StillSmart

Having browsed through this thread, I can't find this point mentioned.

Using Oak, is it best to age at the distilled strength or, at the diluted strength it will be drank at?

Would aging at the distilled, higher strength, hasten the extraction of the oak's properites?

You want to age it at the higher ABV. Myself, I usually start around 65% and drop it in 5% increments over time until I get to about 50%. Different ABV seems to extract different flavours. I don't think that is what commercial distilleries do. They age it at 65% give or take.

Chuck

I age at 40%. The end result speaks for itself.

Thank you for these comments.

With regard to ageing at the hight % abv, thereby smaller volume, how does one calculate the effect (colour and taste) that will apparent when diluted to 40%. Is it a matter of learning quantities of oak and time period?

With regard to dilution of colour and taste, I am sure there are models / formulae available, I have never stumbled on them but in all honesty I do not think that they are required.

Simply dilute the aging spirits to 40% then taste / smell and look at the colour of the diluted sample. This gives you the answer, I believe, that you are looking for and it is much more enjoyable than trying to calculate it.

With the whiskys I make, I tend to fill barrels somewhere around about 50 %abv as much to ensure the 10 litre barrels I favour are full

Then it is a case of tasting from time to time I've found over about 9 months seems to work

I usually dilute at bottling to about 45% and that little bit of filtered water seems to just smooth it enough

This is on all grain mashed whiskys that I've been doing for a while with pretty damn good results

Scotch is all aged at 64.5 ABV it's an industry standard and they say they get the best from the wood. I age just about everything in the mid 60's, I've tried higher and it just makes it taste woody, lower works too.

If your planning on aging something for 3 months - 6 months - a year, you can slowly add water over the months to slowly bring the ABV down to the low 50's, this is supposed to simulate the abv dropping that would happen in a cask (the angles share) - it seems to work well, but I haven't done a side by side to see how much of a difference it really makes, compared to just aging in the mid 60s for the duration then letting down.

At present, I am ageing a very recent malt wash distillation with American Oak Mini Staves from StillDragon.


StillDragon suggest that, with a given dosage per litre, at vat strength, the maturation process will be approximately 4 weeks.

Has anybody else used the same mini staves and did they dilute during the maturation period?

If so, at what rate?

T

I have not done it with their wood, but for a four week maturation process I would not dilute. When I dilute (which is basically if/when I remember) is it at 4-8 week intervals with a 6+ month aging.

Chuck

Because I've been up to my eyes I havnt been rushing maturation

So....... Nearly 12 months in oak. rather on the good side I would say and more to come !

I decided to age at 65% abv using Youngs French Oak Chips. I gradually diluted until I had a reading of 40% abv., then polished by filtering through a Vinbrite Mk111 Filter System.


I do have another 6.5 litres @ 65% abv., of another run, which I am ageing on StillDragon's American Oak No. 1 Staves. As there are no small particles in these, I anticipate that no polishing will be required

Looks good, I've only been making neutral so far but I've got 100g of SD French Oak No4 so I'll have to use it up on something, as its French oak I'm thinking Brandy, get 2 cheap 5 gallon wine kits, ferment and strip them, then a spirit run using my torpedo, and no packing, hopefully I can get 7-8 litres to use my oak in.

You wont go wrong with the wine kits anavrin, i done that earlier this year with two of the wilko kits, they were the pinot grigio and sav blanc. they were not cheap but the use by date was running low, so i chucked them in and used a vodka star yeast to ferment them out. D/stilled in the pot they are currently bottled as an orange brandy (quantro style) as i dont drink brandy. With your setup im sure you
will get a really nice end result.

Cheers B_D

edited to get back on topic. they were on j/d chips at 62% for a few months before diluting and bottling.

Not really wishing to drag it back off topic,but curious as to your approach to get the orange in there B-D.

Robert.

Easydrinker wrote:Not really wishing to drag it back off topic,but curious as to your approach to get the orange in there B-D.

Robert.

I done it the same way i do limoncello, take the peel of an orange no pith and let it macerate in the oaked brandy at 62% for around a week then filter and dilute to drinking strength,add sweetness if desired.

cheers B_D