Hey man, coming at you from the whiskey vault. I'm actually a cooper in America for a whiskey brand that may or may not sound like Mack Granules. I am being slightly obtuse, as I am not supposed to tell you the next part. They actually toast and char their barrels. They toast their barrels for a time between 19 and 21 minutes at a temperature of between 399 and 401 degrees Fahrenheit. A wood that you really don't want to use is red oak. I don't know if you have ever peed on a campfire, but a charred red oak stave smells similar. If you need more white oak, let me know. I can get a near endless supply of leaky barrel staves to mail out. Great video man, I look forward to watching more of your channel.
Hi man! I am a moonshiner from Ukraine, and I really would like to know what kind of drink will turn out from white American oak. Because our local oaks give a little flavor but a lot of tannins :) The result is a strange drink even after years.. Could you send a piece of wood to Port Reading, NJ ? My friends will then send it to me. I can send the money to you via paypal or in another way! I would be very grateful to you! Here is my email: big2015bike@gmail.com
To spead up the process of aging, freeze your batch by nite and put in heat by day. The freezing and heating causes the oak grains to open and close more rapidly exposing the tannins in the alcohol.
Good shout . I don't have a freezer though. What about leaving the jar outside ? Sunlight/moonlight ? Also I live in the UK . Lots of old oak about. I haven't tried this method yet but I will do this week . Thanks in advance.
Hey Jesse... American noob to the craft. been a woodworker for years and new i was keeping all my cut offs for something. After watching this i toasted up several batches of varying toast levels. Ran my first test batch sand cant wait to throw it all together. Keep up the good work brother! Fan for life
I’m just starting myself and I’ve come across your videos to help me out. Living in south of America is hard to find white oak compared to living in the north where there are everywhere. But thank you for highlighting the areas I needed work on and answering those unknown topics.
Obviously this is a very old video - but I just found this channel recently. Just wanted to let people know; a grill is just an oven with a single - direction heat source. You can set your grill up to an appropriate temp, then use a rack, baking tray, or oven proof item to set the wood off of direct heat. I have baked cakes in my grill at Backyard Parties: It's an oven if you have any skill at cooking.
white oak toast 240 F x 2 hrs target flavor profile: oak -smelled woody 356 F x 2 hrs target flavor profile: vanilla -smelled sweet 428 F x 2 hrs target flavor profile:almond -smelled like over-baked cookies
For a long time I couldn't tell the difference between Australians and you New Zealanders. You sound the same to me, but now I know you call it a barbeque and it's barbie on the mainland. Being from Kansas City I don't think any of you guys know what BBQ really is, but you sure know your spirits. No doubt.
Well done on the first years anniversary... love you videos because we can visually see what is happening. The forums can be a bit of a guessing game and interpretation sometimes. Just a few few additional comments below. 1. Most of the commercial oak staves in the wine industry are between 10mm and 20mm think and are sawn. 2, I only use the house oven when the wife is out all day... learnt the hard way when I smoked the house out. 3. Large staves can be a meter long and 15mm thick and 90mm wide. If you can get used ones from a winery they are great for chopping up to size and toasting. Before cutting I use a wood planner / thickener which results in a mass of shavings which can be washed at 80 deg C to sanitize and then dried and toasted. Great for quick ageing. 4. I normally cut down the oak to 5gm sizes, i.e by weight... to if you are ageing in spirit bottles it’s the perfect size to go down the neck. 5. I also use raw oak, charred oak in addition to the toasted oak you demonstrated here. 6. Just one other thing I have some oak that I have soaked in Sherry... another conversation to have.. Keep the good work up. Cheers.
I hear you on the "seeing" basicly the same thought process that made me think "there may be something to this youtube thing. . ." I have wondered the same thing. I mean barrels are cut. But I guess just because its been done that way for a long time dosnt mean its right. Would love to do some decent testing on this at some stage!
you can also use the wood for putting in a smoker. they sell them in chipped, slivered, and chunked without being treated. they also sell them in large bags and small bags as well. some companies like Jack Daniels will butcher (both shipped and chunked) their used old oak casks for smoking meat. you also want to keep in mind that wood in general combusts between 250F/121C and 300F/148C
Hello! I'm relatively new to distilling (3 yrs). I've been fascinated by this method of quick infusion of wood. Have done some experiments using toasted white oak and hard maple in the past with good results. Yesterday while doing a spirit run I decided to toast some more wood at same time to multi-task. Long story short, I added one of the warm(cooled for a hour) oak chunks to a 1 litre jar. The result was much more rapid coloring of the spirit and wonderful aroma. Just wondering if anyone else has tried this?
