StillSmart

I was on a fish knife course recently. The master monger is developing a smoker. He says apple and cherry are the best with food. Never use oak.
Maple or oak have vanilla for spirits, be careful with ABV. 63% to 59% is a very wide range from colour with tannins down to Galilean with sweetness.

I would do the whiskey apple with a small trial first. Surely it would work better with cider or apple brandy? Why not still some cider?
Of course ageing a sugar wash with any wood is a great opportunity to experiment.

If you wish to trust your Knifeman who is developing a smoker, good for you.
People have been oak smoking food for hundreds of years.
They have also been aging spirits with Oak for an equally long time.
I wonder why we still do?

Robert.

Easydrinker wrote:If you wish to trust your Knifeman who is developing a smoker, good for you.
People have been oak smoking food for hundreds of years.
They have also been aging spirits with Oak for an equally long time.
I wonder why we still do?

Robert.

yeah ive watched tons of late night food programmes or even ray mears kinda of random knowledge.. how do they do that programs etc etc..programmes that teach you how to cold smoke or hot smoke for fish or meats..
oak smoked bacon from the supermarket.. smoked hams from the polish delicatessen.. even smoked salmon generally are oak smoked.. i think the variants in flavor are derived from the region of oak.. french oak for certain flavours, american/canadian oak for others etc etc.. im guessing that the apple tree would have to be tested out first as this is something ive not heard of before besides applesmoked bacon sold by one of the supermarkets morrisons or possibly waitrose.. not sure how it would be foralcohol

Oh, Apple is good, I have used it.
Oak is also reliable, as is Beech, all hot or cold smoking.
I just hate being told by a friend of a friend that what works for me is wrong.
The world is full of "experts"; you have to work some stuff out for yourself.
And if it works for you, do not feel that you have to change.
Try something new maybe, out of interest, but by all means go back to tried and tested.
Jumping off the soapbox now.

Robert.

just to put a swerve ball in what about grape vine prunnings for smoking! and for ageing spirits?

Would that be filtered or unfiltered
Be a bit tough getting the ciggy paper wrapping on too .....

Staying with Packapoo's newly discovered roll as site jester, roll the leaves into cigars, and use the hard twiggy bits for conventional food smoking maybe?
The leaves are certainly edible,I don't know what the smoked product is like.

Robert.

What about drying the grape vine for flavouring the ageing spirit has this been done before?
Regards John