Yesterday I delved into my wines and liquors... and spied a few bottles of mead I’d forgotten I had. They’re two years old, probably very high ABV as I didn’t have a hydrometer at the time. I was still making mead like my grandmother used to and she worked by eye, taste and experience, never even using so much as a scale. Opened a bottle, had a little taste and it’s smooth and slightly smokey, almost whiskey-like. Right next to the shelf were my BBQ-ing and smoking supplies... including my whiskey barrel wood chips, orange wood chips, olive wood chips... (avid fan of low ‘n slow BBQ-ing and smoking here). Now I’m pondering the addition of a wood chip to a bottle. Stick it in my shed and let it sleep there for a few months. See what it does. Yay!
I've been waiting for someone to do a wood test for a while. You've just barely scratched the surface when it comes to wood flavoring. Can't wait to see more woods in the future. Orange, beech, iron wood, lilac, plum, pear, apple, peach, paw paw, bamboo, almond, corncob, the list is almost endless. Then throw in blending of woods and the possibilities are endless. I'd love to see you throw your hat in the ring on Moonshiners Master Distiller. Wonder what a shine aged in charred corn cobs would taste like?
Im not 100 percent, however i believe they use French Oak with Sherry wine. I enjoyed the way that this video illustrated the importance of wood selection can have on a spirit.
@@BeardedBored I am going to try the white rum first for three months and I have a buddy that has some white lighting. I want to age it for a year at least to see the results.
Totally enjoyed this video. I also watched the making of when you put the wood into the jars. Very interesting. Cool stuff. Keep it up man. Good job 👍🏼
It's possible that the cherry scent exists in the wood if you crush a lemon tree leaf it smells highly of lemon and it's used as a spice fresh to add lemon flavor to dishes without adding acidity
I've been tempted to use toasted cherry wood. My brother has a ton of it that's been split and drying for a year. I think I may just snitch me a little cherry. I also have some apple wood chips that I smoke Venison jerky and add to alder when smoking steelhead and trout.
Try making it with ground popped popcorn. Read that the corn notes are very forward but that was the only mention I've come across about it. Waiting for someone to try that. Once it's popped the starch is gelatinized so the yeast should have a field day with it.
Think about this. You're a contestant on Moonshiners Master Distiller. You come in with bags of ground popped popcorn (looks like flour) get your kettle of hot water, pour in the sugar and make a simple syrup. When simple sugars such as sucrose (or table sugar) are heated, they melt and break down into glucose and fructose, two other forms of sugar. That makes it easier for the yeast to consume. Now you just dump in the popcorn flour with no cooking needed and pitch your yeast. You have a head start on every one else because you don't have to cook your grain. How amazed would the judges be to see that? How amazed would they be to taste it? Especially if it's a corn heavy taste and you made a caramel popcorn flavored shine. And how many kinds of popcorn are out there? All with there own unique taste.
You need to try the whiskey again with medium toasted maple, and significantly more wood - say two 1/2" x 3/4" x 3.5" dominoes. Get it right and you'll get a mild maple syrup flavor in the whiskey. Can be very nice. Not a super smooth supper but tasty.
I have always hated anything that was brown when it came to liquor. However, once I watched beardeds videos and made my own single malt whiskey, which was excedrin white dog form but I roasted a white oak infusion spiral with my torch ,till it was heavily charred, then I dropped it in a half gallon of single malt hearts and after a month of "ageing" its like a whole new world has been introduced to me because I taste the "hot fudge " and the vanilla and all the other barrel candy that I've always heard other ppl talk about. I highly recommend that if you really like to drink, make your own,experiment and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Little late to the table, but I agree, maturation is probably the most critical step to a finished product. For my apple brandy, I usually age in three (or more) one gallon jars with different woods in each - apple/cherry combination, pecan, and white oak. Three very different flavors to choose from. So uniquely different that you would never believe they were from the same ferment and distillation.
That's how the apple/cherry combination came about. My first apple brandy, I did the two woods separately. At some point I combined two partial bottles together and I decided that I liked it so much, I just started aging with the woods combined.
Do you think it would make any difference in aging with woodchips to actually vacuum seal the widemouth jars?? You can get an attachment for the common Food Saver machine to vacuum seal wide-mouth mason jars.......Would that help pull the spirit into the wood and assist in anyway OR speed up the process?? Really enjoying the video and excellent info and experience, looking forward to making my own in the not to distant future, Thank you!!
Yes, vacuum aging does work. There are a few distilleries working with "fast aging" that use vacuum, pressure, heat, cold, and ultrasonic pulses to drive the spirit in and out of the wood. Definitely something to play around with;-)
Tried your popcorn malt as per video and was extremely pleased with the results, appreciate the tip, got my rotisserie motor yesterday so will male a power one asap, did 4 lbs so far, no fuzz or mold like I have had issues with in the past. Excellent tips as always, thanks again. On a side note have you done an all malted corn and barley recepie yet, thought I might do 10lb malt corn, 2lb malt barley and 10lb sugar for a 10 gallon trial run, but before cooking that much malted grain thought i would check and see if it's been tried by you or any of your subscribers.