If you can get hold of some Peach tree prunings (old growth mainly) strip the bark and toast it lightly over a flame to caramelise the sap. Imparts a lovely sweet buttery flavour to you UJSSM. Just add a few blocks to your oak.
Another masterpiece Jesse. Great information with a personal touch as always. I love your choice of safety boots, i use the same kind. safety first hahaha
I use White Oak staves similar to what you have, but much narrower about 1.25 CM x 1.25 CM x 10 CM. I find that they give flavor a bit smoother(?) than larger chunks I once worked with. Bigger chunks tended to lend flavor much faster than I liked, but to eaches own. I also use Charred Mesquite to mellow as well. Good smooth vanilla tones with sweet woody flavor, even some spiciness from the mesquite. I also use 13% rye in my base for a good spice.
Use a good plane to make shavings then heat in a mostly closed container to create charcoal. One of my uncles did make moonshine and used a twenty gallon crock filled with charcoal shavings to age some of his product.
Old video, I know. Very useful information, thank you for doing the channel! Consider striking the back of your axe with a mallet for a touch more accuracy (and safety) when splitting small bits
The reason white oak became popular is because it was used to make most barrels and even hulls on ships. Red oak would rot. I have a hole stack of it in my shed. Never thought of using it in alcohol.
Congrats on your 1 year. I’d be interested in trying the oak. I’ve been playing with a cracked corn, rye, and apple juice recipe. Also been using a winter deer feed from a local feed supply lol. It actually turns out pretty good.
My suggestion is to put the toasted woods tips in slime wheat starch to insulate the tips to prevent the transfer of tanin and bitness of wood to whisky.the process is to put the tips of the wood in the starch and let them to dry.
if you're getting fresh rounds off a tree, it's highly suggested that you dry your wood first using an oven or some sort of higher heat before attempting to season. Just simply tossing green wood out in the elements to season it can lead to rotting. It can work, given enough time, but as long as there's green wood, any wood boring insects and the like are more likely to be attracted to the exposed green wood. Similarly the fresh rounds can attract molds, fungus, and bacteria which may not be desirable. Kiln drying is the process coopers use to process the lumber for barrels. Once dried, then it can be left out for about 18 months for a proper seasoning before use.
I was wondering a ton of the questions you answered. I definitely started with white dog straight 75% and ouch was it peppery and bighty. Diluted out to 50 and have tried oak and cherry charred. Both are super tasty and after you insight on refusing the bite in tasting, I enjoy them even more
Dude..this has been such a helpful channel. Just moving into the whisky now. I have the clear and fruit "shines" where I like them but had no real idea on the wooded flavours.
Rosenfeld kidson is a timber yard with everything,Barry’s barrels in Albany too. He makes awesome little barrels 1 lt up and sells wine barrels,wood and sawdust. Nice safety slippers
Started watching and came to this video to learn more about wood for aging. I love how jesse puts on the goggles to make a cut with the miter saw, but continues on to hack wood with the axe while wearing sandals hahahaha
I can't believe it's been a year seemed to be at least two. Lol l would say put me in the mix for the oak but I can get all I need. It's brought into my work by the train load. I can pick up truckloads white oak, red oak, hickory, and even some cherry at times.
Awesome video, plenty of information. I live in the USA is Florida. Most of all the trees on my property are white oaks. We call them water oaks here. If you ever need any send me a shout and I'm sure I can cut some and send it your way
I season my oak down to 12% using a woodworkers moisture meter to make sure it's where I need it. I do 4 levels of char and toast fairly close the same way you did.
Pro Tip - get yourself a couple Oak Spirals, break out the propane touch and give them a alligator char. Drop them in the mason jar full of your white whiskey...it will start to darken in a couple hours...after a couple weeks ...mmm smooth. Remember Bourbon barrels have alligator char in them. Acts like a charcoal filter and smooths out the spirit.
I have two 20 liter white oak barrels and am quite surprised by how different they are, though both are wonderful and your temperature chart explains why. I thank you for posting it. I also appreciate the rest of your video very much because you have opened my eyes to many new adventures in the craft. I have a suggestion for you; Make a corn mash for whisky using heratige corn (sometimes called Indian corn in the US) and malted barley (instead of the common yellow corn most people use today) and you will end up with something extra-special. Then use some of that lightly roasted oak with the vanilla characteristics to age your distillate. It is alcohol Heaven!
