Roger’s Do-It-Yourself Bourbon and More
Now about bourbon. It’s an American booze and since I get more patriotic all the time, I started to make my own. Okay, I’m exaggerating. My wife gifted me a year or so ago with some bourbon mash (white dog or white lightening) from the Woodinville Whiskey Co. It came with a small oak barrel which you prepared by filling with water. (I used bottled.) After leaving that in for a bit to prepare the barrel, you pour it out and fill the barrel with the bourbon mash. Then you just let it sit there for as long as you like, sampling a tiny amount as it goes and watching the white dog go caramel. I aged it for five months before pouring the now quite smooth bourbon back into it’s original bottle. Mighty good.
Problem is, there is only about one-sixth as much of the aged bourbon as there was in its raw form. (Woodinville had said to expect some decrease, but not this much.) Oh, well. I’m going to write them for some more to see if I can get this right.
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More DIY drinking at PJ Lifestyle:
– (a) Manhattan when reading PJM in the evening!
Problem is, there is only about one-sixth as much of the aged bourbon as there was in its raw form. (Woodinville had said to expect some decrease, but not this much.)
Hmmmm, I wonder where the missing volume whent?
…Then you just let it sit there for a long as like, sampling tiny amount as it goes…
Well, could be, JMH. Maybe I should set up a video camera next time, keep tabs on myself.
“Maybe I should set up a video camera next time…”
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY V?
I do make my own beer, and from people go a bit farther, I’m told the ATF has stopped caring if you distilled small quantities without selling it.
Of course YMMV, and it’s a good idea to save the deliberate felonies for something important.
There’s been no change in the law.
Oh for Obama to go Carter one better, and legalize home distilled.
Washington State (where Woodinville Whiskey is located) has a program to license craft distilleries if they use 50%+ Washington State ingredients.
And I think the expected losses (to evaporation, not overzealous sampling!) is called “the Angles Share.”
You can brew spirits too – just not in the strength as you can distill. There are homebrew stores that sell yeast strains that can survive in up to 20 – 25% alcohol (40-50 proof). Weaker than distilled, but legal in most states (some have limits as to the alcohol limit in homebrewed beverages). You can then age it in the cask, or add oak to the glass jug to age it.
Ah, but this is not distilling – this is just aging.
He’s getting a bottle of spirits from Woodinville, not making his own.
(On the loss issue, I’m led to believe that around 10%/year is normal for cask-aging via evaporation, as Rocky said; the “Angel’s share”.
Losing 84% in 4 months suggests a defect in the barrel or a bad bung seal or something similar.
[Note to Jim in Alaska - he said 1/6 remained, not 1/6 loss, an easy thing to misread. 1/6 loss would be high but manageable; 1/6 remaining is a Problem.])
So much for “the angel’s share.” That looks more like they took “The IRS’s share.”
I think your loss rate was due to not letting the water saturate the cask prior to putting in the liquor. As an avid bourbon drinker from Kentucky, I recommend you give Basil Hayden a try. It is an exceptional bourbon. For a real treat, put the Basil Hayden in the cask and let it sit for a couple of months.
“My wife gifted me…” Really Roger? “My wife gave me…” works perfectly well.
I think the use of “gifted” suits the stately nature of uisegebagh.
The winemakers and distillers refer to the (small) part of the volume that does actually disappear from the barrel without any human intervention, as “the angels’ share.
The (larger) part that disappears — in not so immaculate a manner– is called “the devil’s share.”
Uisegebagh yes, but Bourbon, no. Unless you’re in Kaintuck Territory. Them’s the rules. And, yes, Buffalo Trace is mighty fine.
Hey! Any distilled beer is whiskey!
Ask any celt going back 600 years.
They won’t turn up their nose at it.
Adding anything to great bourbon is liking spreading butter on pastrami. The soul recoils.
What I meant was, while it is whiskey, it’s not Bourbon. Bourbon only comes from Kentucky. Just ask those Tennessee whiskey makers.
There is a misconception that bourbon can only come from Kentucky. This is incorrect.
By law to be considered bourbon, the mash bill must include at least 51% corn, it must be aged in new charred-oak barrels, it can’t be more than 160 proof when put in the barrel, and more than 125 proof when bottled.
There are or have been bourbons from Virginia, Missouri, NY, and, of course, Kentucky.
As to really good bourbons, you might want to try Woodford Reserve. If price is a consideration, try Elijah Craig 12-year Old. It is one of the best tasting, not expensive, bourbons I’ve ever had.
Nonsense. Bourbon can be made anywhere; the requirements have to do with how much of what grains are used, and where/how long it is aged.
And sorry to say, at very least the two largest brands of Tennessee whiskey (one of them calls it whisky) do indeed fulfill all requirements to be called bourbon, they simply choose not to (no doubt for marketing reasons).
Tennessee whiskey is not Bourbon because it is charcoal filtered. BTW- best Bourbon is Russell’s 10 yr.
And therein is the rub…if you believe “filtration” is an “additive process” you would be correct. If, on the other hand, you believe filtration is a “subtractive process” then your argument is without merit. Further, running a whiskey through a stack of charred wood is really no different than storing it in a charred wood barrel. The only difference is bourbon barrels *must* be charred white oak, and the charcoal used to filter TN whiskey (at least by the two biggest makers and at least one very small maker) is charred sugar maple. I guess you can either believe TN whiskey qualifies under federal regualtions to be bourbon or not; I choose to believe it could (although it ultimately matters not to me one way or the other), and I also believe by federal definitions charcoal filtering is considered a subtractive process, so it would seem they would agree, too…if the TN whiskey/whisky makers wanted them to. Which they clearly don’t.
