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French Oak No 4

edited November 2018 in Recipes

I am experimenting with aging a gin with Amercian and French oak.

Got a total of 3x Amercian and 2x French currently aging.

I have only just noticed that French No 4 is actually a "blend".

I only used a single stick of 11g in just over 500ml of gin (ratio is exactly 10g/500ml).

Should I have mixed the sticks? Some staves have square edges and some have round edges. This is a test for a larger batch, and I need to reproduce it should I like it.

Comments

  • From what I've tasted, used red wine barrels produce the tastiest barrel-aged gin. Used vermouth barrels make the second best. New barrels make too oaky/astringent gin, and charred barrels make gin flavored bourbon.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • Was super interesting for me where I tried a barrel aged rum last week.

    They first age in a charred barrel primarily for colour, taste and mellowness. But then they change at end and further age for a short time period with staves soaked in red wine. It gave the rum a lovely rounding.

    We had a whiskey, gin and rum exhbo the other day and with reference to whiskey, this is what some of the top whiskey distillers are doing. The one was final aging with port barrels and the other sherry barrels. The one had best whiskey in the world award for two years in a row. .... Bain's whiskey.

  • the F4 is complicated. But we decided to have it, since it is very popular.

    I would try to give about 3/4 of the rounded and 1/4 of the square pieces. I would cut the wood to get the same amount.

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  • edited November 2018

    @Sunshine said: the F4 is complicated. But we decided to have it, since it is very popular.

    I would try to give about 3/4 of the rounded and 1/4 of the square pieces. I would cut the wood to get the same amount.

    Thanks, noted.

    If you have edited my post to include the link, then it is linked to the American oak and not French.

    Today I ordered F1 and F5.

  • @Homebrew said: If you have edited my post to include the link, then it is linked to the American oak and not French.

    That would have been me... Fixed :)

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  • @Kapea said: From what I've tasted, used red wine barrels produce the tastiest barrel-aged gin. Used vermouth barrels make the second best. New barrels make too oaky/astringent gin, and charred barrels make gin flavored bourbon.

    Even so, effendi. That's why we use once-used bourbon barrel staves, with the outside crud and inside (mostly spent) char ground off. We then re-heat-treat the wood to 420F instead of the ~450 that gives the bourbon flavor.

    Zymurgy Bob, a simple potstiller

    my book, Making Fine Spirits

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