I just buy the "Jack Daniels" Brand Charcoal; it comes with a pouch of White Oak within. I remove there char and replace it with my own using a torch. Hope this help's..... O-yea quick age is put the jar in freezer=Winter put the jar on the counter top=Summer repeat. Happy dayz
I managed to find some oak from a BBQ supplier. Ive split into various sizes and thickness, now toasting uncovered in the oven at 140c for 2 hours. will then take half out & up the temp to the vanilla temp range for another hour.
I'm looking forward to kicking off my little hobby in a couple of months but loving your vids to get some knowledge, very helpful and this vid was awesome as it's what I'm aiming for. Top job
Another great video! Haven't moved past purchased toasted oak chips yet. I have tried heavy toasted but prefer the light so far. Would love to age some vanilla and may try your method myself. Thanks for the info!
I live in the Southwest U.S. I've had good results with our local Gambrel oak. No white oak at all, in about 60%, 120 proof, approx. Good char taste, more woody.
When you want to split small pieces of wood without hurting yourself, grab the wood and place the axe where you want the cut. Then without lifting the axe off the wood or letting go of the wood, lift the two from the block and tap it down only as hard as you need to. Once you're in the wood you can let go. This is how you do starter kindling without worrying about your fingers and your sizes will be more uniform
gonna be flat out at work tomorrow, but happy anniversary bro and congrats on the twins. my moneys on the 220s being awesome. would love to try some. you should also experiment with LIGHT charring, to get a nice light smokey flavour and compare. also have a look at stilldragons oak dominoes, they put em in a tumbler to round out the edges so you get more of the long grains. thought that was pretty interesting
Really interesting stuff. I’ve been experimenting with mead and will be toasting some oak to try with that. It was a nice intro into toasting, which I’ll find very useful.
Question about reusing the Oak for other future spirits (I heard this process is great for barrels): - How do you store them in between uses? Do you let the previous spirit dry off or do you always keep them submerged in just a tiny amount of the previous spirit?
Yeah, I have soaked oak sticks/dominoes in wine/port/etc and then used those. Works fairly well. Although I think perhaps adding a small amount of the wine/port/etc as well is more like the effect when using a barrel.
Hey Jess! I’m behind on your vids. I have a 1x4 inches x 10 feet untreated oak from a lumber yard paid $3 last November- sorry I know it’s scarce over there ! Ready to cut and toast. Planning on approximately 1x1x4 inch to fit in Quart/ Liter jar for “Bourbon ” & rum & “FauxQuila I read somewhere a hobbyist disagrees with the hours long toasting which when looking at the Chart I agree I want mine toasted at different levels. Medium Rare you might say as opposed to Well Done. The wife is going out of town this weekend so I have the convection oven to myself. First batch will be a dozen or so “staves” wrapped and put in a cold oven. Not sure it goes over 205 C but we’ll see. When it hits, keep it there for 15 minutes shut the oven off. Not sure if I should leave it in the cooling off oven When done I’ll send you a picture on one of the forums. Thanks for all you do.
How's it mate! Yeah I definitely think there are definitely different ways to go about it. Part of the reason I did it the way I did was to be able to taste the different specific flavours you can get out of the wood. Keen to see what you come up with! Enjoy mate.
Right now trying to oak 94% legal alcool, I’m in Canada Quebec, and one thing for sure governments don’t like is being deprived of those tax revenus on drinks which is in range of millions each year, so they forbid distillation of alcool. I’m following you channel with pleasure and the other thing you can make a clip on is computing the alcool percent and how to adjust it, cause aging is best done with booze at 52%.
It's just math. If you know what the ABV of your spirit is and what your end ABV is going to be, you can just calculate it. Say for example you have 2.5 Liters of 94% alcohol and wanted it at cask strength for oaking at 55%. 2.5 * 94 / 55 = 4.27 Liters So just add distilled water to your 2.5 Liters until you get to a total volume of 4.27 liters. It's just math. So if you had 1 liter of 50% and added 1 liter of distilled water you would end up with 2 liters of 25% BTW, at 94% you don't have much if any of your original taste as it was distilled to pure. :) A good whiskey won't get taken off the still at anything higher than 160 proof at the start of the run and it will drop as it goes in a pot still.
Will Tasmanian Oak be ok? I can get Tasmanian oak planks for pretty cheap from Bunnings. It may be treated... I wonder if the timber guy there will even know?