Glad to hear it worked so well for you:-) I've had a lot of success with the malt in different recipes, but I haven't tried your specific recipe. Seems solid though. I'd run it. I've used malted corn in a few beers and "something else". I recently sent 5# of popcorn malt to George over at the Barley and Hops Brewing channel. He did a video testing the popcorn malt vs regular corn with barley. Really solid data in his test. Watch his video for tips on mashing. I'm confident it'll work well for you. Since it's malted you won't need to gelatinize at 190F, just give it a good grinding and mash at 155F for 90 minutes to get the most out of it. Good luck on your robot build:-)
You know how much I can talk. If I did that the video would be an hour, LoL! But, I just got an email from the owner of Barrel Char and he said the blend of maple and oak I did at the end for the rum is the one he uses for all of his rum.
A great video, Bored! There are some great white spirits on offer from many licensed craft distillers that you could use as a quality base without any sugar. White whiskey is easy to source, white (unaged ) brandy is a little harder, look for eau de vie without any additives. As you mentioned, better white spirits gives you better aged spirits. Please continue to make videos!
Thank you Bearded for a great video lesson. Jesse has nothing on you when it comes to tasting! You nailed it. Thank you for doing this comparison. We always knew that Moonshine doesn't hold up to grain fermentation, not! How about doing this same test only using shaved wood chips for a shorter time?
Dude you're back! Loved the video. Is there a recommended oak to spirit ratio? Sounded to me like there was improvement but not a lot of complexity. O guess that comes from the base spirit or blending woods.
Hey, thanks man! The standard ratio is different depending on whether you're using chips, staves, cubes, spirals or barrels. I just based these tests off the direction for the kit. 1 stave works for one 750ml bottle. Since I was doing roughly 200ml per jar I just cut the staves in 3rds. Whatever product you use will have directions for the ratio for their product, but I always tend to use less, since I can just wait longer if the amount of wood is making it go slower. But if you use too much, you can over-oak it really easily. The white whiskey was pretty blah, but improved a lot with the aging. Still, doing the same test with a white whiskey made from corn, barley and rye would give a much more complex flavor. Layers develop on the backs of the ingredients, so the more complex the flavor going in, the more complex coming out.
I was excited to hear about other types of wood. Interesting that the cherry wood did as much as it did. I was going to say oak, cherry, and maple in equal parts on the rum. Not sure about the whiskey side.
Did you ever figure out what else uses French Oak? They are all spin offs of brandy but Port and Cognac use french oak. A question about the cherry. Was it flowery at all? I have used it for smoking before and wasn't a fan because I used it to smoke a canadian bacon and it had this almost floral flavor to it.
Mainly just brandies and some wood chunk additions to a few whiskeys on the French oak. I can imagine floral from cherry wood smoke, but I didn't get any floral notes in the liquor. Fresh and dried fruit notes was mainly what I picked up. But my pieces of cherry had been toasted for an hour or more by the company that supplied them to bring out the flavors and wood sugars. Smoking chips for cooking usually aren't toasted, just dried. Since taste is very personal and there are several variable, you should do a little test jar like I did. Try toasting the chips to see if that helps, too. Can't remember the times and temps for toasting, but I know Jesse over at the Still It channel has video on it. You'll know the predominant flavors in 30-40 days of soaking.
@@BeardedBored You got me thinking now since we started talking about cherry wood. I wonder how toasted apple wood would taste. I cure and smoke beef and pork and for pork my go to wood is apple wood. I am making and smoking a batch of sausage this week so I might have to toast some apple wood and try aging some rum in it. If it had a good flavor it would be awesome aging an apple brandy in it or something like that. Thanks for the videos.
Sorry if I missed it, but how did you prepare the wood? I have some cherry smoking chips I'm planning on putting into some whiskey, and I've read that cherry should be toasted but not charred, or a little char, or nothing and just throw it in. Any tips?
I say this while im still in the beginning of the video so idk if you did it or not but I wonder how cedar would go. Well I say cedar but the type on my property is false cedar. Its a type of juniper. Red cedar
The sap in juniper it makes a tricky candidate for liquor aging since the solvent nature of ethanol pulls all the turpenes out of the wood and can make it astringent. Same for pine and true cedar, too. But, some small experiments testing every few days might give you some interesting results. Let me know if you try it.
@@cthulhu9136 Did some googling to see if anybody has tried it, homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=63601. Raw wood, especially if it's too new is really harsh. Seasoned (2 years) wood that is toasted to bring out wood sugars sounds promising. Sometimes youtube deletes comments that have links, so let me know if you get this one.
Hey bearded, excellent video my friend! Hey I forgot, when did you begin the aging process? I’ve got to check into getting some of that cherry wood; I am making up a rum wash that will end up being Christmas gifts. This is how I want to age it.
