Guys I am pretty new to distilling about 12 months in and have progressed quickly thanks to this site, I have just completed a MAC Whiskey and a Nutrigran whiskey and a MACRum batches are all on on wood 2-3 weeks atm. Some are on rum barrel chips and some are oak some French med toast chips and some American Med toast dominos and some Americas heavy toast dominos, I've mixed them up to experiment with different outcomes.
The part of this process I want to better understand is the ageing verses wooding, are these two terms exclusive of each other?
Can or does one "wood" for a period of time and then remove the wood and continue to "age" a spirit or is aging only taking place whilst the spirit is exposed to wood? I have sampled the whiskeys after about 3 weeks on oak and am very pleased with the taste.
Should I stop here or can I continue in the hope of it getting even better, but I am not sure how, because for mine its bloody fantastic. The rum on the other hand I think can benefit from a bit longer going by my taste analyses.
Should I remove the wood now or continue on? How long is enough with chips and dominos and or how long is too long?