Yeah, as soon as I gathered you were taking this into the house and into the oven I had a vision of this turning into a homeless life vlog. But I see you have achieved the dream. A celebration in itself.
You basically aged the two on the left and medium roasted the one on the right, I've had plenty of mates work at timber mills and they fast age wood in a huge air-conditioned oven and yer you aged the first two and yer roasted the far right one 👍🏻🇦🇺
What about full charring? Isnt the point that the char inside the barrel removes unwanted content and the wood flavors whats left? I dont see much carbon going on. etc
There is a local apple brandy distillery near where I live, they tried to use local Swedish oak for their barrels. Turns out, swedish oak is really, REALLY oaky, so they ended up having to use that whole batch to blend into other batches in small amounts. Moral of the story: always do a single cask test batch with new wood.
Shot Jesse!! On point as always dude.
Have more Oak when you need it lol.
Got some Maple coming next week to.
Your the man dude. Thanks again for hooking me up!
Very thankful :)
Any time bro!
Maple sounds interesting let us know what it's like 👍
Luke Franklin I’m toasting some red maple (sugar maple) right now at 220. I’ll let you know my results with the UJSSM
I have Canadian maple to toast.. hardwood. Ever tried it? Toasting as we speak.
I didnt think id be learning how to distill spirits from hagrid but here i am and i love it
Hey man, coming at you from the whiskey vault. I'm actually a cooper in America for a whiskey brand that may or may not sound like Mack Granules. I am being slightly obtuse, as I am not supposed to tell you the next part. They actually toast and char their barrels. They toast their barrels for a time between 19 and 21 minutes at a temperature of between 399 and 401 degrees Fahrenheit.
A wood that you really don't want to use is red oak. I don't know if you have ever peed on a campfire, but a charred red oak stave smells similar.
If you need more white oak, let me know. I can get a near endless supply of leaky barrel staves to mail out.
Great video man, I look forward to watching more of your channel.
Any chance I could get you to send a couple of pieces to me in Delaware? I'd be happy to send you postage via Paypal.
Hi man! I am a moonshiner from Ukraine, and I really would like to know what kind of drink will turn out from white American oak. Because our local oaks give a little flavor but a lot of tannins :) The result is a strange drink even after years.. Could you send a piece of wood to Port Reading, NJ ?
My friends will then send it to me. I can send the money to you via paypal or in another way!
I would be very grateful to you! Here is my email: big2015bike@gmail.com
Try to get French white oak from a used wine barrel. I got a bunch from a guy who makes furniture from above barrels.
@@МарічкаЗаєць I'll send you some...
@@jackbecht9096 Oh, great! How could we talk about shipping, payment, and so on? May be with email?
To spead up the process of aging, freeze your batch by nite and put in heat by day. The freezing and heating causes the oak grains to open and close more rapidly exposing the tannins in the alcohol.
Good shout . I don't have a freezer though. What about leaving the jar outside ? Sunlight/moonlight ? Also I live in the UK . Lots of old oak about. I haven't tried this method yet but I will do this week . Thanks in advance.
a lumberjack in flip-flops...thats the other thing wrong with this picture, lol
Wrong? Or oh so right?
Safety Thongs!
Love the Safety jandles while splitting the oak 🤠
A man after my own heart.
Wow she looks so different Jesse...
Love looking back at older videos.. jesse has stayed the same cheerful dude... Makes me like his channel even more
Hey Jesse... American noob to the craft. been a woodworker for years and new i was keeping all my cut offs for something. After watching this i toasted up several batches of varying toast levels. Ran my first test batch sand cant wait to throw it all together. Keep up the good work brother!
Fan for life
Ayyyyeeeeew nice man. It's pretty cool when different crafts come together right?
@@StillIt Yeah buddy. Thanks for all the advice. Im working up to a 50/50 blend corn whiskey and nectarine brandy that i am going to toss these in.
I’m just starting myself and I’ve come across your videos to help me out. Living in south of America is hard to find white oak compared to living in the north where there are everywhere. But thank you for highlighting the areas I needed work on and answering those unknown topics.
Awesome man. Glad it helped a little 😀. I'm guessing you have access to a bunch of other awesome wood though?
Congratulations on your 1 year anniversary !!! Thanks for another great video. I have all the wood I need atleast that's what my wife tells me 😱😱😱😱
Ha hahaha hahahahaha
Oh 🤣🤣🤣
Obviously this is a very old video - but I just found this channel recently.