I started it in July of 2018, but you can definitely get some exceptional results between now and Christmas. On the BarrelCharJar website he's got a pack of toasted cherry wood for $8. Who ever is getting the Christmas gift is lucky:-)
I'm glad you went with different woods and cherry seems to be the bomb for the Capt Morgan's. I've found oak works better with traditional grains that make up bourbon but I learned a lot from you about the corn liquor aging. I am down south this weekend and will be picking up some legal corn mash shine from a local distillery. I can't wait to get back and start aging it! Keep up the good work! I'll be looking out for more of your videos.👍
@@davidrogers6262 Thanks David. Cherry was definitely the stand out for rum, but the oak was really good too. Also, that blend was tasty. I I'm really interested in playing with blends for the whiskey too. So much to try:-) Good luck with your corn whiskey!
Yep. Only have one left. The others dried out and cracked when I left them empty for too long. One of my quarantine projects is to refurbish my last barrel and use it for a beer.
Bearded & Bored nice I’ve had a couple of 3L barrels that I’ve kept filled with wine, apple jack and commercial moonshine and would love to see some impact results of some of the things you’ve made.
@@BeardedBored I'll bet you get more of an aged rum flavor from it. I make my own "beer" and I'm probably going to give this a try. My only problem is that I don't know if I have the patience to let it sit for so long. There is something about making your own beverages.
Hot Buttered Rum: 2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature 1/4 cup honey 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves Pinch salt 3/4 cup spiced rum (or so) 2 cups boiling water 4 sticks cinnamon, for garnish Beat ingredients together then add the rum then add the boiling water. Enjoy with friends!
@@BeardedBored I cleaned my Harbor Freight special yesterday and used it for aabout 5 minutes. Consider also microwaving on 50% power oak chips in water (cut water) for 90 or so seconds so as to heat but not boil. The 2.4 gHz causes the water in the oak to "steam" out their vapor and taste. It's how potatoes are cooked so fast in Mikes. The water steams the potato. I think both techniques have their place.
Just got my kit. First off is whole sugar maple stick in a quart of 115 proof distilled (hypothetically) mead. So you went 12 months, the kit says 1-2 depending on your taste. Any suggestion on how long to age?
Start with a month and leave it to sit without tasting it, then take tiny sips every month until it hits the right level for you. My bet would be that you'll have a good level of flavor in 2-3 months, but it's all about your taste buds. I really pushed it by going 12 months just to see what would happen, but you don't have to wait that long if the flavor is in the right zone for you. I'm not sure I got much extra benefit from waiting as long as I did. It didn't go too far because the amount of wood wasn't crazy, but it really didn't change much after about the 4th month for me. Good luck, and let me know how it turns out:-)
Well, if they'd been aged in barrels I would have lost a very obvious amount to the wood respiration. But I didn't see any noticeable drop in volume in the jars.
17:45 "If I were smarter" . Nope, can't let that slide dude, you're clearly quite smart and I appreciate the wide vernacular as well. That looks like a Rubber ring on your hand there, are/were you an electrician?
Thanks for a good lesson. I think you did pretty good by explaining each of them!! I know 1 thing for sure, I was hoping you could pass a taste of the rum thru the screen and over to me so I could taste it!!😂😂 After watching this, I definitely will start with the cherry wood chips when I'm ready to try my hand at something. Thanks for sharing!! Happy Distilling there!!💜🌷✌ P.S. Relieved that I dont have to worry about "man boobs" my lady boobs however...that might be a problem, I will have to have room for them!😂😂 LMAO!! You-re a HOOT!! Thanks for the laughs too!!
Hey B&B.....great channel man. I am still a noob at this home distilling. I have been watching videos put out by George on filtering. I am contemplating building the homemade filter that George made a video on. I have the grapenuts and other ingredients to try that vodka that you made. And currently I have my first rum batch fermenting right now. My question is how much carbon did you put in these jars and did you prepare it or soak it in water first? I'm just debating if I should just add the carbon with my chips/sticks or should I build that filter. I know it's personal preference, but I just would like your thoughts. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I haven't filtered or used the carbon yet. Thanks man.
To me, the filter is really only necessary when you are doing neutral spirits like vodka because it can strip some flavor of rums and whiskies. So I would just add a teaspoon of activated carbon to your jars to help smooth them out a little bit. If they still seem too rough to you after you're done aging, you can try the filter. The main thing is to do your best on the initial blend to get a cleaner spirit form the jump. Don't be greedy and try to get more alcohol by keeping too much of the heads or tails. Everybody makes that mistake at least once and the only result is a rough spirit. Be conservative on your first few blends, using mostly hearts (like 95%) until your tastes develop enough to use more heads and tails for flavor. That way you're almost guaranteed to have a spirit you're happy with, even if the flavor is a little lighter than you might want. Make 200ml cuts jars for the whole run, cover them with coffee filters to air out overnight, then go in to do your assessment. Hot off the still, they start to smell really similar, so it's better to air them out first so the aromas can differentiate. Also, check out the Still It channel for Jesse's videos on doing cuts and blending. He has a way of making all this info a lot more clear.
@@BeardedBored I appreciate that. I have watched every video that you, George, and Jesse have posted. I have learned so much but sooo much more to learn. I started in June and I learn more every time you guys post a video. So I appreciate all of the help
Hey Beard, if you didn't age the whiskey for twelve months with the cherry wood, do you think you would get the tannin taste? I ask this because George says anything under a gallon should be aged for only 6 months.
