StillSmart

I was watching a tv special on making whiskey when this came to me. They age the kegs in an open warehouse 3 or 4 stories tall. They rotate the kegs from from the top to the bottom on a set basis.
During the heat of the day the metal roof elevates the temperature up to a max of 150 degree's f at the roof level and then it drops back to normal temperature during the night only to repeat again the next day.

I was trying to equate something like that for us at a hobby level and came up with this.

I took a bag of Jack Daniels BBQ smoking chips and when I opened it got a great aroma of JD whiskey from the chipped barrel staves. This was my basis.

I started with sweet feed single run at 75 abv. I used a 8 fluid ounce cup and filled it level to the lip with JD chips which I then put in a 1.3 liter jar. I filled the jar with the 75 abv SF, leaving 1.5 inches of head space and I then put the jar into a 1200 watt microwave oven and heated it for 2 minutes. The temperature of the chips and alcohol was about 150f when it was removed. I screwed the cap on the jar and tightened it securely.

As the liquid cooled down it puts a vacuum on the chips and liquid. I shook the jar a few time and you will start to see a color change almost at you look at the jar. Set the jar on a counter and let it cool slowly back to room temperature.

When the jar is cool you may shake it a few times and then open it slowly, you should hear the vacuum break as the lid is turned. the chips which are no longer under a vacuum will suck up some of the high abv liquid. Repeat the microwave heated again and reinstall the lid and let the product cool. You may shake it occasionally if desired... The color will already be a golden brown.... but on the second or third heating you will see a classical reddish hue start to develop in the liquid.

Dilute some of the product to 40 abv and you will be amazed as just how close the finished rapidly aged product tastes to Jack Daniels. If want it to be even closer add a drop of your best vanilla extract, and maybe 1/8 tsp. of glycerine. The vanilla is for the smallest of flavors found in long term oak aged products and the glycerine smooths the beverage out and gives it a wonderful mouth feel...

Regardless of whether you add the vanilla or glycerine the product has a great flavor and has the Jack Daniels finish.

The same process can you used to add burbon/whiskey oak ageing to your favorite rum.

4 of us are still experimenting with this technique, give it a try and let me know what your thoughts are and how this one could be improved.

Some people have the patience to store their product in a keg for up to 4 years and some of us just wanna have fun. Hope you enjoy this as much as I have been doing while it was in development.

Nuclear name prefix courtesy of Smaug.

I have people testing this on AD and MD here is a link to the original post on MD... hope this is not a forum violation if it is please forgive me:

http://forum.moderndistiller.com/viewto ... =34&t=1883

All i ask is that if you give it a go post your results so that the process can be improved upon, your true thoughts good, bad or indifferent.

Good Luck and Happy Stillin,

FS

is vanilla extract the same as vanilla essence ??also whats 1/8 of a teaspoon
in metric

i dont like the sound of microwaving it,but next time when
il try another attemp of makin me own jd,i think il use vanilla extract
and glycerine

Magnu420 microwave it three times and its ready to drink... in most cases taste is a personal thing...

It can be whitedog whiskey tonight and reddish amber/brown tomorrow truly... read the thread link and look at the photo's I will add a photo to my post... even First Photo this is a photo of two 1.3L jars with 1 microwave...Second Photo show the same jars with 2 microwaves notice the color Third Photo is a single jar of finished product reduced to 40abv with distilled water after 3 microwaves and the slow cooling.

This was all done in one evening and the product was cut to 40abv the next morning..

Hope you Enjoy it as much as i did....

1/8 tsp equals .616 ml or there about

Vanilla essence is imitation vanilla extract. I use the best vanilla extract i can get.... takes very very little of the real deal.

already got some jd lookalike about 1.5L left now
i might just throw into me big jar,get a cupfull of jd woodchips (i might just char them a bit more with blow torch) and have a do
you can see my final product after my experiment here

Magnu420 wrote: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

This was conventionally aged or microwaved? If it was conventionally aged and you want to add microwave ageing to it as well add the chips and run it through at least 2 heat cycles this saturates the chips fully and extracts color and flavor.. 3 might be better but do a taste test to check the product profile before the 3rd heat cool cycle.

I did not add any char to the JD chips that i used...

The product will continue to get darker each time you microwave and seal the jar, letting it cool. I have gone as many as 10 heating/cooling cycles to see what happens... at some point depending on the chips you can over oak. So sample each batch before you reheat it to see if its what your tastebuds will be happy with.

