StillSmart

What , look at the time where are the trains.

Not all are as young as us Mash

Robert.

He is heavy going, but an interesting experiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhCslACfq_4

Holy fuck.
Having just invested 7 minutes of my life there, it is just the difference between shit and Shinola.
Move along. nothing to be seen here.

Robert.

Results are in. (as prommised)

I neuked it a couple of times and got stuck in, tasted fine but was nothing special, bourbony taste with a breakfast aftertaste, I was left a little dissapointed after all the work getting to this point.
I neuked it again and left it on my windowsil to let the sun have a go, forgot about it and a week later opened the jar to find a transformed drink, the lesson learned is leave it on wood for some time, mine was a week under vacuum in the sun and WOW it's really good, it's looking to me to be a 50/50 split between the distilate and the wood it resides on as to the flavour of the finished product, I would never have guessed the wood would play such a role.

Wood is the big deal. I am pleased for you. Now you have to try some more

Wood and time.
It is a tradition.
Learning the effective shortcuts is a challenge.
Not just for a home distiller, believe me, big business is working on it too.
Do not expect them to share

Robert.

From my research we have such an advantage over the 'big boys', oaking in small containers is efficient, oaking in large containers takes years to complete the task, I guess they need repeatability with volume where as we are entirely focused on a few bottles of Gucci booze.

My beer brewing mate made a batch of unhopped malted grain beer for me to still, we shared the booze, here it is before stilling.



The not so scotch single malt is now sitting on these,



These pieces are made from a year seasoned British oak, baked at 180 degrees for 2 hours and then charred with a gas torch, some more than others.
They have had 2 cycles of neuking and are now sitting under vacuum on my window cil enjoying the sunshine, I hope they taste as good as they look!

I think you will be pleased.
Taste it regularly. Tasting tells you what's going on and is also an education for your palate.
One thing to remember about oak is you can't take it out, that said I once ran 4L of horribly over oaked through an AS, and the output what was fantastic.

Sometimes there is a Bell curve, it starts out in, get horrible and then goes over the top and becomes spanking. You just need to drink more to understand

What grain did your mate use, that is a really dark [20+ SRM] brew?

Gucci booze.
Lovin' it.

Robert.

@ Maker. Double ot triple the number of cuts you have made. The exposure to end cuts will drastically shorten the time it takes as oppsed to smooth side cuts.

Thanks guys, sorry for the delay but got my cornflakes done and am impressed, i nuked 1 litre with bourbon chips and soaked the other 3 litres on the same for 10 days. It was my first try at a flavoured spirit and I wouldn’t have been able to do it with out the information from here.

Making alcohol is easy, making it taste good is a little harder.
I am glad this worked for you.
And if information here helped, so much the better.

Robert.