If you want more tannin best thing to do is add some oak too. Check it after a few months to see how it's going. You can always remove the oak once it hits the level you want. 12 months was just me pushing it to see if it ever went too far.
@@BeardedBored Actually, as I watched your video, you appeared to no like the tannin. I was just wondering if aging the Rum/Whiskey for 6 months, would that prevent the tannin taste. Thank you for your reply.
So I got the barrel char kit like you. And I filled with a 58% “commercial” single malt. White dog. 750 ml in froak and 1.75l in birch. They have been in a week. And going good.
No, I released the video in July of this year, but started filming and aging it the year before. Had to hold on to that footage for a while because I didn't want to make you guys wait a full year for the tasting vid:-)
Quick question: There is a secret club for youtubers with black rings? I keep explore channels with real content and almost every time they wear black rings.
Ha ha! Not that I know of. Mine is actually a dark blue silicone wedding band I wear sometimes. My finger started to swell a bit after I scraped it while doing a project. Didn't want my gold band to get stuck on my finger. A lot of folks wear them for safety reasons, especially if they work with machinery or power tools. Metal rings can get caught, but the silicone will tear off.
Excellent job. This is a whole science topic that you and Jesse have perfected. I learned so much.
Happy Distilling
George
Thanks George. We learned from you first. You're the chemistry/biology teacher we all wish we had in high school:-)
If only we had brewing and distilling classed in highschool, man life would be great
@@stephanimbeault2140 Best idea ever!
Interesting man! Love this.
I have yet to try the barrel char birch or cherry. Will need to give them a nudge.
Thanks brother. Definitely some fun tinkering. I'm wondering how that manuka wood you have would play with cherry and birch?
nice job bud- im looking for some Cherry and Birch....
Thanks Bearded!
thank you. I have always wondered about cherry wood
Happy to help!
Yesterday I delved into my wines and liquors... and spied a few bottles of mead I’d forgotten I had. They’re two years old, probably very high ABV as I didn’t have a hydrometer at the time. I was still making mead like my grandmother used to and she worked by eye, taste and experience, never even using so much as a scale. Opened a bottle, had a little taste and it’s smooth and slightly smokey, almost whiskey-like. Right next to the shelf were my BBQ-ing and smoking supplies... including my whiskey barrel wood chips, orange wood chips, olive wood chips... (avid fan of low ‘n slow BBQ-ing and smoking here). Now I’m pondering the addition of a wood chip to a bottle. Stick it in my shed and let it sleep there for a few months. See what it does.
Yay!
Do it:-)
@@BeardedBored - Trying to decide which one to pick. Eghad! First world problems. 🤣
I've been waiting for someone to do a wood test for a while. You've just barely scratched the surface when it comes to wood flavoring. Can't wait to see more woods in the future. Orange, beech, iron wood, lilac, plum, pear, apple, peach, paw paw, bamboo, almond, corncob, the list is almost endless. Then throw in blending of woods and the possibilities are endless. I'd love to see you throw your hat in the ring on Moonshiners Master Distiller. Wonder what a shine aged in charred corn cobs would taste like?
What do you proof your rum down to before you age on wood 22:34
Im not 100 percent, however i believe they use French Oak with Sherry wine. I enjoyed the way that this video illustrated the importance of wood selection can have on a spirit.
Yep, I think you're right:-)
I really like your style of explanation. Keep up the vids.
Thanks so much! Will do:-)
Loved your video, excellent!
Thanks:-)
Thanks for showing that you washed the glass. I like your review and I'll look at the barrel age in a jar.
Thanks Morty. It's pretty rewarding, and gets really fu when you start to play around with blending the various infusions:-)
Have you tried combining some of the woods to get a different taste
I just recently started an apple brandy experiment with two types of wood in each jar, but it won't be ready for a few months.
@@BeardedBored I am going to try the white rum first for three months and I have a buddy that has some white lighting. I want to age it for a year at least to see the results.
Totally enjoyed this video. I also watched the making of when you put the wood into the jars. Very interesting. Cool stuff. Keep it up man. Good job 👍🏼
Thanks so much!
It's possible that the cherry scent exists in the wood if you crush a lemon tree leaf it smells highly of lemon and it's used as a spice fresh to add lemon flavor to dishes without adding acidity
That's a really good point. Thanks:-)
Great video. I think it's so cool that you three have come together and are sharing your knowledge to advance the community.
Thanks Mike!
I've been tempted to use toasted cherry wood. My brother has a ton of it that's been split and drying for a year. I think I may just snitch me a little cherry. I also have some apple wood chips that I smoke Venison jerky and add to alder when smoking steelhead and trout.
Sounds like you've got some experimenting to do:-)
Straight corn wash with 0 sugar added is some of the finest shine ever made not alot of yield but the flavor !!!! Nothing else like it.
Agreed!
Try making it with ground popped popcorn. Read that the corn notes are very forward but that was the only mention I've come across about it. Waiting for someone to try that. Once it's popped the starch is gelatinized so the yeast should have a field day with it.
