Oak Dominoe Comparo

Lloyd

Quart/Liter, potato/pahtaddo. Ain't hardly a sip difference :P

captainshooch

@punkin from my USA samples MSA 42 & BWF 42 are the front runners, but I need more time to tell. Also have Charred BWF42 in the works to be updated in hum, say few moths give or take :D

punkin

I'm assuming the BWF42 is a french oak medioum toast block?

I haven't stocked the blocks as i believe the domino's outperform them. I do have the same wood in a domino though. Thanks for the feedback.

punkin

So it's been six months or more, is there an update on this from the testers?

A final review and opinion?

How did you go @fadge with your whiskey tempering and loosing some of the vanilla and maple that was troubling you?

Clickeral

My american oak heavy toasted domino's always gives me a lighter almost canadian club colour were as the medium toast is a lot red and bourbon like the french oak seems to be in between colour wise

Is this the same for everyone else

Clickeral

As per attached

cooperville

I am also interested in the out comes here . I have just put down a batch of first gen ujjsm 8 ltrs of 67% and i only use a little amount of oak (2 staves ) as i am not in any rush to age it these smaller samples that you fellas are testing will need to be drunk all up a bit quicker and can be over oaked very easily

@punkin i may have to get some french dominoes off you as i think the french oak that i have may not be what i have been told it is !

mort

Here's what mine look like now. The golden one on the right is my own heavy char, so that jibes with your experience Click. They are all probably over-oaked, we were away awhile.

I had my tasters on it and these were the favorites. The american mini staves traditional toast medium is red-gold. The american blocks XOV medium are darker red and the french oak block blend XOS are quite coppery-red

The XOV have the vanilla for sure. I would tend to blend that with one or more of the others. This is good stuff, I have to do more experimenting

cunnyfunt

So I have some whisky aging on french dominos. 1domino per litre. it tastes fairly oaky, People talk about over oaking but is there a point where my whisky sitting on dominoes for 2-3 years mellow in its oakyness even if they are still sitting on wood?

Learned something new too. Scotch whisky ages in spent bourbon and sherry barrels!! Yep that horrible american corn whiskey eventually helps produce the finest drink known to man...scotch :P

Please dont throw out your spent bourbon dominos fellas <3 Will trade for new dominos.

Thanks for all your awesome pics and comments too.

Clickeral

@cunnyfunt said: So I have some whisky aging on french dominos. 1domino per litre. it tastes fairly oaky, People talk about over oaking but is there a point where my whisky sitting on dominoes for 2-3 years mellow in its oakyness even if they are still sitting on wood?

Learned something new too. Scotch whisky ages in spent bourbon and sherry barrels!! Yep that horrible american corn whiskey eventually helps produce the finest drink known to man...scotch :P

Please dont throw out your spent bourbon dominos fellas <3 Will trade for new dominos.

Thanks for all your awesome pics and comments too

I have a jar of spent dominoes

A few from a makers mark clone bourbon (med toasted american) A med and a dark toasted american from some neutral I oaked (was okish) A french from an apple brandy

Hmmm might need to work out which is which and toss a few into my next whisky jar :)

Jung

@cunnyfunt said: People talk about over oaking but is there a point where my whisky sitting on dominoes for 2-3 years mellow in its oakyness even if they are still sitting on wood?

This is my question as well. I've got a few jars hidden away that I haven't looked at few years, still sitting on oak from 2-2.5 years ago. A lot of the recent threads have been saying 4-5 weeks (SD Europe tests)... is that seriously possible?

I know that the wood to liquor ratio is totally different in a jar vs a 55 gallon barrel, but there is more to aging a spirit than just adding wood flavor, right? If I can make decent bourbon in months instead of years, I'll spend more time getting set up for that... it hasn't been priority as I figured it's going to take years to get it right, what's one more?

