Thoughts on Oak

[Opus 27]

Been giving the subject of oaking some thought of late and have got a bit of a project in mind.

Normally I buy toasted French oak chips from the local HBS. I have however loads of English and European Oak(actually both the same species Quercus petraea) in the workshop.

So I thought what if I toast some in the oven or take a torch to it and bung it in a Cornelius keg with a bottle of Oloroso Sherry and pressurise at something like 100 psi for a few weeks.

Anybody got an opinion on the idea?

aidanmac If your watching you may well of tried something along these lines or have a better knowledge than me.

Opus

[Easydrinker]

Seeing the used and cleaned up ex-barrel pieces I use sink to the bottom of the demi-john in usually as little as a week,I'm not sure pressurising is needed,but like the idea of a good sherry soaking.
Robert.

[Capt-Cudellez]

Aiden did try pressurising a keg, his results were not favourable. If you are going to give it a go, it might be wise to start with a small volume of spirit, incase it ruins it.

[Almanac]

Hi Opus, CC's correct. I did give this a try using a Cornie Keg and a pump with a non-return valve to add a little pressure to the keg. I'm sure I wrote something and I'll try find it for you.

The results were very disappointing and I was left with spirit that had a super fine particulate suspended which even a wine filter wouldn't remove.

Have you considered simple Nuking. I found this a very acceptable method for producing good results in a very short time.

AM

[Opus 27]

I suspect I haven't explained myself too well.
What I was looking to do was to impregnate the oak with Oloroso and then save it to lay down the spirit on in the normal manner.

I was tempted by Wyte & Mackay saying they transport their barrels from Spain with 5 litres of Oloroso in them but when they drain them for use theres only a couple of litres left to come out, the rest has gone into the wood.

Hope this makes sense.

Opus

[Almanac]

Sorry Opus, you're right, I didn't read you properly and commented on the wrong thing Now I know where you're coming from.

It would be interesting to see how/if the pressure produces a better result in comparison.

I routinely soak some of my 3" toasted White Oak biscuits in Olloroso and use them in a ratio of one to four when putting Whisky on Oak. But I just soak the toasted Oak in a glass jar for a week.

AM

[Opus 27]

aidanmac any chance you could give me the dimensions of your oak biscuits. That would give me a good start point to begin cutting some up.

Also thought I would cut a couple of chunky pieces put one in the pressure vessel and one to soak in a kilner jar. I could then cut them through and compare the penetration. That way I would know if it was worth the effort.

Opus

[Almanac]

My Oak biscuits are 25mm X 10mm X 75mm

I decided to just Soak the Oak (sorry about that ) because I thought if I forced the sherry into the wood too much it might interfere with the spirit extracting the Vanillan and caramelised Oak sugars from the toasted Oak. Let me know how you get on with the testing

AM

[Opus 27]

Cut a batch of oak biscuits to Aidanmac's dimensions this morning.
Kitchen now smells quite smokey as they've been in the oven at 230 c for 45 mins now. Extractors earning it's money.

Taken them out now and I would say they were a dark toast.

Just need to pick up a bottle of Oloroso when I do the shopping.

Opus

[Opus 27]

Change of plan on economic grounds.

£8.00 bottle of oloroso hardly covers the bottom of a cornelius keg.

Verdict; chucked it in a kilner jar.

any suggestions on how long to leave it before use and is it ok to leave the oak soaking indefinitely.

Opus

[Almanac]

I use a Pyrex dish with a snap on lid to soak mine. It holds 20 Oak biscuits and 180ml of sherry which I generally leave for 10 days before removing the Oak and allowing to air dry. I put a second batch of biscuits in and top up the sherry.

The biscuits in my storage tin to be used next were in the sherry last January, I tie each batch with string and a note of when treated, but that's more by chance than design. Once they've been soaked and dried there's no reason, that I know of, why they can't be used straight away.

AM

[Phantom]

Was there some science behind your biscuit size Aidan ? Or just because it was convenient ?

I have some home made "mini-staves". I just got an old barrel stave, used a leccy plane, and cleaned off all the dirt and charring. Then cut it into 10 to 15 cm lengths, then split those down into about 10mm square.

They were then toasted to a medium "pencil lead grey" (on the advice of a very good wine maker friend).

Another mate does something similar, but he toasts until they're starting to catch then puts them straight in the wine.

Of course, spirits would normally have a higher char level than wine, but I was curious about the wisdom behind the dimensions.......

[Opus 27]

I copied aidanmac's size as it seemed pretty close to the proprietary ones on a modern distiller video.

Opus

[Almanac]

The dimensions are based on a video by Stephen Kentucky on Modern Distiller and my specific equipment.

Like many people here I age my Whisky in glass or Stainless Steel. I use 1lt Kilner jars for quick turnaround and a 20lt Corny Keg for bulk spirit.

The length suits the size of my Kilner jars and advice received that exposure to the end grain of the toasted Oak helps in the ageing process. Also, in the Corny Keg I need to be able to fish them out with a modified slotted spoon

The thickness of the biscuits is intended to allow the alcohol the best possibility of reaching all the way through the grain from both sides.

They've worked well for me

AM

[Phantom]

The dimensions are based on a video by Stephen Kentucky on Modern Distiller and my specific equipment.

Like many people here I age my Whisky in glass or Stainless Steel. I use 1lt Kilner jars for quick turnaround and a 20lt Corny Keg for bulk spirit.

The length suits the size of my Kilner jars and advice received that exposure to the end grain of the toasted Oak helps in the ageing process. Also, in the Corny Keg I need to be able to fish them out with a modified slotted spoon

The thickness of the biscuits is intended to allow the alcohol the best possibility of reaching all the way through the grain from both sides.

They've worked well for me

AM

ok, that makes sense. My dimensions are approximate, but spirit would get all the way through. I'll likely do some more for spirits and burn them a bit.

I just made them that size so I could get them in and out of 1 & 5 gallon glass easily.......