Dougdogs' Whiskey Rebarreling...

[dougdog]

Hey Ken, I do recall all the conversation we had in the rick-house that day...

Especially the parts about experimental barrels and discussion about Cream of Kentucky...somehow, your post here doesn't surprise me...rather it lends confirmation that I'm heading in the right direction....and I'm with Ed...only difference is that I'm gonna ask Randy to loan me his new found 5 gallon "flask" for my little sample bottle....LOL

Can you give a hint as to when the experiment re-barreling in your wharehouse will be ready for market?

Ken...you da man...BT is da place!!!

See ya at the sampler...best regards, dougdog

[dougdog]

Hi Timothy

You wrote:

Have you considered how you're going to filter it when you dump it? or if you will?

Have you considered how often you'll weigh the barrel to see how long it takes before you get losses other than what the barrel absorbs?

Looks good, where is it going to be stored again? Can we get some pics of its new home?

I'm considering two ideas at this point in time, first is to just run it through a coffee filter to remove all the big chunks.
Second is to take some of the Mesquite charcoal that I use in my BBQ, crush it, and run some of the bourbon through it as in "Charcoal Filtered"

I'll save the "used" charcoal for the next time I grill a BBQ pork tenderloin roast... (Jeff, thanks again for that good recipe)

The barrel will be checked weekly for the first 8 weeks, evaluated and probably be checked monthly after stabilization has been established. Samples being consumed...I mean "TESTED" at each "Study Group"!

It will be stored in my attic where more drastic temperature swing are prevalent...I'll take pictures and post them when the barrel is placed. Right now I'm trying to get some time to stop at the store and get a thermometer with tell-tales to mount next to the barrel. Right now the barrel is sitting in the bonsai studio at the same place where the photo was taken. It gets some late afternoon sun there at this time of year. I'm planning to place it in the attic on Saturday the 26th.

Your thought about my thoughts?

Best, dougdog

[Gillman]

Why doesn't the bourbon age for the total number of years in your example? I see what you mean in the legal sense but not in the practical sense, i.e., for the purpose of Doug's experiments. The only real difference from regular aging is he transferred the AA into a new barrel, which means more wood gums will get in (the richness you refer to) than if the AA had continued to be held in the original barrels. That is why, plus the factor of the small barrel size, that people are advising and Doug has accepted that his AA will reach optimum condition (likely) in months not years but apart from that I don't see why one wouldn't count the age of his bourbon when it went into his barrels when (at the end) computing the final age.

Gary

[Gillman]

Doug I know the samples you will remove are small but I advise if possible to hold back some from each successive tasting so later you see whether there is any change between the samples. Only a side-by-side will really tell you I think..

Also, just a suggestion, but you may want to consider not doing the top-up. To me that crosses over into another area, the "solera" idea which is a good one but will change the idea of the continued aging of the AA you first put in there. Solera whiskey can be good (e.g. you probably know the Glenfidich version) but this is a different animal from making AA into AAA.

The only difference between your project and continued aging in the BT warehouses is your entry proof was lower and you used a new barrel. I don't think either factor really matters if you check as we are discussing the quality and choose to dump at the time you feel it is right - this will probably (but who knows) be a question of months not years.

After you dump you will have seasoned barrels and if you continue the project you will (except again for proof) come even closer to the continued aging model of the warehouse.

Gary

[barturtle]

Coffee filter is my first thought as well, though I might invest in a reusable metal one instead of using a paper type. I did have the thought of using a Brita-type water filter as they use activated charcoal as the filering media, you could even chill filter in one of these little pitchers.

I wonder if the mesquite charcoal would impart a mesquite flavor. I wonder if JD sells its used maple charcoal, I know I've seen barrel char for sale at BT's giftshop, seems JD would do something similar at its giftshop.

Sounds like a good plan. I look forward to seeing a barrel sample at the next Gazebo.

[Rughi]

Doug,
Don't go gettin' all Texas on us with that Mesquite stuff. You gonna make "Doug Dogie's Western Roundup Red Likker" or "God's Honest Bay Area Kentucky Bourbon", in the good old Lawrenceburg-Fresno tradition?

Roger "Don't Mess with Texas" Hodges

[barturtle]

Actually I was considering that a possible thing to watch out for(i.e. an unwanted flavor)- The used up JD charcoal would not have much wood flavor left over while still working well as a filtering agent.

I believe that a good Kenifornia Bourbon in the Frankno tradition is the goal

[barturtle]

Going back to the point of refilling it to keep it from drying out and leaking. I'm not sure about how you actually feel about the semi-solera system that this sets up, but if you're not entirely happy with that and would like to just let that batch mature on its own without any outside interference, you might want to ask Ken Weber what it is the leak chasers use to seal up leaks on their barrels(in case any develop). Though this might be more practicable on the bigger barrel when you get to it, as the samples taken out will reduce the volume by a smaller pecentage each time, allowing for longer aging(and more samples)before it is empty.

Not that I think the solera system is bad, it could work quite well. Just trying to give any other options that are available.

[doubleblank]

Hey Doug.......Have you ever tried Prichard's Double Barreled Bourbon? I don't know if its available anymore, but my recollection is that the Prichard Distillery bought barrels of bourbon, cut it down in proof, and then rebarreled it into "small", new charred barrels. I have a bottle but haven't opened it. They use 15 gallon oak barrels for ageing their rum......my guess is they used the same size for their bourbon. There never was much discussion about it on this site.....just a couple of threads and minimal comments regarding taste. The bottle says 9yo, but I don't recall any distiction between age in the first barrel and age from the second barrel. Again, my guess is that it didn't stay in the new barrels very long......they needed cash flow.....and it also makes sense as discussed herein.

Randy

[kbuzbee]

Doug I think the gold coffee filter idea will work just fine. You would get (maybe) a better filteration putting some of the char into the gold filter but (I suspect) char falling out of the barrle will accomplish this in short order.

Ken