@@dbomber69 I want to see this
Think about this. You're a contestant on Moonshiners Master Distiller. You come in with bags of ground popped popcorn (looks like flour) get your kettle of hot water, pour in the sugar and make a simple syrup. When simple sugars such as sucrose (or table sugar) are heated, they melt and break down into glucose and fructose, two other forms of sugar. That makes it easier for the yeast to consume. Now you just dump in the popcorn flour with no cooking needed and pitch your yeast. You have a head start on every one else because you don't have to cook your grain. How amazed would the judges be to see that? How amazed would they be to taste it? Especially if it's a corn heavy taste and you made a caramel popcorn flavored shine. And how many kinds of popcorn are out there? All with there own unique taste.
I found your channel by accident and have really enjoyed the content and your presenting style, have subscribed for more
Thanks so much:-)
You're the guy who was licking your neighbor's trees!!!!
😁
It was only that ONE time, LoL!
You need to try the whiskey again with medium toasted maple, and significantly more wood - say two 1/2" x 3/4" x 3.5" dominoes. Get it right and you'll get a mild maple syrup flavor in the whiskey. Can be very nice. Not a super smooth supper but tasty.
I'm doing an apple wood test right now;-)
I have always hated anything that was brown when it came to liquor. However, once I watched beardeds videos and made my own single malt whiskey, which was excedrin white dog form but I roasted a white oak infusion spiral with my torch ,till it was heavily charred, then I dropped it in a half gallon of single malt hearts and after a month of "ageing" its like a whole new world has been introduced to me because I taste the "hot fudge " and the vanilla and all the other barrel candy that I've always heard other ppl talk about. I highly recommend that if you really like to drink, make your own,experiment and you'll see what I'm talking about.
I like how you start the video sitting straight up and get lower as the video progresses
Haha!
Little late to the table, but I agree, maturation is probably the most critical step to a finished product. For my apple brandy, I usually age in three (or more) one gallon jars with different woods in each - apple/cherry combination, pecan, and white oak. Three very different flavors to choose from. So uniquely different that you would never believe they were from the same ferment and distillation.
That's really cool! Do you ever play around with blending them together to see what happens?
That's how the apple/cherry combination came about. My first apple brandy, I did the two woods separately. At some point I combined two partial bottles together and I decided that I liked it so much, I just started aging with the woods combined.
@@southcack8245 Awesome!
Do you think it would make any difference in aging with woodchips to actually vacuum seal the widemouth jars?? You can get an attachment for the common Food Saver machine to vacuum seal wide-mouth mason jars.......Would that help pull the spirit into the wood and assist in anyway OR speed up the process??
Really enjoying the video and excellent info and experience, looking forward to making my own in the not to distant future, Thank you!!
Yes, vacuum aging does work. There are a few distilleries working with "fast aging" that use vacuum, pressure, heat, cold, and ultrasonic pulses to drive the spirit in and out of the wood. Definitely something to play around with;-)
Tried your popcorn malt as per video and was extremely pleased with the results, appreciate the tip, got my rotisserie motor yesterday so will male a power one asap, did 4 lbs so far, no fuzz or mold like I have had issues with in the past. Excellent tips as always, thanks again. On a side note have you done an all malted corn and barley recepie yet, thought I might do 10lb malt corn, 2lb malt barley and 10lb sugar for a 10 gallon trial run, but before cooking that much malted grain thought i would check and see if it's been tried by you or any of your subscribers.
Glad to hear it worked so well for you:-) I've had a lot of success with the malt in different recipes, but I haven't tried your specific recipe. Seems solid though. I'd run it. I've used malted corn in a few beers and "something else". I recently sent 5# of popcorn malt to George over at the Barley and Hops Brewing channel. He did a video testing the popcorn malt vs regular corn with barley. Really solid data in his test. Watch his video for tips on mashing. I'm confident it'll work well for you. Since it's malted you won't need to gelatinize at 190F, just give it a good grinding and mash at 155F for 90 minutes to get the most out of it. Good luck on your robot build:-)
Hi!, Great video.Rum tends to have more heads for the fruit notes. Wood ageing tends to round them out 😊
It sure does. I still can't get over how smooth the cherry made the rum.
You teased with the blends of rum. I really wanted to see you get the dropper out and make some blends
You know how much I can talk. If I did that the video would be an hour, LoL! But, I just got an email from the owner of Barrel Char and he said the blend of maple and oak I did at the end for the rum is the one he uses for all of his rum.
I'm thinking about doing a blending video once I figure out some solid ratios.
Awesome 🤩
A great video, Bored! There are some great white spirits on offer from many licensed craft distillers that you could use as a quality base without any sugar. White whiskey is easy to source, white (unaged ) brandy is a little harder, look for eau de vie without any additives. As you mentioned, better white spirits gives you better aged spirits.
Please continue to make videos!
Thanks so much George:-)
Thank you Bearded for a great video lesson. Jesse has nothing on you when it comes to tasting! You nailed it. Thank you for doing this comparison. We always knew that Moonshine doesn't hold up to grain fermentation, not! How about doing this same test only using shaved wood chips for a shorter time?
Dude you're back! Loved the video. Is there a recommended oak to spirit ratio? Sounded to me like there was improvement but not a lot of complexity. O guess that comes from the base spirit or blending woods.
