StillSmart

Just took delivery of 4 Cornie Kegs like this one

... 25 guys got together on a beer brewing forum I'm on and imported 60 of these from Germany. Most of the guys are using theirs for draught beer but mine will be used for oaking spirits like Bourbon.

The kegs arrived with all new fittings and seals and are in new condition. The final cost was 40 Euros a piece but I think they're worth it in the long run.

I intend to use a small pressure test kit to introduce a small amount of pressure into the keg when filled with white dog and toasted American White Oak. The theory is that when the pressure is introduced the spirit will be forced into the Oak as it would be in a barrel helping to extract the nice flavours from the wood.

The kegs are rated as holding 19lt so I can produce reasonably large batches in one go.

AM

nice find AM, I wish i had more room to store my stuff,my fly-tying and fishing gear takes up the spare bedroom so i store in DJs all around the place
Alan

nice one Aiden. I have been using the very same thing to store low wines in, they work very well.

Have you given any thought about how you are going to empty them once full? I'm currently just tipping them into my SS bucket about 8L at a time, minimum loses, the first one when its full is the hardest, its not really satisfactory though.

The pick up pipe in mine are SS so I left them in (some are poly apparently), any idea what sort of flow rate these put out? I could consider pressurising it to move the liquid?

My thought was to use a little manually introduced air pressure to 'tap' the spirit off. I've just ordered the Quick Disconnect fittings and I'm going to hook up a foot pump to the in valve. Don't know how well this will work but the valves should be here Wednesday I'll run a test with water and let you know how it goes.

I have a 50lt keg with just a drain tap and lid for storing my low wines. When I'm stripping I run the strip directly to the keg from the parrot. I only sorted it out the other day and its made life a lot simpler. The keg was lying around doing nothing so I decided to press it into service.

AM

Cool, I'm very interested how that works out for you. I'm working on a similar thing for my boiler.
I'm going to attached the pressure gauge with cam-lock fittings, at the end of a run I pop it off, pop in the SS pick up tube, and pressurise the still with a foot pump to pump the backset where I need it.
I'm sure there is a phrase about fools differing seldomly, but it escapes me

We had a few big expenses recently and the trooser is scrutinising any brewing related purchases, so might be a few weeks before I finish that project, there is a SS needle valve on the shopping list before that for the new LM VM combo, so who knows.

OK, I got the Quick Connectors for the Cornie Kegs and set up a test to see if I can use the pick-up tube to empty the keg.

As you can see the test rig is high tech. Just a couple of pumps and I got controllable steady flow from the pick-up tube to which I had just attached some PVC tubing.

I'm planning to make a copper tube fitting with a SS tap for the 'out' connector and a non return valve for the 'in' connector.

From a Whiskey point of view these kegs will work out very well and I won't have to be cutting my American White Oak into matchsticks anymore. I'm planning on cutting 5mm strips the height of the inside of the keg but I'm still trying to work out the correct ratio of wood surface area to volume of liquid..in this case 19lt - I haven't actually tested the max capacity.

The kegs are good, pressure-wise, up to 100psi but I don't think I'll be going anywhere near that to get the spirit to penetrate the wood fully, perhaps between 5-10psi.

First batch should be going in w/e 28 Sep. I'll keep you posted.

Onwards and upwards!

AM

Well, I finally got my first batch of spirit into one of my new Cornie Kegs. The delay was working out how to pressurise the keg to force the spirit deep into the wood and how to suspend the Oak in the spirit rather than having it just sitting on the bottom.

Here's my solution...and all comments, suggestions, etc will be welcome.


The wood chips are contained in a Copper Mesh 'sock' and suspended from a length of 6mm Copper Tube with a hook formed at the top. I buy Copper Mesh from Brewhaus in Texas and tied off a 24" length with Copper Wire.

The pressurising device I thought up is just a basic foot pump connected to the CO2 inlet valve with a quick release connector, a check valve and an air pressure gauge.

The first batch is 15lt with half a bag of JD chips in the Copper Sock and the pressure pumped up to 5psi.

I wait with interest to see how this all pans out as I'll have a batch of Sour Mash ready soon and my American White Oak is cut and waiting.

This is making my mouth water - think I'll go have a small large one.

AM

nice set up there you got aidanmac

where did you get the jd woodchips from and what price
thanks

I buy those JD BBQ Wood Chips at the end of the season and pick them up for 10 Euros a bag. You can get them online with cheap UK delivery here http://www.webbsdirect.co.uk/premier_de ... rod491471/ and each bag will do 12lt of great tasting faux Sour Mash in a week and with the cleaner spirit we make it's even better than the original - even from a sugar wash.

Try a few drops of Maple Syrup and a few drops of Distiller's Caramel to adjust the colour if necessary.

AM

p.s. you can also re-use the chips after the first soaking but you need to leave the second batch for about a month and it will require Distillers Caramel because, while it will develop good flavour, it will be a little pale but the Caramel fixes that without sweetening.

AM

Hey AM

it strikes me that what you are trying to do is a bit like pressure treating timber for fencing etc
The idea of that is to force the fluid under pressure into the wood then leave behind the preservative salts
So what you may end up with is soggy chippings and no extra flavour
The trick with wood preservation is they use vacuums too, firstly to suck water out of the new wood ,then pressure to force in preservative, then vacuum to pull excess moisture out
What we want is the wood flavour so I would suggest letting pressure out after a while to allow it to leach out unless you can apply a vacumn to it as well
It would probably be better to pressure and release a few times perhaps

I took the idea from a video from the Makers Mark distillery where they explain that as ambient temp rises in the storehouses, the whisky in the barrel expands and because there's nowhere else to go, it's forced, by natural pressure, into the grain of the wood in the barrel. Then when the ambient temp drops again the Whisky recedes from the wood again taking with it the natural Oak sugars, Vanillans and other desirable flavours and characteristics.

The setup I've created is experimental but the principles are basically the same. The only place for the liquid to go when I pump up the pressure is into the wood grain and when the pressure drops again it should recede from the wood - just like in a barrel - at least that's the theory anyway. I will be applying pressure on a 24hr on/24hr off basis and monitor progress each day. Of course this also means having to taste for progress each day

If all goes well the procedure will be used with my Sour Mash and freshly toasted and charred American White Oak. I post results as they come to hand.

AM

Adding pressure to the spirit with the JD Chips in the Cornie Kegs was a BAD idea.

The spirit turned cloudy and has a very fine powder suspended in it. Definitely not drinkable.

It's currently being passed through a cleaning filter and I'll rerun it through the still when it clear.

Anyway, a word to the wise - don't anyone try this at home, it doesn't work. I'll still be using the kegs for aging and flavouring but without pressure being added.

I take solace from the old saying, "the man who never made a mistake never made anything"

AM

Oh Buggar AM, didn't expect that to happen either must admit I havnt been too impressed with my whisky barrel chips either
The little barrels seem much better

I have recovered the spirit and I'm tossing it back in the still diluted to 15% and I'll collect as a spirit run then start again.

I reckon the kegs will be fine for soaking the JD chips as long as I don't go messing around with things. I've been making faux sour mash this way for over a year but in smaller batches in 3lt glass jars so there's no reason the bigger containers should be any different if I just fill them and wait.

When my UJSSM is ready it'll be going in these kegs with staves of American White Oak and nothing else but time

AM

Nice container but pressurising the vessel wont help with the oaking as you are trying to draw the flavonoids out of the oak and not keep them in as this is what will happen. Try creating a vacuum over the spirits. An old refrigerator compressor can be modified to make a brilliant vacuum pump, plenty of how to's on the net.