Just wanted to let people know; a grill is just an oven with a single - direction heat source. You can set your grill up to an appropriate temp, then use a rack, baking tray, or oven proof item to set the wood off of direct heat.
I have baked cakes in my grill at Backyard Parties: It's an oven if you have any skill at cooking.
5 yrs later im watching this vid. In Big Rapids Michigan. Cheers Mate!!
white oak toast
240 F x 2 hrs target flavor profile: oak -smelled woody
356 F x 2 hrs target flavor profile: vanilla -smelled sweet
428 F x 2 hrs target flavor profile:almond -smelled like over-baked cookies
CONGRATS ON A GREAT 1ST YEAR!!! Great video as always! That's some badass slowmo. Also, Cool shirt brother:-)>
Thanks my man :)
Other than that flicker . . .. stupid lighting ;)
For a long time I couldn't tell the difference between Australians and you New Zealanders. You sound the same to me, but now I know you call it a barbeque and it's barbie on the mainland. Being from Kansas City I don't think any of you guys know what BBQ really is, but you sure know your spirits. No doubt.
Well done on the first years anniversary... love you videos because we can visually see what is happening. The forums can be a bit of a guessing game and interpretation sometimes. Just a few few additional comments below.
1. Most of the commercial oak staves in the wine industry are between 10mm and 20mm think and are sawn.
2, I only use the house oven when the wife is out all day... learnt the hard way when I smoked the house out.
3. Large staves can be a meter long and 15mm thick and 90mm wide. If you can get used ones from a winery they are great for chopping up to size and toasting. Before cutting I use a wood planner / thickener which results in a mass of shavings which can be washed at 80 deg C to sanitize and then dried and toasted. Great for quick ageing.
4. I normally cut down the oak to 5gm sizes, i.e by weight... to if you are ageing in spirit bottles it’s the perfect size to go down the neck.
5. I also use raw oak, charred oak in addition to the toasted oak you demonstrated here.
6. Just one other thing I have some oak that I have soaked in Sherry... another conversation to have..
Keep the good work up. Cheers.
I hear you on the "seeing" basicly the same thought process that made me think "there may be something to this youtube thing. . ."
I have wondered the same thing. I mean barrels are cut. But I guess just because its been done that way for a long time dosnt mean its right. Would love to do some decent testing on this at some stage!
you can also use the wood for putting in a smoker.
they sell them in chipped, slivered, and chunked without being treated.
they also sell them in large bags and small bags as well.
some companies like Jack Daniels will butcher (both shipped and chunked) their used old oak casks for smoking meat.
you also want to keep in mind that wood in general combusts between 250F/121C and 300F/148C
Hello! I'm relatively new to distilling (3 yrs). I've been fascinated by this method of quick infusion of wood. Have done some experiments using toasted white oak and hard maple in the past with good results. Yesterday while doing a spirit run I decided to toast some more wood at same time to multi-task. Long story short, I added one of the warm(cooled for a hour) oak chunks to a 1 litre jar. The result was much more rapid coloring of the spirit and wonderful aroma. Just wondering if anyone else has tried this?
Great video once again. I literally just cut down some white oak on my property and now toasting at your recommended temps. Thank you Jesse
Love watching your channel. Im in the US so all I can do is live vicariously through your channel.
If you can get hold of some Peach tree prunings (old growth mainly) strip the bark and toast it lightly over a flame to caramelise the sap. Imparts a lovely sweet buttery flavour to you UJSSM. Just add a few blocks to your oak.
That sounds interesting! Will have to keep a eye out!
Cheers from Brazil, brother! Just loved the info! thanks!!!
Congrats, on your 1 year anniversary! Keep them going, really enjoying the the content and your general happy, go lucky self.
Glad you like the vides Jeremy :)
Another masterpiece Jesse. Great information with a personal touch as always.
I love your choice of safety boots, i use the same kind. safety first hahaha
Happy One Year 'versary. Happy to have been along with the ride from the beginning.
Thanks my man.
And its VERY much appreciated!
I use White Oak staves similar to what you have, but much narrower about 1.25 CM x 1.25 CM x 10 CM. I find that they give flavor a bit smoother(?) than larger chunks I once worked with. Bigger chunks tended to lend flavor much faster than I liked, but to eaches own. I also use Charred Mesquite to mellow as well. Good smooth vanilla tones with sweet woody flavor, even some spiciness from the mesquite. I also use 13% rye in my base for a good spice.
Happy birthday Still it. I have picked up some real good ideas. Given lots of alternatives as well. Thank you for a interesting year!