Hey, thanks man! The standard ratio is different depending on whether you're using chips, staves, cubes, spirals or barrels. I just based these tests off the direction for the kit. 1 stave works for one 750ml bottle. Since I was doing roughly 200ml per jar I just cut the staves in 3rds. Whatever product you use will have directions for the ratio for their product, but I always tend to use less, since I can just wait longer if the amount of wood is making it go slower. But if you use too much, you can over-oak it really easily.
The white whiskey was pretty blah, but improved a lot with the aging. Still, doing the same test with a white whiskey made from corn, barley and rye would give a much more complex flavor. Layers develop on the backs of the ingredients, so the more complex the flavor going in, the more complex coming out.
@@BeardedBored you totally inspired me and I just finished toasting oak in my oven for the past 4 hours. Lol.
Awesome! That's what I call dedication to the craft:-)
It has been a while but you have me wanting to convert some corn starch. I look forward to more of your videos.
Converting corn starch is just fun. Everybody should do it:-)
Whats your thoughts on using sassafras, iv used a little and can say a little goes a long ways
Haven't tried it yet, but I hear it's pretty nice if you get the timing right.
@@BeardedBored id recommend about 1 to 2 cubic inches per gallon along with oak, the vanillas complement it well, similar to root beer
@@daltonhall1114 Thanks:-)
Good video bud, oughtta try this with climax shine. It's by far my favorite store bought corn liquor.
I'll look for it next time I'm in the liquor store. Thanks:-)
I was excited to hear about other types of wood.
Interesting that the cherry wood did as much as it did.
I was going to say oak, cherry, and maple in equal parts on the rum. Not sure about the whiskey side.
It was a really cool test that gives me a good baseline for future aging. So glad I waited. I'll give that mix a try. Thanks!
a bit late, but for the whiskey I'd say 2 parts oak and maple, one part cherry and birch
What proof are your samples?
80 ish
Good vid..whats your favorite grain mix? I get good results from oat barley and corn...🇺🇸💖
I like that mix, but I also dig rye and wheat. Tough to pin it down, LoL:-)
Glad to see you after almost 8 months brotha
Glad to be back. Thanks!
This was interesting, getting Into making our own brews and wines. I like this method! Thanks for the info and channels to check out. 🍻
Best hobby there is! Have fun:-)
Did you ever figure out what else uses French Oak? They are all spin offs of brandy but Port and Cognac use french oak. A question about the cherry. Was it flowery at all? I have used it for smoking before and wasn't a fan because I used it to smoke a canadian bacon and it had this almost floral flavor to it.
Mainly just brandies and some wood chunk additions to a few whiskeys on the French oak. I can imagine floral from cherry wood smoke, but I didn't get any floral notes in the liquor. Fresh and dried fruit notes was mainly what I picked up. But my pieces of cherry had been toasted for an hour or more by the company that supplied them to bring out the flavors and wood sugars. Smoking chips for cooking usually aren't toasted, just dried. Since taste is very personal and there are several variable, you should do a little test jar like I did. Try toasting the chips to see if that helps, too. Can't remember the times and temps for toasting, but I know Jesse over at the Still It channel has video on it. You'll know the predominant flavors in 30-40 days of soaking.
@@BeardedBored You got me thinking now since we started talking about cherry wood. I wonder how toasted apple wood would taste. I cure and smoke beef and pork and for pork my go to wood is apple wood. I am making and smoking a batch of sausage this week so I might have to toast some apple wood and try aging some rum in it. If it had a good flavor it would be awesome aging an apple brandy in it or something like that. Thanks for the videos.
@@josephkordinak1591 Apple wood rock, dude. Definitely recommend it.
yeah there s something else made of French oak, i have a dining table lol
Won't work. Too big to fit in the jar:-)
Sorry if I missed it, but how did you prepare the wood? I have some cherry smoking chips I'm planning on putting into some whiskey, and I've read that cherry should be toasted but not charred, or a little char, or nothing and just throw it in. Any tips?
I say this while im still in the beginning of the video so idk if you did it or not but I wonder how cedar would go. Well I say cedar but the type on my property is false cedar. Its a type of juniper. Red cedar
The sap in juniper it makes a tricky candidate for liquor aging since the solvent nature of ethanol pulls all the turpenes out of the wood and can make it astringent. Same for pine and true cedar, too. But, some small experiments testing every few days might give you some interesting results. Let me know if you try it.
@@BeardedBored ah, didn't think of the sap. If I try it then I will tell you. Maybe try it when I make my first batch of moonshine, we will see.
@@cthulhu9136 Did some googling to see if anybody has tried it, homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=63601. Raw wood, especially if it's too new is really harsh. Seasoned (2 years) wood that is toasted to bring out wood sugars sounds promising. Sometimes youtube deletes comments that have links, so let me know if you get this one.
Hey bearded, excellent video my friend! Hey I forgot, when did you begin the aging process? I’ve got to check into getting some of that cherry wood; I am making up a rum wash that will end up being Christmas gifts. This is how I want to age it.