MikeAggie

@Jung there are a few Craft Distilleries that are using Micro Barrels in order to get the product out faster, and are winning at multiple competitions. One for example is Woodinville Whiskey Co.

pulled this from a cooperage site

Below is a list of number of days it takes to get 1 year of aging in a full sized barrel.*
1L = 58 days 2L=80 days 3L=90 days 5L=105 days 10L=134 days 20L=173 days
Make sure you age to taste the first few batches so you don’t over oak your spirits!!!

punkin

We use 50l barrels on a solera system. The new make UJSM goes into a barrel and stays there for 2-3 years. It's then transferred to 4l jars with a big handful of domino's for 4-6 weeks to pick up a lot more colour and the high vannillins etc that are highlighted further from the barrel ageing.

Then we transfer that to a 10-15l stainless ageing vessel that has a fair few sticks in it that have been there for a fair while where it is topped up every time it gets down 4l or so.

This way we end up with a homogeneous product for her that is consistent and to her tastes. B-)

In my opinion woody tasting spirit does not get better.

fadge

Update soon, with photos, expect over oaked cause l started with 1lt and more than one dominoes per jar. So far mixed has been my choice. Everyone who tried the range all had different opinions.

Fadge

Lloyd

@fadge said: ...So far mixed has been my choice...

I couldn't agree more @fadge. I sample my many jugs but ultimately a mix of several of them is my choice tipple.

Every single blend is a one of a kind, unique sensory experience (only because I make so many jugs of booze without taking proper notes). I like to blend in a bit of pure distilled rice wine to the total tipple. It adds a smoothness to my oaked goodness that softens the bite of the 38 to 45% that I sip at and mellows the oak to an even more tasty flavor.

A ladle of this jug, 2 of that one, 2 or 3 of that one and (if any is left) a ladle of that one. Oh shit, it's perfect. A splash of water to bring to about sipping strength and stop posting on the internet because after a few more sips I start saying weird stuff.

cunnyfunt

Sorry been madly reading about aging and can't find definitive answers.

Not after a definitive answer but :)

With the domino's or similar.. Is there a point where it won't extract the oaky tannins anymore. Say I use 1 domino per 2 litres and it's perfect for how much oak profile I want after 4 months. Can I leave it on the oak for a further 2 years without it turning to oak soup but let it mellow some more? Stored in same conditions.

punkin

if you have it right usually take the bulk of them out and leave one or two used ones in ten litres or so.

cunnyfunt

Makes sense. Thanks boss

The doctor cooperville peated malt is freaking awesome on French domino's. Can't wait to experiment with pre-soaked bourbon or sherry American oak dominos

fadge

Update on dominoe comparo, these have been going since Feb of this year so looking at 8mths or so.

Started at with fresh boubon/whiskey knock-off at 65%, jars with 1 lt and 3 dominoes, plus a combo and a hbs "chips"

All I have done is dilute to 40%, have not added anything such as glugose, honey, maple syrup etc.

Down to 40% ready to taste, done today so consider "fresh"

There is such a contrast in color, the French is so dark almost ruby compared to the rest.

Now, what glass should I use to taste test ?, wimped out and went for the little ones!

Vanilla and Heavy

Medium and French, yes they are far darker

Combo and hbs chips

Last one is all the leftovers all chucked in together, call it a special blend.

Now the tastings, apart from getting half tanked as I drank everything I tasted, some several times. Then the wife want to go out for meal, no way I'm driving, so take away it was.

I have no hope in hell even trying to discribe tastes like @sunshine does. So my notes and a fadge score out of 10

 1 being sink water spit it out
 5 means I could drink it if nothing else around
 7 is ok
 8 is good
 9 wow
10 wont stop till I fall over its that good

Ok, here we go

Vanilla, 8/10 turned out quite nice, mild taste, smooth, very little bite, surprised as early tastings was average.

Heavy, 6/10 pronounced taste, smooth but has a bite to it,

Medium, 7/10 this was over oaked, bit woody, but turned out smooth and no real bite.

French, 7/10 again I over oaked, still smooth with a nice after taste.

