StillSmart

toasted oak chips

2009-05-14T01:05:50+00:00

Statistics: Posted by Opus 27 — Thu May 14, 2009 1:05 am

toasted oak chips

2009-05-04T18:41:38+00:00

Tennessee Bourbon and Oak Chips.

Just one word;\"BRILLIANT\".

A few more words to explain. My Still Spirits Classic Bourbon and 10 days on the Tennessee Bourbon Chips. Tasted a measure of this bourbon bottled earlier without oak chips and a measure of the current batch with oak chips. (Both 3 fingers bourbon 1 finger water) The oaked version has so many tastes going on it,s dificult to describe but it\'s a long way removed from the un-oaked version. It realy is a nice drink. The Tennessee oak chips work better on the bourbon than on the scotch although that is still a tidy tipple\'
Opus27

Statistics: Posted by Opus 27 — Mon May 04, 2009 6:41 pm

toasted oak chips

2009-05-02T23:37:21+00:00

Ten days is up on my scotch with some tennessee bourbon chips. I\'m quite impressed with the improvement in taste. Had a few last night with just a spot of water and it was quite an acceptable middle of the road whisky, did\'nt need any help with mixers.

Just got a couple of days to wait to see the effect on the bourbon.

Excellent, it\'ll be interesting to hear how you get on with the Tennessee bourbon chips and the bourbon, because I\'m not really a scotch drinker, so it\'s mainly the "JD rip off" (the Still Spirits brand one). It\'s not bad (IMO) as is, but if there\'s any way to improve it and smooth it out some more, then that\'d be great.

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Sat May 02, 2009 11:37 pm

toasted oak chips

2009-05-02T20:20:28+00:00

Ten days is up on my scotch with some tennessee bourbon chips. I\'m quite impressed with the improvement in taste. Had a few last night with just a spot of water and it was quite an acceptable middle of the road whisky, did\'nt need any help with mixers.

Just got a couple of days to wait to see the effect on the bourbon.
Opus 27

Statistics: Posted by Opus 27 — Sat May 02, 2009 8:20 pm

toasted oak chips

2009-05-02T19:43:13+00:00

Well I\'ve just mixed 2.25 litres of 40% Tennessee Bourbon with 50g of \"kentucky\" chips - had to use those as the HBS didn\'t have the JD ones.
Either way, it should give me some idea of what the difference is (if any that I can notice)......
I\'m gonna leave it \"mashing\" for the recommended 10 days before I try it.

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Sat May 02, 2009 7:43 pm

toasted oak chips

2009-04-27T17:50:27+00:00

Hi Phantom

I\'m doing exactly the same as you half a pack to 2.25 litres.

Just done one of each of Classic Reserve Scotch and Classic Tennessee Bourbon.

These being my two favourites so far from the Still Spirits Range.
Opus

Statistics: Posted by Opus 27 — Mon Apr 27, 2009 5:50 pm

toasted oak chips

2009-04-26T20:56:11+00:00

How much chips are you using Opus ? Cos I got a bag of the \"Kentucky Bourbon\" chips (all the local HBS had) last weekend.
The packet says to use a half packet to 2 litres of spirit for 10 days, so I was gonna use the half pack but 2.25 litres of spirit already mixed up with the flavour and see how it gets on. Having a little taste as it goes on......

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Sun Apr 26, 2009 8:56 pm

toasted oak chips

2009-04-26T17:04:56+00:00

Three weeks with my oak and I\'m not keen on the result. It has just added a wood taste not oakey or anything specific just a timber/sawdust taste.

I\'ve strained it of the oak and will leave it for a few weeks to see if it improves.

In the mean time I,m trying the Tennessee Bourbon Chips from Wine Works.
Opus 27

Statistics: Posted by Opus 27 — Sun Apr 26, 2009 5:04 pm

toasted oak chips

2009-04-12T00:14:33+00:00

Jimmy,

I\'ve just been surfing for Tennessee Whisky info and noticed that George Dickel Whiskey is filtered through Sugar Maple charcoal. They burn logs of it on fires in the open and then shovel up the charcoal. Trouble is I don\'t see to many fallen maples.