I started it in July of 2018, but you can definitely get some exceptional results between now and Christmas. On the BarrelCharJar website he's got a pack of toasted cherry wood for $8. Who ever is getting the Christmas gift is lucky:-)
I'm glad you went with different woods and cherry seems to be the bomb for the Capt Morgan's. I've found oak works better with traditional grains that make up bourbon but I learned a lot from you about the corn liquor aging. I am down south this weekend and will be picking up some legal corn mash shine from a local distillery. I can't wait to get back and start aging it! Keep up the good work! I'll be looking out for more of your videos.👍
@@davidrogers6262 Thanks David. Cherry was definitely the stand out for rum, but the oak was really good too. Also, that blend was tasty. I I'm really interested in playing with blends for the whiskey too. So much to try:-) Good luck with your corn whiskey!
I know this is almost a year old and you may not see this but, have/will you tried mini barrels for aging?(other than your first video)
Yep. Only have one left. The others dried out and cracked when I left them empty for too long. One of my quarantine projects is to refurbish my last barrel and use it for a beer.
Bearded & Bored nice I’ve had a couple of 3L barrels that I’ve kept filled with wine, apple jack and commercial moonshine and would love to see some impact results of some of the things you’ve made.
@@nhenderson2094 Well, the cracked ones ended up in a campfire a while ago, but I'll do a thorough on-camera examination of the one I have left;-)
You should try aging the Rum in the oak that the Moonshine was already aged in and see how that affects the flavor.
I like the way you think! Great idea:-)
@@BeardedBored I'll bet you get more of an aged rum flavor from it. I make my own "beer" and I'm probably going to give this a try. My only problem is that I don't know if I have the patience to let it sit for so long. There is something about making your own beverages.
@@waynes930 Try it with a jar or two that you stick in the back of the shed and forget about;-)
Hot Buttered Rum:
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Pinch salt
3/4 cup spiced rum (or so)
2 cups boiling water
4 sticks cinnamon, for garnish
Beat ingredients together then add the rum then add the boiling water. Enjoy with friends!
Sounds great!
@@BeardedBored It's reealllly good. From one beard to another!! Cheers!!
26:50 was worth the whole video! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
?? a bread do haft to use oak ?or can uses cherry apple or peach ??
I use cherry wood in this video:-) Peach wood is also good.
Great video. What recipe did you use to make your rum? I am curious about it. I gather you
Liked the cherry 🍒 style. I love your video so I subscribed
Been waiting for this. Nice
Thanks!
Salt Water Taffy!? Now that came straight outta' y'r butt! Great video and it makes me want to try different woods and my ultrasonic cleaner sir.
Definitely try the ultrasonic. It's my new favorite toy:-)
@@BeardedBored I cleaned my Harbor Freight special yesterday and used it for aabout 5 minutes. Consider also microwaving on 50% power oak chips in water (cut water) for 90 or so seconds so as to heat but not boil. The 2.4 gHz causes the water in the oak to "steam" out their vapor and taste. It's how potatoes are cooked so fast in Mikes. The water steams the potato. I think both techniques have their place.
Just got my kit. First off is whole sugar maple stick in a quart of 115 proof distilled (hypothetically) mead. So you went 12 months, the kit says 1-2 depending on your taste. Any suggestion on how long to age?
Start with a month and leave it to sit without tasting it, then take tiny sips every month until it hits the right level for you. My bet would be that you'll have a good level of flavor in 2-3 months, but it's all about your taste buds. I really pushed it by going 12 months just to see what would happen, but you don't have to wait that long if the flavor is in the right zone for you. I'm not sure I got much extra benefit from waiting as long as I did. It didn't go too far because the amount of wood wasn't crazy, but it really didn't change much after about the 4th month for me. Good luck, and let me know how it turns out:-)
Will do! And Thanks for responding so quick to a yr old video :)
Think I'll make a cherry brandy for the cherry stick.
@@unsane78 No problem. Good luck, hypothetically;-)
How good of a seal did the small bottles have? I'm suspicious that the internal pressure was too much and you lost some alcohol through the cap.
Well, if they'd been aged in barrels I would have lost a very obvious amount to the wood respiration. But I didn't see any noticeable drop in volume in the jars.
I like Pickle Juice.
😁
Whiskey and pickle juice. The old pickle slammer:-)
Great video tasting day is the best day
Yes. Yes, it is:-)
17:45 "If I were smarter" . Nope, can't let that slide dude, you're clearly quite smart and I appreciate the wide vernacular as well. That looks like a Rubber ring on your hand there, are/were you an electrician?
Thanks man. Not in the trades, just wear it for working with equipment. I was using the chainsaw earlier that day. Safety first:-)
You are a god man im so glad i found ur channel my shine came out good apple jack was premo thanks for the great videos
Thanks!
Thanks for a good lesson. I think you did pretty good by explaining each of them!! I know 1 thing for sure, I was hoping you could pass a taste of the rum thru the screen and over to me so I could taste it!!😂😂 After watching this, I definitely will start with the cherry wood chips when I'm ready to try my hand at something. Thanks for sharing!! Happy Distilling there!!💜🌷✌
P.S. Relieved that I dont have to worry about "man boobs" my lady boobs however...that might be a problem, I will have to have room for them!😂😂 LMAO!! You-re a HOOT!! Thanks for the laughs too!!
