Dougdogs' Whiskey Rebarreling...

[BourbonJoe]

That's a very good, and very believable point Gary.
Joe

[Joeluka]

That's a good point about a barrel reaching its natural limit at some point and the whiskey achieving stability from there. That may explain why 23 year old bourbons and older are drinkable. They may not have changed significantly from about 15 years old. This may vary too from barrel to barrel. This may explain also why malt whiskies, many of which are aged in reused bourbon wood, do not get sweet and char-smoky like bourbon. Most of those barrels in recent years would have been used 4-8 years (e.g. your typical Beam, Makers or JD barrel). One would think aging malt whiskey in those would make the whisky half-bourbon-like after 10-12 years in barrel but it doesn't. Many here know the familar "white wine" color of many such malts. The bourbon barrels probably gave their all to the bourbon when first emptied. Not that some change doesn't happen between 15-25 years but it may be minimal and not just that, change between 7-15 years may also be minimal.

Gary

They take first-fill used bourbon barrells and put a high proof grain spirit in them first at SMSW distilleries. This takes the rest of the char-smoke flavor out of the barrel and on the second-fill they put in the single malt and then let the barrel work the spirit for many years.

[BourbonJoe]

They take first-fill used bourbon barrells and put a high proof grain spirit in them first at SMSW distilleries. This takes the rest of the char-smoke flavor out of the barrel and on the second-fill they put in the single malt and then let the barrel work the spirit for many years.

What do they do with the high proof grain after they take it out of the barrels?
joe

[barturtle]

The grain is used in Blended whisky. All whisky used in the production must be aged. and in the case of an age stated blend the grain must also be of the age stated

[cowdery]

Science: The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.

If this isn't science I don't know what is, and not only science but important science of interest to dozens if not hundreds of people.

And future generations? Who truly knows.

[Gillman]

Doug, I've done a fair amount of work on vatting rums. Here is my experience: take a few types that are similar and blend them. E.g., blend some Demeraras with other dark rums. So you have a base of rich treacly rums, and then add not a lot of spicy different kinds. E.g. add some spiced rum to it, or some young Puerto Rican rums. So your flavor profile remains dark/rich but with skeins of flavour through the drink to add counterpoint and interest.

Or go the other way, do a base of white rums with skeins of dark. Or all-amber with trailings of a couple of high proof rums.

You can mix willy-nilly and it won't be bad but it is better in my view to work off a theme.




Gary

[Gillman]

Sounds great keep going! Doug before you enter the vatting, please give us a taste note.

Gary

[dougdog]

to the NON-WHISKEY ALCOHOL section of the forum...'cause it's Rum...What the heck was I thinking?

OOOOOPS!....Sorry Jim!

When I get around to filling "Barrel #4" we can resume here...it will have Bourbon in it!

[dougdog]

I finally got around to compiling all the totals...

Barrel #2 contents…Vintage Whiskies…all pre 1984….all tax stamped closures.


24% (2) Old Taylor, Bourbon, 86 proof, NAS, 1.75 liters.


12% (1) Old Forester, Bourbon, 100 proof, (Bond) 4 years old, 1.75 liters.


5% (1) Kentucky Tavern, Bourbon, 86 proof, 8 years old, 4/5ths quart.


7% (1) Ancient Age, Bourbon, 86 proof, NAS, 1 quart.


12% (1) J. W. Dant “Old Style” Whiskey, 80 proof, 4 years old, 1.75 liters. (Indiana)


12% (1) Henry McKenna, Bourbon, 80 proof, NAS, 1.75 liters. (Louisville)


13% (2) Yellowstone, Bourbon, 86 proof, 4 years old, 1 quart. (Louisville)


14% (1) Wild Turkey, Bourbon, Old #8, 101 proof, NAS, 1liter.

[dougdog]

With the news that Jake is coming to town next month and him wanting to sample some barrels, I thought I’d do a little check on Barrel number one. (If you remember, this is the barrel with only AA in it) It has been a few weeks or more since I got into that one and wanted to “see” how things are doing in there.

I started earlier today by stopping of at the local liquor store and bought another 750ml of new AA and a bottle of Everclear. I wanted to get a taste of what the whiskey first started as and compare that to what it is today…the everclear is to help boost the barrel proof if the flavor aspect of things works out…

First, I extracted 750mls from the barrel and bottled that as a sample for next months get together. I took another portion and put it in a snifter, probably about 75-100 ml. WOW!...the color is real good now, quite delightful to look at. In another snifter, I poured some of the “new” AA, and in yet another I poured some Everclear.

I nosed and tasted the regular AA, and then I nosed and tasted the barrel sample, then the everclear…

I mixed a bit of the everclear in with the regular AA and found the boost in ABV to be quite pleasant…now for the real test…I put some everclear in the sample drawn today and the extra boost was well received there as well. I decide to go ahead and dump the bottle of everclear in the barrel. I’ll let that sit for a month and we can all sample it again when Jake is in town. (I’m considering dumping another one in the barrel as the one bottle dumped today will not represent the ratios in the barrel to those I set up in the glass for the testing.)

So that’s the latest on barrel number one for now…hopefully someone will post some tasting notes after Jakes’ visit.