Statistics: Posted by Opus 27 — Sun Apr 12, 2009 12:14 am

toasted oak chips

2009-04-11T17:52:39+00:00

Richard from Wineworks has left the following comment on the main site :

Hi Guys,
I have just been reading your comments on the oak chips. We have three types that are available on our web site. These are Tennessee (which should be used for Jack Daniels style), Kentucky (for Jim Bean style) and Gobblers which is another popular one. These are oak chips which are soaked in alcohol and really add to the taste. There is no definate way they should be used and how long for, but I tend to add it to the bottle when I add the flavouring and leave it to soak for about 4 weeks. Its very much trial and error and they cost Â£3.49 per packet. They have a really fantastic smell to them and are well worth using. The only other way to get the affect is to store the drink in an oak barrel. The link below will take you to the product section on the web site.
http://www.wineworks.co.uk/department/oak_chips/
There are other oak products available (most of them are more like sawdust) but these are mainly used for wine making.
Let me know how you get on with them.
Richard Blackwell

Statistics: Posted by Jimmy — Sat Apr 11, 2009 5:52 pm

toasted oak chips

2009-04-10T19:18:46+00:00

fuming oak with ammonia isn\'t for barrels it\'s a method of colouring timber in the furniture trade. I mentioned it to illustrate the amount of tannic acid present in oak.

Oh, Ok. I\'ve only ever used stain to change wood colours.
The tannins are one of the primary colour/flavour elements, but not the only one. The vanillins are important as well (as I understand). As is the micro oxidisation that is afforded by the wood.
It\'s also other stuff like the contact area per volume etc. One of the reasons why industry uses the standard sizes of barrel. It gives them greater control over the amount of wood for a given volume of liquid.
I\'d guess that there\'s a set of standard "char depths" or at least a standard temperature for the burn, for a specific tiime so that "they" have more constants for the ageing process. The more variables that can be taken out of the process then the easier it is for industry to make consistent products.
Of course that doesn\'t mean that there aren\'t other variables that we might not have thought of.......

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Fri Apr 10, 2009 7:18 pm

toasted oak chips

2009-04-10T02:26:40+00:00

fuming oak with ammonia isn\'t for barrels it\'s a method of colouring timber in the furniture trade. I mentioned it to illustrate the amount of tannic acid present in oak.

Statistics: Posted by Opus 27 — Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:26 am

toasted oak chips

2009-04-10T00:57:27+00:00

Well to be honest, I\'ve read a far amount about that and I\'m still not sure myself, whether it\'s just a case of the carbonised bit acting like activated carbon in the wash.
With most of the colour/flavour of the tannins, vanillins, etc coming from the \"toasted\" part of the oak.
Either way, it does seem that there is differing amounts of charring when a barrel has been \"medium\" toasted, rather than one that\'s been \"heavy\" toasted.
It may be that it\'s just one of those things that is a bit \"urban myth\" but it could also be that it\'s a genuine factor that affects flavour/colour.
Plus I don\'t know about fuming oak with ammonia, but traditionally, barrels were \"cleansed\" by burning sulphur candles in them. Sure ammonia might be used to darken oak, but I\'d guess you\'d also be able to taste it in the spirit.
don\'t forget, coopers may have adopted machine making techniques (for speed and to reduce expensive manpower), but I\'d bet that the rest of it is done in a reasonably traditional way. There\'d be too much to loose if they couldn\'t guarantee that their barrels didn\'t taint the spirit!

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Fri Apr 10, 2009 12:57 am

toasted oak chips

2009-04-08T21:53:04+00:00

I have this nagging doubt about the purpose of charring the inside of barels. It could be argued that what this is producing is carbon. This would also tie in with some of the history of whiskey/rum production where the barrel ageing was more for removing unwanted flavours and smoothing out what was some times quite rough spirit. This would be simlar in effect to using a carbon filter. Any flavour addition I would suspect is more likely to come from the tannin, which is quite high in oak which is the reason it\'s often coloured by fuming with ammonia. These are just a few thoughts that might be worth kicking around.

As for my experiment, after three days there has been a noticeable darkening with the bottle of Scotch but not the Irish.

Statistics: Posted by Opus 27 — Wed Apr 08, 2009 9:53 pm

toasted oak chips

2009-04-07T00:41:49+00:00

Tell you what Opus, you should go to the garden centre and have a look at any old whisky barrel halves they have for sale as garden planters.........
The 2 we\'ve got outside, the charring/burning of the inside has got to be at least 5mm thick/deep, and that\'s just the charcoal looking part.
I\'d guess that they were \"heavy\" toasted barrels originally, but it still amazes me just how thick the charring/burning layer is.
p.s. I can\'t really get a photo of my efforts at \"mixed fruit brandy\", as the 35 litre DJ is green glass, but it\'s got 3 or 4 packs of chips in it (it\'s got about 25 litres in it at the moment) and even after about 6 months, the spirit is still only a very delicate honey colour. If I remember, next weekend I\'ll get a sample out and post a photograph...

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Tue Apr 07, 2009 12:41 am