StillSmart

I was looking at the home page for the forum this morning, just to see how it all started. I found a link to StillCooker

Jimmy had added the site back in April 10 2008. I had a look around, not a big site but one page I found interesting was this here

I'm doing a spirit run this morning with my apple wine that I've stripped, and it's been suggested by one of the guys to age it.

BJ

Thanks for that Icefever,you are right it is a good read.Have tried aging on JD BBQ-chips they smelt of foist wood and guess what so did the spirit!

Will try new American oak chips at some time.

Luckyshot wrote:Thanks for that Icefever,you are right it is a good read.Have tried aging on JD BBQ-chips they smelt of foist wood and guess what so did the spirit!

Will try new American oak chips at some time.

When using JD BBQ chips you should always rinse the chips in boiling water then rinse with plenty of cold water before adding to your spirit? I have had problems with some of these chips in the past and this practice gets rid of the problem.

American Oak chips are just as likely to suffer the same problem?

AM

Thanks Ice,that was a new read to me.
And worth the time.
Robert.

aidanmac wrote:

Luckyshot wrote:Thanks for that Icefever,you are right it is a good read.Have tried aging on JD BBQ-chips they smelt of foist wood and guess what so did the spirit!

Will try new American oak chips at some time.

When using JD BBQ chips you should always rinse the chips in boiling water then rinse with plenty of cold water before adding to your spirit? I have had problems with some of these chips in the past and this practice gets rid of the problem.

American Oak chips are just as likely to suffer the same problem?

Please expand on the issues Aidan, as I make my own "chips" and haven't had such a problem - albeit my "chips" are done for wines and meads, so I can just clean up cooperage quality oak (old spirits barrel staves) down to clean wood, then either cut up to 15cmx5-6mmx5-5mm sticks which can be toasted to the colour of HB pencil lead in a low oven or the clean wood can be planed down tto shavings and added straight into the must during the ferment - obviously its a bit different for wines and meads. I'd guess I'd have to dry fry shavings/dust for spirits as it needs more charring/toasting........

as for JD chips ? Waste of good money as its just "once used" American oak. Whereas people see those two initials and think its a magic bullet.........total bollocks !

Plus the finer the chips or dust, the quicker it dropps the flavour/colour.....

Any reputable info is handy to read though.......

Plus, followed a couple of the ads that bannered while looking at the page IF linked, curious as one seemed to be reselling the Portuguese made alembics and another seemed to be selling courses/training for "personal alcohol licenses". The stills were off being offered, IMO, at a reasonable price, but the other ? Have I missed something ? As a tory government aren't likely to change the law are they.......

Thanks for the tip about boiling and rinsing the chips Aidanmac, that seems easy enough will give it a go.I followed a thread somewhere about JD chips, it could have been on here, and people seemed to have mixed results with BBQ chips, if you were lucky they worked great or they were crap.

Has any one got a good supplier of new American oak in small quantities? I have seen some advertised on E bay I think it was aimed at small scale hobby woodworkers.

@Phantom: my comments/advices are based on long experience I have had good and bad results from using JD BBQ chips. The bad results I traced to the quality of the wood chips, i.e. musty smell, dusty, etc. and found the way to remove the problem was to dunk the chips in boiling water to clean the wood before use. If you are making your own chips from wood you have cleaned yourself you will not have any such problems. I was only referring to bought wood chips such as Essencia Bourbon Chunks which I had problems with in the past. I personally don't think JD is magical, or anything like that, but I have found that the chips can help make a palatable spirit from a sugar head spirit - just my opinion

@Luckshot: Bad results with JD BBQ chips are usually down to musty or mouldy wood and this can be remedied by dunking in boiling water? However, if a bad spirit is used the wood chips will not make it better. I have come across a few people who insisted on using distillate from a single run in an Airstill as their base spirit which they added to JD chips and then complained because the result was unpalatable. Only a good quality, clean neutral spirit will produce a good tasting Bourbon/Sour Mash TYPE drink using JD or Bourbon chips. Try washing the chips then Nuke the spirit and chips at 50% ABV using 35g of wood chips per litre of spirit.

I use virgin Toasted American White Oak for my grain spirits and I source the wood from a specialist timber supplier near me. I found them by searching for same online I buy lengths of 5m X 250mm X 40mm which I then cut to the biscuit size I need before toasting.

AM

Thanks for the quick and concise reply Aidanmac,that's this mornings job, boiling some wood chips!

Cheers Aidan, was thinking about it and I'd guess they just give the barrels a pressure wash before chopping them up ready for drying and bagging.......

Either way it got me thinking because I was trying to consider how much of the char depth in the spirits barrels actually affects of flavour/ colour. Sure I appreciate that light, medium and heavy toast/charring etc but does the flavour and colour come from tbe actual burned bit of from below that in the heatex or toasted, but not burned part of the wood.......

Cos my current batch are pencil lead gray colour from tbe toasting I gave them on the advice of a wine making pal, and while I follow wine barrels aren't as heavily charred, if at all, that if I was gonna clone some "aged vodka" I might need to char them a bit.......

I actually don't char my oak at all? I found it added too much smoke taste so I reduced the amount of char I was doing and ended up preferring the taste of the spirit with the oak just toasted to a medium dark colour? This produces a well balanced taste and mouthfeel and a nice deep ruby colour.

AM

aidanmac wrote:I actually don't char my oak at all? I found it added too much smoke taste so I reduced the amount of char I was doing and ended up preferring the taste of the spirit with the oak just toasted to a medium dark colour? This produces a well balanced taste and mouthfeel and a nice deep ruby colour.

AM

Handy to know.........

Pencil lead gray it is then ! Hadn't thought of a smokey flavour from the burned bit......

When I was looking for barrels before I found a link to a "barrel broker" who did whole, used JD barrels. The only downside was that the "minimum", was a container full and I couldn't be arsed to
work out how many that would have been......

Wouldn't mind finding a Rioja or Sherry barrel though.........Spanish oak would be good to try.......