Making your own charcoal

[Anavrin]

Anyone ever tried to make their own charcoal??

Why have I posted this thread in aging and flavouring?

Well it's because I want to copy Jack Daniels, the clean hearts cut is filtered though charcoal made from Sugar Maple before being aged, here's some info I found on the HD parent site.

I see people trying to duplicate Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey (It is NOT a bourbon - the charcoal filtering procedure was legally recognized as producing a separate type of whiskey after World War II) on some of the e-groups; the essential step is to filter the unaged spirit through charcoal (not activated carbon) that has been made out of sugar maple wood
(see How to Make Charcoal at Home by Dan Gill).

The residual sugars in the charcoal give a slight sweetness to the finished spirit, and the limited absorbing ability of the charcoal only makes the stuff smoother, but doesn't strip all the flavor out. I have tasted homemade whiskey and rum made and filtered in this method, even at "barrel strength" (75%) they were very smooth - no ice was even needed.

Here's a link to a site mentioned in the text on how to make your own charcoal at home

http://www.pine3.info/Charmake.htm

This is something I'm going to have ago at, on a much smaller scale than a 55gal drum mind

[Mash]

Done it in a pizza oven. I made an chamber inside filled with seasoned wood.. Yew maybe.. Then fired it to temp. Then sealed it up till the next day. Works.

[Easydrinker]

Q,
Is Yew charcoal suitable for filtering?
The live tree being poisonous and all?
Is all charcoal created equal?
Uncle google tells me that charcoal is 85% to 98% carbon with the remainder consisting of volatile chemicals and ash. The volatile chemicals can be any number of organic molecules containing carbon, hydrogen and oxygen and even some nitrogen and sulfur and a whole alphabet soup of other chemicals.
Sticking my dumb ass above the parapets!
And realising that a member with a science background might be a mighty fine advisor here.

Robert.

[Mash]

Good point Robert.

I was referring to the making process.
Absolutely not endorsing the use of Yew for anything to do filtering

[Easydrinker]

Yew is better for your longbow where I come from.

Robert.