If you use the JD chips more than once you do not get as much color, JD smell or taste the second or third use. MY JD chips cost about 4.90 USD here at my local Walmart store so I use plenty and have been throwing them away after the 2nd or 3rd use to make sure i get the flavor profile.

I am worried this process of microwaving 75abv spirit could be very hazardous there is oxygen present and ethanol vapours you only need some type of ignition for a fire/explosion to occur
cheers

This has been concerning me too so I have decided to reduce the strength to 50% and take it from there as I can not think of any reason to take the risk of ignition.

AM

I have performed the microwave heat vacuum cycle more that 100 times with no issues... but there is always concern when working with high abv products.

If ignition were to occur simply place a flat plate of dish over the top of the jar to cut the oxygen supply off and smother the source.

Do not heat a jar in the microwave with the lid, ring of any metal in place.

happy stilling

FS

I will be watching this post with interest. Just seen it on the HD forums.
I have some Sweet Feed almost fermented dry, and am currently researching different methods of aging in preparation

I was told flat out that i would never get it posted on HD but i pm ed tater and husker and both agreed POST IT but it was here first due to my respect for Aidenmac and his opinion.

Happy Stillin

FS

I'm on it FS! And I'm running it exactly as you recommended.

You got to trust the people whose opinions you respect, and I respect the advice from FS from MD

AM

Have just read the replies on HD. I wonder why some of those guys there make likker in the first place, it's such a dangerous thing to do.

Going to give this a try with neutral and see what happens.

FS said " I actually thought about you and your scotch whiskey recipe as i was developing this one so please give er a try ...would love to get your opinion and thoughts regarding the rapid ageing...FS"

Mate, firstly I dont use a microwave for anything so...sorry cant help you here. I certainly appreciate the kind words though.

Also, honestly, my FSW maturation/final spirit is going so well, I wouldn't care to f### with it due to my limited opportunities to run a wash ATM and my distilling focus re if you are on a good thing, stick to it; patience is your friend etc

I wonder, what do you reckon the reason is as to why would it be that BIG distillers arent onto this 'nuclear' method? Afterall its certainly saves time and effort and 'storage space' and most quaffers wouldnt know when they quaff etc.
I do get there are 'rules' to follow etc if you're a commercial distiller (esp re whiskey/whisky) but do you think its the law or the finished product that limits commercial interest in this method?

Anyway mate, great post and stay safe with the 'technology'.

I ran the test as suggested by FS and it worked a treat although the finished product wasn't as dark as I expected. However, this may have been down to the amount of JD chunks I used.

Out of curiosity I decided to try a second test with two slightly different batches and here's the result..

...after three microwave exposures and a total of 24 hours


The difference between the batches is this...

...the one on the right is 70cl @ 72%ABV

...while the one on the left is 70cl @ 40%ABV. If you click on the pic and look at the close up you'll notice the right hand jar has more JD chunks and despite this did not do any better than the 40% spirit.

Both were primed with JD chunks from the same bag and were done at exactly the same times. Taste and mouthfeel are virtually identical.

I don't have any explanation for why the two different strengths produced the same result.

After the above procedure both were filtered through my usual cotton wool lined funnel to remove bits. One 'end product' difference between them was that while the 40% was crystal clear the 72% needed to be polished. This was done with a new cotton wool liner and a wine filter paper in the funnel after which both were crystal clear.

When the 72% was diluted to 40% it had lost a good amount of it's golden colour and I had to enhance it with a little distiller's caramel.

Either way, for converting a white neutral into a ready to drink Sour Mash type whisky the microwave method gets a big thumbs up from me

AM

Aidenmac,

Some testers have varied the amount of the chips to fit their particular taste profiles... some have run the heat/vacuum cycle up to 10 time of a particular batch of chips, chunks or staves. Just be careful to do a taste test between cycles after say the 3rd heat.

The color is not really the issue, it's the taste profile and that is the homerun we all try to hit...

Excellent results with rum, and numerous versions of whiskey all seem to produce a good profile if the tester takes the time to adapt the cycles to fit their own tastes..

This method allows a tester to develop a taste or product without having to wait months to years to see if its something they will like or enjoy. One distiller said nuke it taste it and if its not good put back in the boiler and try again...not months or years finding out the answer.

Thank you for giving this a test, I believe that some of your members will truly enjoy this for years to come.

Happy Stillin,

FS