Use a good plane to make shavings then heat in a mostly closed container to create charcoal. One of my uncles did make moonshine and used a twenty gallon crock filled with charcoal shavings to age some of his product.
I get Jack Daniels barrel chips used for smoking. Been using them for oaking beers for few years. In the US Lowe’s sells them.
Old video, I know. Very useful information, thank you for doing the channel!
Consider striking the back of your axe with a mallet for a touch more accuracy (and safety) when splitting small bits
The reason white oak became popular is because it was used to make most barrels and even hulls on ships.
Red oak would rot.
I have a hole stack of it in my shed.
Never thought of using it in alcohol.
Congrats on your 1 year. I’d be interested in trying the oak. I’ve been playing with a cracked corn, rye, and apple juice recipe. Also been using a winter deer feed from a local feed supply lol. It actually turns out pretty good.
ah nice man! On the list for sure!
that rye and apple sounds very interesting!
Thanks for good laughs on that sneaking part :D Cheers!
Cant upset the wife ;)
My suggestion is to put the toasted woods tips in slime wheat starch to insulate the tips to prevent the transfer of tanin and bitness of wood to whisky.the process is to put the tips of the wood in the starch and let them to dry.
if you're getting fresh rounds off a tree, it's highly suggested that you dry your wood first using an oven or some sort of higher heat before attempting to season. Just simply tossing green wood out in the elements to season it can lead to rotting. It can work, given enough time, but as long as there's green wood, any wood boring insects and the like are more likely to be attracted to the exposed green wood. Similarly the fresh rounds can attract molds, fungus, and bacteria which may not be desirable. Kiln drying is the process coopers use to process the lumber for barrels. Once dried, then it can be left out for about 18 months for a proper seasoning before use.
Great Video as always. Did not know i'd be into watching a Man and his wood. LoL
did you like the way I chopped it? 😘
I was wondering a ton of the questions you answered. I definitely started with white dog straight 75% and ouch was it peppery and bighty. Diluted out to 50 and have tried oak and cherry charred. Both are super tasty and after you insight on refusing the bite in tasting, I enjoy them even more
Awesome! The "entry proof" defionitly effects things huh!
I loved the power saw montage. And Happy anniversary!
Haha sweet man :)
Dude..this has been such a helpful channel. Just moving into the whisky now. I have the clear and fruit "shines" where I like them but had no real idea on the wooded flavours.
Awesome man! Hope the brown spirits treat you well :)
Rosenfeld kidson is a timber yard with everything,Barry’s barrels in Albany too. He makes awesome little barrels 1 lt up and sells wine barrels,wood and sawdust. Nice safety slippers
Started watching and came to this video to learn more about wood for aging. I love how jesse puts on the goggles to make a cut with the miter saw, but continues on to hack wood with the axe while wearing sandals hahahaha
I have been distilling for years, Never knew how to prepare the wood. Great video!!
Hey! I know this is old but congrats on joining the twin club.
I can't believe it's been a year seemed to be at least two. Lol l would say put me in the mix for the oak but I can get all I need. It's brought into my work by the train load. I can pick up truckloads white oak, red oak, hickory, and even some cherry at times.
you lucky man ;)
Awesome video, plenty of information. I live in the USA is Florida. Most of all the trees on my property are white oaks. We call them water oaks here. If you ever need any send me a shout and I'm sure I can cut some and send it your way
Thats awesome man! I have family and friends in Florida. I need to head back that way some time!
Cool bro i like how you backed away ever so slowly, lots of helpfull stuff..
Bearded dude, really a lot of thanks from Turkey
Hope it's going well in Turkey!
I season my oak down to 12% using a woodworkers moisture meter to make sure it's where I need it. I do 4 levels of char and toast fairly close the same way you did.
6 years of Still It!. 👍👍
Came over from CitySteading again to check out oaking red wine. Thanks for the info. On to find a flavoring video.
Haha, I knew exactly what you were talking about. Great video definitely subbing
Wow, great video man! I can't wait to toast my own as well. Congrats on the 1 year anniversary!
Thanks man :)
Alcohol, hatchet and flip-flops. Love these good folk from the land of Oz.
How dare you Sir! I am from New Zealand!
Although I was actually born in Australia hahaha shhhhhh ;)
Pro Tip - get yourself a couple Oak Spirals, break out the propane touch and give them a alligator char. Drop them in the mason jar full of your white whiskey...it will start to darken in a couple hours...after a couple weeks ...mmm smooth. Remember Bourbon barrels have alligator char in them. Acts like a charcoal filter and smooths out the spirit.
