Oak Aging

[0127frey]

a day ago i added to one Litre of spirit,100g of Oak Cubes (approx 12.5mm Square),I have used Chips before but not cubes,how long might i have to leave it before it might be ready to drink ?.

[Easydrinker]

How long is a piece of string?
You will see the spirit take on more colour daily
If you are not nuking it, then I would suggest trying it around Eastertime.
Sorry, probably not what you wanted to hear.
There is a reason for millions of barrels of Scotch lying around for 10 years or more.

Robert.

[Icefever]

I'm + 1 with Robert on this...also what oak are you using?? I did a little test early on this year with French oak V American oak..my 2 cents are...

The French one started to colour within a day, t'other one took maybe a week.
The French one gave a vanilla taste, while the American gave off a smokey one...so it's all down to what you want, taste wise.

[Mash]

Taste it to regularly (daily) and see. Never mind eh

You cannot take it out after the event.

[0127frey]

Well it's just starting to give it a hint of colour after 48hrs,I think i'll give it a month before tasting,along with this i am doing a spirit with Jack Daniels BBQ Chips which has give off a lot of colour in the same time,but i think i will give that one about 10 to 12 days on the wood before tasting,most of you have maybe gone through this,but it is all a new experiment to me.

[cat5cable]

just my thoughts

i purchased 2 x 3 litre oak barrels approx 1 year ago and my first litre of the clear stuff was poured in and after about 7 days it tasted a bit to strong but the colour was good.
since then i have filled the barrels with 1 litre of sherry and left them for 4 months, so 3 days ago i emptied barrels and popped in 2 litres of clear and it tastes fab.

ginger

[RumJohn]

@ Cat5cable: With a greater exposure to end grain, you will shorten the time considerably. I always use a minimum of 3 months before releasing a product, but my oldest that is still ageing is over 6 years.

This chart may help you a bit.

[gaza the instructor]

It never ceases to amaze me the different
smells, tastes and colours that come
from different woods.
Trying to explain to a good mate how all
comes out the still as clear. Then aged
with wood to gain flavours and colour as
well as maturation. Really confused him
when I said no rule book or recipe here.
Down to personal taste and judgement,
that really did him.

[Easydrinker]

A whole other side of distilling indeed.

Robert.

[Casper]

@ Cat5cable: With a greater exposure to end grain, you will shorten the time considerably. I always use a minimum of 3 months before releasing a product, but my oldest that is still ageing is over 6 years.

This chart may help you a bit

That chart goes to 500°+ so it's irrelevant RJ. Surely that refers to the toasting of oak, has no relevance to soaking white dog?

Oak ageing does many things, two of which are the bonding of foul compounds (carbon purification) and extraction from oak of ethanol soluble flavours

Any reading of the aging process will show that time and temperature are related in aged maturation.

It takes more time to extract fouls, years, than to add flavours such as oak vanilla and colours, which take months.
So
There are better ways such as cold filtering but otherwise run thru activated carbon for the cleaning (10minutes) and then use temperature plus oak to extract flavours. About a week at 170°

[Casper]

a day ago i added to one Litre of spirit,100g of Oak Cubes (approx 12.5mm Square),I have used Chips before but not cubes,how long might i have to leave it before it might be ready to drink ?.

What spirit? What vol?

I use 3No sticks per gallon. That's 150mm of 13mm sq charred oak. Seriously charred, Not blackened, 4mm thick breaking black charcoal burned. More oak is too quick.
It takes time, far more time for the clean up than for the colour and vanilla takes to leach in.
You will now know that with that much oak blocks you got good colour and even rich flavour in a week. But the fouls in the white dog are still there underlying

But more important, at what %ABV did you age? You should aim for 64-59%. My corn or barley is 62.5

[Easydrinker]

@ Cat5cable: With a greater exposure to end grain, you will shorten the time considerably. I always use a minimum of 3 months before releasing a product, but my oldest that is still ageing is over 6 years.

This chart may help you a bit

That chart goes to 500°+ so it's irrelevant RJ. Surely that refers to the toasting of oak, has no relevance to soaking white dog?

Oak ageing does many things, two of which are the bonding of foul compounds (carbon purification) and extraction from oak of ethanol soluble flavours

Any reading of the aging process will show that time and temperature are related in aged maturation.

It takes more time to extract fouls, years, than to add flavours such as oak vanilla and colours, which take months
So
There are better ways such as cold filtering but otherwise run thru activated carbon for the cleaning (10minutes) and then use temperature plus oak to extract flavours. About a week at 170°

Casper, are you trying to make friends or just piss people off?
Watch the toes that you tread on here, we are generally a real friendly bunch.
RumJohn is possibly the only member here that makes a living from what he makes, and on his behalf I feel affronted by what you posted.
Read more than you post here and you may understand a little more.

Robert.