Thanks so much:-)
Hey B&B.....great channel man. I am still a noob at this home distilling. I have been watching videos put out by George on filtering. I am contemplating building the homemade filter that George made a video on. I have the grapenuts and other ingredients to try that vodka that you made. And currently I have my first rum batch fermenting right now. My question is how much carbon did you put in these jars and did you prepare it or soak it in water first? I'm just debating if I should just add the carbon with my chips/sticks or should I build that filter. I know it's personal preference, but I just would like your thoughts. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I haven't filtered or used the carbon yet. Thanks man.
To me, the filter is really only necessary when you are doing neutral spirits like vodka because it can strip some flavor of rums and whiskies. So I would just add a teaspoon of activated carbon to your jars to help smooth them out a little bit. If they still seem too rough to you after you're done aging, you can try the filter.
The main thing is to do your best on the initial blend to get a cleaner spirit form the jump. Don't be greedy and try to get more alcohol by keeping too much of the heads or tails. Everybody makes that mistake at least once and the only result is a rough spirit. Be conservative on your first few blends, using mostly hearts (like 95%) until your tastes develop enough to use more heads and tails for flavor. That way you're almost guaranteed to have a spirit you're happy with, even if the flavor is a little lighter than you might want. Make 200ml cuts jars for the whole run, cover them with coffee filters to air out overnight, then go in to do your assessment. Hot off the still, they start to smell really similar, so it's better to air them out first so the aromas can differentiate. Also, check out the Still It channel for Jesse's videos on doing cuts and blending. He has a way of making all this info a lot more clear.
@@BeardedBored thank you sir! I appreciate it!
@@mr.distiller Keep asking questions and researching. There's a big learning curve to this hobby, but we've got a pretty great community going:-)
@@BeardedBored I appreciate that. I have watched every video that you, George, and Jesse have posted. I have learned so much but sooo much more to learn. I started in June and I learn more every time you guys post a video. So I appreciate all of the help
Hey Beard, if you didn't age the whiskey for twelve months with the cherry wood, do you think you would get the tannin taste? I ask this because George says anything under a gallon should be aged for only 6 months.
If you want more tannin best thing to do is add some oak too. Check it after a few months to see how it's going. You can always remove the oak once it hits the level you want. 12 months was just me pushing it to see if it ever went too far.
@@BeardedBored Actually, as I watched your video, you appeared to no like the tannin. I was just wondering if aging the Rum/Whiskey for 6 months, would that prevent the tannin taste. Thank you for your reply.
@@stevevet3652 Oh, misunderstood your question. Yeah, just dial back on the timing.
feel jealous right now 😂😁 gimme some😂
Looks like every taste sample you pour gets bigger.
LoL!
Caramel maybe. OOOO, Caramel moonshine
Plus those commercial shines are over distilled to the point of neutral. May as well be a vodka
My favorite time ,is gettin drunk time. My second favorite time,is gettin stones time.
Missed ya videos lol
Thanks Nikki:-)
Dude I love your videos 😁
Thanks Brother!
Sounds like:
Oak,Birch,Cheery!
Apple Wood? Maple?
NO PINE!!! Knew a guy who Smoked food with Pine!🙄🙄🙄🙄
Pine is too sappy
Yeah, no pine. It's a little pitchy, dog;-)
i am making apple jack right now :)
Hey Go Suzanne!!
So I got the barrel char kit like you. And I filled with a 58% “commercial” single malt. White dog. 750 ml in froak and 1.75l in birch. They have been in a week. And going good.
Nice Randall!
didnt you age this back in july ??
No, I released the video in July of this year, but started filming and aging it the year before. Had to hold on to that footage for a while because I didn't want to make you guys wait a full year for the tasting vid:-)
Watching this made me thirsty. Time to break out some 385 toasted white oak . For science 👍
What flavor is this one? ....... Isopropyl. 🤣🤣
Quick question:
There is a secret club for youtubers with black rings?
I keep explore channels with real content and almost every time they wear black rings.
Ha ha! Not that I know of. Mine is actually a dark blue silicone wedding band I wear sometimes. My finger started to swell a bit after I scraped it while doing a project. Didn't want my gold band to get stuck on my finger. A lot of folks wear them for safety reasons, especially if they work with machinery or power tools. Metal rings can get caught, but the silicone will tear off.
Honey Basil Julep
Hmmm, that might go well with the maple aged whiskey. Thanks!
@@BeardedBored Thank you. Great channel.
Much appreciated!
Rum: 2/3 oak, 1/3 cherry
I'll try that tonight. Thanks!
Done made me thirsty and shit. Another amazing video my friend. At least you released one this week.... Jesse......
I cannot accept your review descriptions as you did not cleanse your pallete with a swig of Milwaukee's best ice
Ah yes, The Beast from Milwaukee! I haven't barfed a 12 pack of those up in years, ha ha;-)
Ain't you sposed to spit it out when taste testing?
That'd be wasteful;-)
"Hypothetically" get drunk?
The bigger the batch to start and test each week or month. Pull a hot sauce bottle worth each test. Ya. Big batch....make more vids when smarter.