Happy 1 year anniversary!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks bro :)
So glad I found this channel, a big congrats on one year and cheers to many more!
Thanks Erik. Appreciate it my man!
Great video! Thank you so much for this! I.ll try to cook some cherry and sour cherry wood for ageing plum, grapes and peach brandy.
any update? I've thought cherry would be nice but never tried it
Well, I just happen to have over 50 large white oak trees on my place. The acorns are delicious. Now I see another use for them.
I have two 20 liter white oak barrels and am quite surprised by how different they are, though both are wonderful and your temperature chart explains why. I thank you for posting it. I also appreciate the rest of your video very much because you have opened my eyes to many new adventures in the craft. I have a suggestion for you; Make a corn mash for whisky using heratige corn (sometimes called Indian corn in the US) and malted barley (instead of the common yellow corn most people use today) and you will end up with something extra-special. Then use some of that lightly roasted oak with the vanilla characteristics to age your distillate. It is alcohol Heaven!
Man I would love to do that!
I have no idea if we can get it here though.
@@StillIt You may be able to find it sold as a specialty popcorn. Good luck!
I just buy the "Jack Daniels" Brand Charcoal; it comes with a pouch of White Oak within. I remove there char and replace it with my own using a torch. Hope this help's..... O-yea quick age is put the jar in freezer=Winter put the jar on the counter top=Summer repeat. Happy dayz
I managed to find some oak from a BBQ supplier. Ive split into various sizes and thickness, now toasting uncovered in the oven at 140c for 2 hours. will then take half out & up the temp to the vanilla temp range for another hour.
i love the lumber jack switch... but dude sandles hahaha.
love your channel
Hay, lay off the safety thongs!!! hahah
I'm looking forward to kicking off my little hobby in a couple of months but loving your vids to get some knowledge, very helpful and this vid was awesome as it's what I'm aiming for. Top job
Another great video! Haven't moved past purchased toasted oak chips yet. I have tried heavy toasted but prefer the light so far. Would love to age some vanilla and may try your method myself. Thanks for the info!
I live in the Southwest U.S.
I've had good results with our local Gambrel oak. No white oak at all, in about 60%, 120 proof, approx. Good char taste, more woody.
When you want to split small pieces of wood without hurting yourself, grab the wood and place the axe where you want the cut. Then without lifting the axe off the wood or letting go of the wood, lift the two from the block and tap it down only as hard as you need to. Once you're in the wood you can let go. This is how you do starter kindling without worrying about your fingers and your sizes will be more uniform
awesome info,i will try to do some soon!
Sugar maple wood is giving me GREAT results
2 inches if Jesse is a dwarf with tiny hands 😁 great vid thanks man
gonna be flat out at work tomorrow, but happy anniversary bro and congrats on the twins. my moneys on the 220s being awesome. would love to try some.
you should also experiment with LIGHT charring, to get a nice light smokey flavour and compare.
also have a look at stilldragons oak dominoes, they put em in a tumbler to round out the edges so you get more of the long grains. thought that was pretty interesting
Yep I need to get to charing as well!
Huh . . . .I did not know that. Interesting . . . .
Love your channel man. Congrats on the kiddos and the one year.
thanks man :)
Absolutely, being a newbie to the hobby myself it has been fun and instructional watching your channel.
Really interesting stuff. I’ve been experimenting with mead and will be toasting some oak to try with that. It was a nice intro into toasting, which I’ll find very useful.
Very good video congrats on the twins
I'm going to test ageing apple jack. 😀 Though I'm 5 years late to this so I'm toasting my own oak. 😜
Question about reusing the Oak for other future spirits (I heard this process is great for barrels):
- How do you store them in between uses? Do you let the previous spirit dry off or do you always keep them submerged in just a tiny amount of the previous spirit?
Congrats on the babies man!! Wishing health to everyone! Cheers
Love the safety jandals cutting with the axe. Keep up the good vids. Appreciate the content!
There are very few things you can't get through with safety jandles 😆
Hi I'm from Bangladesh
American white oak is not available in our country. Can I use Red oak, Maple or something for aging??
I have never used red oak. But sugar maple is quite nice
Jesse! Ok i know this one is older. But i saw it and started preparing some Oak myself thanks for the inspiration!
