StillSmart

As a rule I would recommend not to put neutral spirit over 55% on any oak as it will tend to extract some undesirables from the wood.

Edit: You may not taste them but they can taste your liver and kidneys.

AM

aidanmac wrote:As a rule I would recommend not to put neutral spirit over 55% on any oak as it will tend to extract some undesirables from the wood. ........
AM

Hi Aidan
re your recommendation, I had not heard of this before.
I have been regularly soaking my 65%ABV whisky spirit on charred oak sticks (previously boiled) and also put it into the barrel at about 55%, maybe slightly 'either side' of this.
I was of the (mis)understanding that 65%ABV has been determined by industry and esp. home distillers to be a 'sweet spot' regarding charred/toasted oak maturation of whisky/whiskey and rum spirit.
So.. I would be most grateful if you could you give a bit more info regarding these 'undesireables' please (a suitable link will do), as I obviously am now confused here (not hard with me mate, I know). Thanks.

Kiwi did an experiment (on Artisan, I think) with different ABV and found that initial oaking on over 65% produced better flavours. Though that does not mean better health. I also recall reading that until fairly recently, that most whiskeys were bottled and sold at 50% and up, way up. The reason for the reduction was economic, not health. I am curious as to what unhealthy components of oak would be extract by a higher ABV.

Chuck

aidanmac wrote:As a rule I would recommend not to put neutral spirit over 55% on any oak as it will tend to extract some undesirables from the wood.

Edit: You may not taste them but they can taste your liver and kidneys.

AM

Thank you for the info, i will do some more reading Thankfully being a cautious newbie I only did a litre tester this time.

Sorry guys I really shouldn't post here when I'm 'tired' late at night.

My original should have read 65% and not as stupidly stated. Above this level the ethanol will dissolve acrid elements in the oak and give the spirit a strong woody/Oak taste.

Mea Culpa

AM

cheers for the clarification Aidan, all good etc...though, being who I am, I am certainly likely to remain confused about lots of things anyway

@Chill, yep Kiwistillers oaking 'guide' was my principle driver for oaking experiments....its on AD, AUD,MD and probably others.....but I'm not ....
(any chance of a link from someone at some stage? it makes for enlightening reading IMHO)

Hey Frank

Was this http://ww.homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11326&start=30 the link you were after?

That is it, and this results post in particular:
http://ww.homedistiller.org/forum/viewt ... 2#p6818273

Chuck

cheers guys...much appreciated....great info there
(and its why I do heavy char @65%abv for my scotch too. )

Lot's of good stuff in his blog (at least I think this is Kiwi), like Gin!
http://medicinalpurposes.wordpress.com/ ... aking-gin/

Chuck

@Magnu420......mate, can I presume your question here has been 'answered' to your satisfaction? If so/not, apologies for my 'off-topic' contributions BTW.

@Chill et al: have you (has anyone????) tried an 'oakstick soak' where the ABV has been manually adjusted during maturation (eg as per Kiwistiller idea re start @65, change to @62% 'later on' etc) to try and include multiple 'flavours' to the final product?

yep.....I am intersted to try 'such'

Yes, Frank, I have. That is now the only way that I age my products. I start at 65% and drop by 5-10% (aiming for 5 but sometimes I add too much water) about every 3 weeks or when ever I feel it is ready. It sit longer at 50 and 45%. I've been thinking that I should let it sit longer at each stage.

Chuck