I’ve always enjoyed catering to the preferences of family and friends, so the contents of my liquor cabinet reflect that, and gin seems to dominate. Currently it contains Seagram’s (for junk summer drinks like watermelon slush), Beefeater’s, Bombay Original, Bombay Sapphire, Boodles (my preference in a martini—the smell alone puts me in orbit), and Hendricks, which happened to be used as the base for a wonderfully dangerous, old-time cocktail I only recently discovered called a “French 75.” Ooh-la-la doesn’t even come close.
So on behalf of all those gin drinkers, thanks for introducing me to Plymouth, Roger. I easily found an online source, and a lovely bonus is that they also carry Teacher’s, a key ingredient in the Christmas cakes I bake every year that’s become impossibly hard to find, but whose distinctive flavor hasn’t been satisfactorily matched by recent substitutes. Guess you should make that thanks a double.
(Manhattan’s used to be a strictly winter-time drink for me, but they somehow slid into first place with the wood-paneled library I happily acquired in moving for retirement. Apparently there’s something about them my psyche considers a perfect match.)
Manhattan = rye not bourbon. I prefer Old Overholt when I can find it.
I concur with you on that. Bourbon is okay, but it makes it cloyingly sweet unless you use a very astringent bourbon, like a Woodford Reserve. (And damned if I’m mixing cocktails with $40/bottle bourbon…) Buffalo Trace is good b/c among the mid-range bourbons, it’s one of the few with a light & dry taste. Rye works just fine and makes for a cleaner palate – more like a sweet whiskey martini, if you will, than a granny drink. Bulleit rye is good, Pikesville works fine, you might be able to use a Canadian whiskey too, given their very high rye content.
Thank you.
We prefer Bulleit rye here…or a homemade infusion of apple & cinnamon in a lesser rye (usually Beam, since that’s what’s [legally] available in Alabama).
My wife gifted me …with some bourbon mash
No, she didn’t. Your wife gifted you with some never-barreled whiskey. Mash is the mush at the beginning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashing
Roger, you need to come back to Chicago. Delilah’s has shots of pre-Civil War bourbon!
Sorry Roger, stirred not shaken. The bartender at the Oak Room passed along the science behind it and then proved it empirically: stirred is colder.
Hendricks Gin for my martini, please…
I don’t have a dog in this particular fight since martinis, or any gin-based beverage save the Aperitif Perrier, are not among my usual tipples…but some folks like to see the little fine shards of ice crystal swirling in their freshly presented martini, and shaken is the only route to this destination…
Sorry, but go to Mythbusters…they conclusively proved that shaking booze brings the temperature of drinks down significantly.
I’m sorry, but Manhattans should be stirred vigorously, not shaken.
The oak keg is nice but you can do the same thing, without the 1/6th loss but putting the oak in the booze rather than the booze in the oak. You can buy oak chips from any store selling wine making supplies (or do as I did , cut your own oak chips), char (charred barrels for whiskey or bourbon, not charred for wines) them and drop them in the bottle of white lightning and watch it color and age through the glass bottle. You keg is much cooler but chips are much cheaper.
+1 to Lester– bourbon is too sweet for Manhattans. Rittenhouse rye is the way to go. (I find Bulleit’s taste too astringent for a mixed drink.) And Dolin vermouth blows all of the others away– although, in a pinch, Carpano Antico will do…
Punctillious is correct. The stuff you poured into your barrel is young spirit, not mash.
Jim in Alaska, putting oak chips in a bottled spirit will indeed give it an infusion of oak flavor and caramel color, but it will not “do the same thing” as a barrel. The very slight aeration in the cask which results in the loss known as “angels’ share” causes the spirit to age in ways that it can’t do when sealed in a bottle. This is why whiskey (and whisky) makers the world over accept the angels’ share as a cost of doing business.
Buffalo Trace? Why not just Everclear then? That stuff has as much flavor.
More seriously, we make our Manhattans using 1794 or Rebel Yell and we cask age them in an old sherry cask we got from a company in Portugal. Add 2 liters of your prepared bourbon mix – bourbon, vermouth, and Boker’s bitter and let sit six week. You lose the angel’s share of about 1.5 – 2 ounces a week and need to make it up. St Micheal will thank you.
You should also try a HUM Manhattan where you add 1/2 part Hum liquor to the mix. Again age 6 weeks. Very tart and herbal. Great for these hot Texas nights.
I always preferred the Plymouth gins to the London Dry’s. My tastes have gone even sweeter these days (i.e., the “Granny Drinker” above) and I prefer Hayden’s Old Tom Gin these days.
As for Rye, well its the Old Overcoat (Old Overholt) for me. If I am drinking rye, I want what grandpa’s drank and I want it taste like rye dad-gumnit.
I will have to try that Vermouth though. It always seemed to be the weakest part of the martini. Oh, and hold the vegatation and keep the dirty in the jar, thank-you-very-much.
ZilWerks
Roger, please credit Ogden Nash for the “candy is dandy” line.
“A drink with something in it” (“there is something about a martini”) is also very a propos.
Alcoholic extract of charred oak. I’ve always wanted to try that using chunks of partially burnt oak in a glass carboy filled with grain alcohol. Need to figure the surface area to volume ratios. Reduction in volume over time due to evaporation through the barrel staves. This could be accomplished through vacuum distillation at low temperature. Anything to accelerate the aging process. 18 year old whiskey in 1 year, yum. I’ve already gone trough the beer and wine home brewing phase. This could be fun. I love whiskey.