Nice my bro! Enjoy
@@StillIt Have you tried it to "finish" Whisky? I'm going to try a Port finish with a budget blend i already like :D
Yeah, I have soaked oak sticks/dominoes in wine/port/etc and then used those. Works fairly well. Although I think perhaps adding a small amount of the wine/port/etc as well is more like the effect when using a barrel.
@@StillIt thanks man! That helped alot! :)
Jess I just read a article from a home brewer who toasts his on woods for beer. He contributes the the toasting chart is from World Cooperage
You can speed up the aging of wood with a drying box. If you build it right, you can knock 2 years down into less than 2 months.
I love this guys laugh.
Congrats to your twin
Hell yea love this channel, came here from the whisk(e)y vault. And I'm glad I did!!!!
Thanks my bro :)
Love seeing more MB's here !
Hey Jess!
I’m behind on your vids.
I have a 1x4 inches x 10 feet untreated oak from a lumber yard paid $3 last November- sorry I know it’s scarce over there ! Ready to cut and toast. Planning on approximately 1x1x4 inch to fit in Quart/ Liter jar for “Bourbon ” & rum & “FauxQuila
I read somewhere a hobbyist disagrees with the hours long toasting which when looking at the Chart I agree
I want mine toasted at different levels. Medium Rare you might say as opposed to Well Done.
The wife is going out of town this weekend so I have the convection oven to myself.
First batch will be a dozen or so “staves” wrapped and put in a cold oven. Not sure it goes over 205 C but we’ll see. When it hits, keep it there for 15 minutes shut the oven off. Not sure if I should leave it in the cooling off oven
When done I’ll send you a picture on one of the forums.
Thanks for all you do.
How's it mate! Yeah I definitely think there are definitely different ways to go about it. Part of the reason I did it the way I did was to be able to taste the different specific flavours you can get out of the wood.
Keen to see what you come up with! Enjoy mate.
I toasted apple wood and it was great,.
Right now trying to oak 94% legal alcool, I’m in Canada Quebec, and one thing for sure governments don’t like is being deprived of those tax revenus on drinks which is in range of millions each year, so they forbid distillation of alcool. I’m following you channel with pleasure and the other thing you can make a clip on is computing the alcool percent and how to adjust it, cause aging is best done with booze at 52%.
It's just math. If you know what the ABV of your spirit is and what your end ABV is going to be, you can just calculate it.
Say for example you have 2.5 Liters of 94% alcohol and wanted it at cask strength for oaking at 55%.
2.5 * 94 / 55 = 4.27 Liters
So just add distilled water to your 2.5 Liters until you get to a total volume of 4.27 liters.
It's just math. So if you had 1 liter of 50% and added 1 liter of distilled water you would end up with 2 liters of 25%
BTW, at 94% you don't have much if any of your original taste as it was distilled to pure. :) A good whiskey won't get taken off the still at anything higher than 160 proof at the start of the run and it will drop as it goes in a pot still.
HAHAHA should have watched this before i took my hobby into the house! Wife was not happy when I toasted my wine barrel oak
Will Tasmanian Oak be ok? I can get Tasmanian oak planks for pretty cheap from Bunnings. It may be treated... I wonder if the timber guy there will even know?
So, I can go out to the woods cut off a thick branch of an oak tree and cut it into smaller pieces?
Can I use European oak instead of American white oak? I’m Europe so it’s very easily available here contrary to American.
Grind it down to sawdust and then partially torch it. Then put it in teabag paper and soak it for a month or two.
That cutting montage is fucking prime.
Glad you liked it 🥃
Yeah, as soon as I gathered you were taking this into the house and into the oven I had a vision of this turning into a homeless life vlog. But I see you have achieved the dream. A celebration in itself.
You basically aged the two on the left and medium roasted the one on the right, I've had plenty of mates work at timber mills and they fast age wood in a huge air-conditioned oven and yer you aged the first two and yer roasted the far right one 👍🏻🇦🇺
I was thinking on aging with the middle wood some Tennessee mountain moon shine
what type of differences in flavour do you get from red oak, white oak or other...(Garry oak, french, etc) ????????
What about full charring? Isnt the point that the char inside the barrel removes unwanted content and the wood flavors whats left? I dont see much carbon going on. etc
I think I heard something about people going blind during probation because of the led solider , be safe
There is a local apple brandy distillery near where I live, they tried to use local Swedish oak for their barrels. Turns out, swedish oak is really, REALLY oaky, so they ended up having to use that whole batch to blend into other batches in small amounts.
Moral of the story: always do a single cask test batch with new wood.
Flip flops and an axe....love it!
Thongs and a axe!