StillSmart

Aiden, That has not been a common trait, that has popped up on any of the threads..

I think its a Gremlin maybe

thanks for the update

FS

I remember reading about aging whiskies at elevated storage ie on the top floor of a multi story warehouse.
Being up high and so close to the tin roof caused the temperatures in the barrels to be elevated to the point where it produced a marked accelerated aging of the product.
This was due to the liquid being driven into the oak deeper, and extracting more "wood" flavours than the (cooler) barrels on the bottom floors.
It also produced a deeper colour quicker.

They quickly marketed this new product as something "special". I think Beam, Johnny Walker and JD have something like this in the market.

This is exactly what nuking the stuff does, except in a safer, more natural way.

I have found that leaving my aging jars in a warm environment produces a markedly better tipple than one left to age in a cool dark environment. It took a 12 month experiment to enable me to say that.

I can just see all these exploding jars with the push of a wrong button. Be careful, be safe.

scarecrow

Would putting ageing jars in the top of an airing cupboard have the same effect as there is a continual hot / cold cycle through the water tank.

Crow we don't have a lid or seal on the jars while they are warming up.... so how are they going to explode? Not a single bottle has been injured in the development of this process....

And your story matches what i posted in my introduction of the process
I saw a program on tv and it showed the barrels being rotated from the hot top to the bottom .... etc.

Hi FS

You have another happy convert to your Method.

I tested this yesterday using some pretty rough 1st gen sweet feed, I nuked it 3 times using some JD blocks in my brand new microwave!

What a difference it has made to the product. Has transformed it significantly. I will be experimenting with this method further.

Has anyone tried using an oven (electric) instead of a microwave?

There are over 300 posts regarding this process currently in forums an yes they have tried other ways to do this... mostly they did not work.

Not sure if i can post the thread links or not.. a google search for this thread heading will get you to most of the main ones.

SWMBO is buying me a Microwave for my distillery. Having used the method several times over the past few days I have decided it will be a part of my standard process in making Whisky and Rum.

I'm not abandoning traditional ageing by any means but I see this as a method of looking forward in time to see how a particular batch will develop on Oak in traditional ageing.

I'm going to toast some American White Oak I have had seasoning for nearly two years and try some dominoes in spirit taken from a spirit run scheduled for Sunday - all things going well

Will post results.

AM

As a side-note, I did have to nuke mine for closer to 5 minutes each blast in my 700w cheapy generic microwave to get the temperature to approx.150f (65c)

aidanmac wrote:I'm going to toast some American White Oak I have had seasoning for nearly two years and try some dominoes in spirit taken from a spirit run scheduled for Sunday - all things going well

Will post results.

AM

Well, all things did not go well and I'm still waiting to do that spirit run. I broke a tooth on Saturday and I'm waiting to go to my dentist this morning so I've been a little distracted

I'll get to it tomorrow

AM

Having the worst case on "Murphy's Law" ever these past few weeks. Latest was my daughter broke her wrist in a sports "accident" and we had to spend Friday and Saturday in the hospital and she had to have surgery to insert a plate in her wrist.

We got back at about 2100hrs last evening and after getting a bite to eat I poured myself and the wife a good stiff drink and promptly fell asleep on the couch

It's enough to drive me to drink - so that's what I'm going to do tonight

I promised to post some pics of my nuking of spirit with some of my toasted American White Oak. I have three grades of toasted Oak so I started with the darkest and did a JD Chips batch alongside for comparison.

Each batch consisted of 70cl of white neutral spirit at 62.5%ABV and 100g of wood Chips.

This is how they started with the American White Oak on the left



After the first run in the Micro they looked like this..



They both got three runs in the Micro and were allowed to cool to room temp with the lids on but I decided not to post pics of every stage as it would be too much like watching the grass grow

However, when diluted to 40% and ready for bottling I found that the 100g of American White Oak had absorbed 200ml of the overall liquid volume while the JD chips had only absorbed 100ml

When the two batches were bottled this is what I had,



The two bottles could hardly be more different. The finished spirit from the toasted White Oak is rich and smoky and has a lovely overall finish I think it will need a little time in the bottle before it reaches it's best.

The spirit from the JD chips is lighter with no smokey aroma or taste but eminently drinkable and that's what's in my glass right now, Slainte

AM

I'm guessing that the toasted chips were "new" and unused. The JD chips have already "been through the horse" once - so to speak. They will always produce a "drinkable now" tipple as the harshness has already been removed by Jack Daniel's, whereas the new oak is still releasing oak, tannins and associated flavours.

You could try using "used" toasted american oak. It should give a mellower flavour. I have found you can use more without fear of "over-oaking".

I also boil any new oak for 5 mins to extract the water soluble nasties before toasting them. IMHO it makes for a smoother tipple.

Nice bit of info AM. Cheers.

scarecrow

AM: Sorry to hear about your daughter. That sounds like a nasty break indeed! Thanks for the info, excellent as always.

Scarecrow: thank for the tip on boiling, I will try that with my next batch. It makes good sense.

Chuck

I acquired the new White Oak I have almost two years ago and on the advice of a friend who has a lot more experience in these matters, the oak was left out in the elements to season and let the rains, cold, heat and winds wash out all the nasties from the wood.

After all that I ripped the oak into 300mm X 30mm X 10mm strips and toasted them in batches to varying degrees to see how much toasting I personally prefer.

It turns out I prefer a medium toast and future batches will be done this way.

I originally bought two 3m planks 250mm X 40mm from a small artisan timber specialist and these have provided me with a good supply of White Oak that I'm only starting to use now that should last a while

AM

@Aidan great post, thank you....its always good to get such comparative stuff happening and the results shared IMHO....lets see what a bit of traditional aging (on top of this) does too.
Slainte

+1 Scarecrows new oak 'boil first' comment BTW...it works for me anyway

OK.....my question is: if you exchanged the microwave process for a stovetop, double boiler setup...all other things about sealing jars etc being similar, would the end results be similar?

aidanmac wrote:the oak was left out in the elements to season and let the rains, cold, heat and winds wash out all the nasties from the wood.

Test it by taking a sample and boiling it for 5 mins. See if it turns a "tea" colour. Dry it out and do the nuke thingy and see if it makes a difference. You will be surprised what boiling does to it.

scarecrow