Combo, 6/10 this was my early fav, but the taste is not quite right now, perhaps again over oaked or just the combo did not work together, nice color and smell.

HBS chips, 5/10 good color and smell, but tastes no where near the above lots, still leaves a real bite and not near as smooth or finished, almost tastes like stale wood or wet cardboard afterwards. Will not see these in my garage again.

Leftovers, 6/10, thought it may have turned out a bit better, but different than the combo dominoes. Pity I have a few litres, I will revisit after a while in the hope it improves, same as all the samples, as @sunshine states that they really need to bottle age before final tasting.

I went back and had a few more goes at the vanilla batch, I could drink that as is, not a bad drop.

I have since changed my wash recipie, I now have added malted grain and liquid rye malt, wash smells like beer, not corn. Striped 4 batches so far and smells real good, spirit run tomorrow, I'm aiming for a decent whisky. All of the above samples I can only taste boubon, and thats not what I like to drink.

I may have a problem as looks like I have about 80 or 100 Lt of it at 65% all sitting on dominoes, mostly Medium with a few others chucked in, the barrell is also full, but it tastes disgusting so far, ex port barrell.

fadge

Lloyd

I don't trust the results because you are drunk.

I will say I trust your results because you drank it.

punkin

Excellent write up Fadge.

I found when doing rum that the bourbon taste from the oak (vanilla and maple notes) took over a year to fade and the molasses to shine through and become what we are used to as rum.

Using second or third use domino's helped with that, but still looking at over six months. It could well be the same for your whiskey. I think you may also have got different results if you had reduced the amount of oak per batch after a month or two.

This has been a fantastic thread and it's great to get true feedback from real users on the ground. It has been well worth sending out the samples, if only to see that my assessment of the product was not out there but pretty spot on with how others see it.

Hopefully @jonno still has his jars going and will chip (sic) in shortly, how bout it mate? What's your status?

jonno

Will have it up either tonight or tomorrow at the latest. Testing done tonight by multiple testers!

jonno

Grand final night boys!

punkin

Excellent, try and get it early in the piece and take notes or it will be lost in fuzz. :))

jonno

I was planning on taking some smell notes now. Walk past young fella room and bam! Dadaddada

jonno

I just wanna apologise for not getting around to this yet, didn't quite make it to the taste testing last weekend :))

I do plan on doing it this weekend when mates come around again thou! It shall be lunch time so shall be done!

piiss31

howdy just asking for a bit of advice as im pretty new to this good thing,i have not used the dominos before,so at the moment I have American oak & medium oak & medium French oak dominos to use & all I want to make is bourbon and a bit of rum,if anyone can give me some tips it would be a great help.thanks

Unsensibel

@piiss31

1. make lots of bourbon, make lots of rum
2. put each in at different concentrations (ie. 40/50/60% ABV) with different oaks
3. wait and pull the oaks at different times (ie. 2 months, 6 months, 1year...)
4. taste and see what you like best

Bottom line, there's no individual recipe. The journey is the fun part. The dominoes are already something you can't go really wrong with. I'm currently going with about 1 domino / liter.

Anything more specific you need help with?

Smaug

@Unsensibel said: piiss31

1. make lots of bourbon, make lots of rum
2. put each in at different concentrations (ie. 40/50/60% ABV) with different oaks
3. wait and pull the oaks at different times (ie. 2 months, 6 months, 1year...)
4. taste and see what you like best

Bottom line, there's no individual recipe. The journey is the fun part. The dominoes are already something you can't go really wrong with. I'm currently going with about 1 domino / liter.

Anything more specific you need help with?

100% sums it up.

Its like golf. It can be as simple as taking a wack at the little white ball or as sophisticated as an ergonomic evaluation of your swing.

Dynauld

As I promised, my experiments on using the same surface area of wood in one liter of Bourbon for one month, for each type of wood offered here. Along with two blends each of American and French, and one blend of French and American. Tasting notes & details to follow