StillSmart

@ ontario23:There's no rule or useful guide to this question. The length of time you leave the spirit on the Oak is subjective and purely down to personal taste, it's part of the distiller's art and the only way to learn is by doing.

There's no substitute for tasting, smelling, looking through and feeling your spirit to determine when it's 'ready'. It's one of the learning curves we all have to master if we want to make better spirits.

I've personally given up any idea of copying or mimicking any other distillers' products because most commercial spirits are truly awful and driven solely by profit margins. Instead, I make what I call 'Style' Spirits. I make Scotch Style Whisky, Bourbon Style Whisky and others. Having consumed the commercial versions for many years I know what I don't like in them and I make sure my spirits are of a very similar taste and smell but without the elements I don't like

When I'm oaking spirit I test it on a regular basis....just a spoonful, honestly Just remember, once the spirit is bottled off the wood it will not develop any more flavour or colour so get it where you want it, in terms of taste and colour, then bottle it....or drink it If the flavour reaches a point you are happy with but the colour is too light you can adjust the colour depth using a little distillers caramel but do make your own, the commercial stuff is crap.

If the spirit gets too dark before developing the flavour you want the only option is to dilute it with more of the white spirit you started with until the colour is a little lighter than required and leave it on the wood to develop.

AM

@ edwatters: to my knowledge, Whiskies are routinely aged in barrels previously used to age wines and/or sherries. The only way to find out what will work for you is to try some of what's available in your neck of the woods

A few other distillers around these parts have been using oak barrels and I'm sure you'll get more info from them in due course.

I think the only Whisky that is aged in new Oak barrels is Bourbon Whiskey which, by law, must be aged in a barrel that can only be used once.

AM

Good one must of been the fumes LOL

Mod Edit: I've split the topic and moved the questions about boilers to another section.

ok just an update,its been exactly 7 days since
i started this attempt and im really happy with the
results so far

day 7

Definitely on the right track now

Looking decidedly tasty already.

AM

ok just an update been 2 weeks on the woodchips,i might sample some at the weekend

No matter where you are in the world 'Good Friday' is always a good day to sample new spirits extensively

Over here Good Friday is supposed to be a day of abstinence and the sale of alcohol is banned, all pubs closed and the alcohol sections of supermarkets fenced off and out of bounds and guess what...it's the biggest drinking day on the Irish calendar..we really don't like being told what to do

AM

aidanmac wrote:we really don't like being told what to do

True, that!

Magnu420 wrote:ok just an update been 2 weeks on the woodchips,i might sample some at the weekend

I really like the look of this and will be very interested in the results.

I was licking the screen on my iPad to see if I could get a taste but it didn't work

AM

Now that was funny Mac :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

ok after 4 weeks this is what i got




so i thought get it filtered and bottled,so i filtered it thru coffee filter paper,and some cotton wool




now my thoughts on this

the smell... there was only a hint of smell of jd
the colour.. could have been darker
the taste.. could have been a bit more body to it (lacking on summat ??)
any tips or tricks for next time when i do this

anyway im sampling the 3/4 of the 1/4 bottle cheers

@Magnu420
mate, however it is now, it'll be better in a few weeks/months all else being equal.....ok IMHO,

SMELL: I cant comment much on the 'smell' here as I've not used JD woodchips, however if you really wanted it to smell like JD, then its the neutral base you would perhaps consider changing as JD is made on a sourmash wash;
COLOUR: the colour will darken the longer you leave on oak, however this may/will cause the spirit to taste like 'wet wood' if you overoak it, so another idea would be to use a less amount of oakchips for a much longer period of time
or, perhaps better still, consider using charred/toasted oak sticks instead of, or in combination with, the JD chips
or (not really recommended but)make/buy some distillers caramel and add
TASTE: not too sure what the wash recipe was that you used, but using a neutral produced from a Turbo wash or similar will inevitably produce a thinner, less flavoursome finished product when compared to a 'proper' whisky/whiskey wash. It will also result in a less layered and complex mouthfeel and aftertaste. That's still ok, of course, however if you really want to make a full bodied bourbon, consider starting with a more 'typical' wash (eg UJSM)or even a 'knockoff' recipe (eg DWWG).

I think Frank has pretty well nailed it. For me, neutral on JD chips is a quick, easy alternative to something better. UJSSM on JD chips is better, and UJSSM on proper charred and toasted oak is better still and only a real all-grain mash aged on proper charred and toasted oak is going to give you a truly great result.

Also be aware that these chips are sold for smoking, not whiskey making, so there is no quality control in terms of what we want. It looks like your bag may have had more of the outside of the barrel and less of the inside. I've been using about 75g of chips in 750ml of neutral (50% ABV) for 7-10 days and that colours up nicely and is quite drinkable. But I have noticed that the results can vary between bags. Unlike proper charred and toasted oak, I have been finding that more JD chips for a shorter period of time produces a drink that I like more.


Chuck

As a newbie using an Air Still for the first time I didn't expect a lot but boy am I surprised. As a tester i added in half the volume (by sight) of JD chips into 60% sprit for 8 days then watered it down to 40% and omg... I believe I have a new addiction!

Cheers for all the info etc, I am soooo impressed.