thought.... Perish the idea of putting anything into strong alcohol that might make it poisonous...... :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Here's a decent link to some info re: cherry toxicity

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/prunus/serotina.htm

There are dangers here of course, but then we eat the fruit yes? To me that suggests that armed with the correct knowledge (that's the hard bit to be sure of) we could safely use cherry wood. I'm definitely not going to try cherry until I'm 100% certain of what I'm doing. More research required. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Another link:
http://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/poisonous-plants/prunus-serotina/

I've had a taste of the previously mentioned apple wood samples. All filtered and diluted to 40%

The 120C sample has a definite fruity note. Very light colouring. Woody as you'd expect lol. Slight sweetness.

The 180C sample was contaminated slightly. I used a lid on the jar that had previously been used for a citrus test, and the citrus aroma has invaded it :crying-blue: Nevermind. Hopefully some of that will dissipate with further airing. It seems to have lost most, if not all of the fruity notes. Deeper colouring. Woody. Not particularly distingishing. Nothing to rave about.

The 220C sample I wasn't impressed with in the first day or two. However, after a week or so it's got the classic colouring that you'd expect from toasted oak. Maybe not identical, but nice IMHO. Nice toasty/biscuity aroma and flavour. Maybe the tiniest hint of the fruity note. No vanillins that I can taste. It's not oak that's for sure! I like it, but I'm not sure if the flavour would meld well with other spirits. I guess that'll be the next test. Try it with some rum.

I think that in future, I'll have to do a bit more experimenting with the toasting temperature. Maybe some even darker. But with what I have already toasted, I think I'll use the 120C and 220C at roughly 50/50 proportions. I've got rum and Lao Cao (rice spirits) I can experiment with ATM, as far as pot stilled stuff that is.

What about ironbark chips :think:

Marbled wrote:
Willow - Old Cricket Bat Bourbon
Hickory - Axe Handle Whiskey

hmmmm ive got hickory
but never heard bout it being used...

anyone?

I like the idea of sitting a neutral on very lightly toasted apple...

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Hows things redux :-B

WTF? :wtf: red gum? Not sure if that's a good move. Hope he's not selling that to the public?