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Vatting Elijah Craig Barrel Proof


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In doing a little inventory the other day I realized I have far more ECBP than I will drink in 2 lifetimes, so I was hoping I might get some suggestions as a potential vat of ECBP and ?????. My wife bought me a couple of those 2L oak barrels for Christmas and it might be fun to 'age' a mixture in one of those to see what happens.

 

Any thoughts, ideas.....has anyone done a successful vat of ECBP

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I would not age ECBP any further in a 2L Barrel! It’s already aged well at 12yrs. If you want to play with further aging, I’d recommend starting with something that is very young or underaged to start with.

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My Advice?    Do NOT try any 'aging' in a small barrel.    ALL of the releases of ECBP are pretty damned great as they are bottled. 

If you're considering adding it to any other whiskey, you'll be getting MORE to drink, so . . . 3-lifetimes?  What's the point?

Now, trying a blend with a few different ECBP's might be fun.    ...And, I'm certain they would blend well, since they all come from very similar stock.    There are subtle differences to be sure, so it could result in something truly special, if consideration is given to which ones you assemble together.   Just my own opinion, of course; being it's your whiskey, whatever you do with it is certainly your call.

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I made a blend of ECBP, EC NAS, Larceny, and EW BIB that came out pretty tasty. Don't recall the proportions.

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16 hours ago, Marekv8 said:

50/50 with OB Old Blowhard is a nice blend.

Work's well with Barterhouse as well, I would guess it would do well with most of the OB stuff. It also works well with younger bourbons that can uses some oak and some heft.

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2 minutes ago, kevinbrink said:

Work's well with Barterhouse as well, I would guess it would do well with most of the OB stuff. It also works well with younger bourbons that can uses some oak and some heft.

Such as the now younger NAS EC.  I'll bet that would be a great blend. 

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Eeek. Do not ruin that great Bourbon in a 2 liter nasty-@ss chunk of crap wood!

 

I think just a decent chunk of ice is all the blending down ECBP needs- but I have tried a little Barterhouse and Weller 12 which was an excellent combo

 

Cheers,

RW

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On 3/29/2019 at 10:00 AM, fosmith said:

Such as the now younger NAS EC.  I'll bet that would be a great blend. 

I have vatted ECBP with other EC 94pf bottles several times.  The results have always been very tasty.  I recently mixed up a 1050ml vat with 5 difference EC single barrels and 2 different ECBP batches.  Final proof was right around 104 and I am letting it sit for a few weeks before sampling.  

 

I agree with prior posts that I would not suggest "aging" it any longer in a small wood barrel.  

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I think aging maybe a stretch, my fault, this is more vatting a combination of two Elijah Craigs in a small oak barrel seasoned with rum for a few weeks to see what happens.

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If you're going to use those little barrels, the best thing to do is season them with something else for a few weeks., so I think you're on the right track. The last thing I would do is throw well aged whiskey right in there, it's gonna come out as an overoaked mess, you need that first fill to take the edge off those barrels. Rum could be a nice choice for the first fill. I've had the best luck with port and madeira. Rye and port is a really good combination. Rum + bourbon might get overly sweet, so be careful there unless you have sweet tooth. If going with rum, I would probably go with something funky to make it interesting, like Smith and Cross, but not everyone likes the Jamaican funk. The risk with rum is getting too much of that heavy vanilla extract flavor.

 

With the 1L barrels, I find it takes about 5-6 days to impart a lot of flavor, and if left in for over a week it can really overpower and start to go off. For a 2L barrel, you can probably leave it in for a bit longer. But I would taste it every 1-2 days for sure. A tip if you leave it in too long: blend it with some of the base spirit to balance it out again.

 

For an EC vat, I would probably go with something complimentary, something with some spice that would help to balance the sweet nuttiness of EC. Like a high rye bourbon maybe. Four Roses? MGP? Barton? Old Forester? Going with a straight rye might be interesting too, for a Bourye sort of thing. Whistlepig? Pikesville? I also like to add something older for some extra complexity, for instance Barterhouse, Elijah Craig 18, or even some well aged Armagnac, whatever you have that has some more depth and complexity than your average bottle. Usually I do a pretty small amount of older stuff, not more than 5% of the vat.

 

I would say vatting with something like EC NAS is missing an opportunity to do something fun, you're really just proofing down/adding water at that point. But if ECBP / EC NAS is your favorite thing ever, I'm sure you can't go wrong there.

 

After you run the EC vat through the barrel, consider doing a barrel aged cocktail, like a barrel aged Old Fashioned, Manhattan, or Sazerac. I barrel aged some gin, and then used that to make a batch of negronis which I then barrel aged, for a double barreled thing - this turned out surprisingly well. Making your own bitters and barrel aging them is fun too.

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2 hours ago, EarthQuake said:

I barrel aged some gin, and then used that to make a batch of negronis which I then barrel aged, for a double barreled thing - this turned out surprisingly well. 

Oh?

You have my attention.

 

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I don’t have any experience with the small barrels though IF I were to use one, I’d probably start with bottles that I wouldn’t be to upset if they ended up down the drain. That said, it is your whiskey. Do with it as you please. 

 

As far as blending HH, I haven’t done it but I may play around with a nice HM10 and ECBP 1:1. My proof point range is low 100s to about 120.  While I enjoy HM10, it is on the low side for me and I really have to be in the mood for 130 plus ecbp. 

 

10 year plus HH at about 116 sounds nice. 

 

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22 hours ago, flahute said:

Oh?

You have my attention.

 

Yes, it was a collage of silly projects.

 

First I made a compound gin, which is to say, took some vodka and added juniper berries and botanicals to it for a few days. Not really a proper gin because it's not re-distilled, but it tasted giny. Then I barrel aged it in one of those 1L barrels. I think the barrel held some whiskey experiments first, so the gin took on some whiskey notes. Then I made a big batch of Negronis with it and threw that in a barrel for a couple weeks. I think that was yet another barrel that held some experiment or another, because I did the negroni experiment a while after doing the gin one.

 

It worked out well, with the barrel/whiskey influence it resembled a Boulevardier somewhat, with more sweetness, richness, and complexity than a standard Negroni. It took the sharp edge of the Campari which I felt helped integrate it into the drink a bit better.

Edited by EarthQuake
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16 minutes ago, EarthQuake said:

Yes, it was a collage of silly projects.

 

First I made a compound gin, which is to say, took some vodka and added juniper berries and botanicals to it for a few days. Not really a proper gin because it's not re-distilled, but it tasted giny. Then I barrel aged it in one of those 1L barrels. I think the barrel held some whiskey experiments first, so the gin took on some whiskey notes. Then I made a big batch of Negronis with it and threw that in a barrel for a couple weeks. I think that was yet another barrel that held some experiment or another, because I did the negroni experiment a while after doing the gin one.

 

It worked out well, with the barrel/whiskey influence it resembled a Boulevardier somewhat, with more sweetness, richness, and complexity than a standard Negroni. It took the sharp edge of the Campari which I felt helped integrate it into the drink a bit better.

 

 

Got me thinking about barrel aged Boulevardiers...

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2 minutes ago, Mako254 said:

 

 

Got me thinking about barrel aged Boulevardiers...

As am I!

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