skurvy84 wrote:Who you purchased your oak through: purchased from local hbs
The oak staves/dominoes are the best. ;-)
Type of oak: ss bourbon staves american oak lightly toasted
You could use French Red Oak or American White oak
What was previously in the barrel:bourbon im assuming
This question is about adding flavour from a red wine if you are ageing in an oak barrel
Grams of oak per liter:website states to use 100grams per 1125ml of neutral for 3-5 days but I ignored that since I work a 2&1 roster
Over oaking is very easy to do. Less oak over a longer time is better,though some will disagree.
Oak treatment prior to aging, toast/char?twas charred lightly on one side
The char will give different flavours from a light toast to a dark char
Aging ABV %,85%abv
Most age between 60-65%. It brings out some nice flavours. 63% is said to be the sweet spot.
Amount of time on:14-17 days
Depending on what you are aging in and how many litres is could be months to years
The spirit your are aging:tpw neutral
You will get a decent product out of most washes but something on grain or an UJ would be a better choice. All grain would be even better. TPW is better suited for neutrals
All in all im very happy with how it turned out. 500mls at 85%abv for 14-17 days seemed like almost perfect combo for myself. Nice color, nice aroma definitely mellowed out the neutral and for me takes away alot of that initial harshness if that makes any sense to you guys.
Longer ageing on less wood will give you an even better result. The experimenting is half the fun.... waiting isn't :cry:
Since I had a 200gram bag of the stuff I also tried my hand at the nuclear aging/hot cold cycling and although i did end up with a nice oaked neutral it in no way compares to how good the other was. The aroma was not as strong, not as smooth, color definitely lighter and the harshness was still there.
Obviously all cut to 40%abv for tasting and sneaking a bottle onto site for a shift change.
Since I live in a semi wine region with a few cooperages in the area will now be looking into buying fresh and aged staves if they will sell them.
Great thread and very helpful.
Now a question, since I was unsure I used an essence in conjunction with the oaked neutral, is that the done thing? Or should I be doing something else with the oaked neutral?
Never tried adding anything to the neutral except dominoes for a whisky flavour. It's your booze, why not experiment? :-D
Cheers
All the best with your experimenting and keep us in the loop with the results. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
I've had decent results with 6 toasted dominoes in 20ltrs of 65% aged for a 12+ months using a 23ltr s/steel keg.
The neutral was made from a UJ sugar head. Distilled through a reflux.
It won't give you the complexity of an all grain, but the results are still very nice.
DBV