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Straight corn whiskey

Unread postPosted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 12:07 pm
by Letthemeatcake
I recently picked up some straight corn whiskey. It is as clear as water. Can it be barreled and aged into something resembling a bourbon whiskey?

Re: Straight corn whiskey

Unread postPosted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 3:59 pm
by Bourbon HQ
You can buy small charred barrels to age whiskey. I believe it's www.1000oaksbarrel.com

I bought a 3 liter barrel and it works great. I use it to further age things like Old Fitzgerald, which I think tastes and little young. I poured 2 liters into it and aged it six months more, and what a difference!

Gayle

Re: Straight corn whiskey

Unread postPosted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 8:01 am
by PaulO
You could put French oak barrel staves in it for six weeks :lol: But seriously, there was some earlier thread somewhere here about putting a piece of wood from a barrel into a glass jar. Home brew and wine suppliers have oak chips that are also used for similar purpose.

Re: Straight corn whiskey

Unread postPosted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 12:56 am
by cowdery
If you put unaged corn whiskey into a new charred oak barrel it becomes bourbon. You can age corn whiskey and have it stay corn whiskey if you age it in new uncharred or used barrels.

Such is the magic and wisdom of the Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits.

Mellow Corn is a Heaven Hill product that is bottled-in-bond corn whiskey, meaning it is four years old and 100 proof, aged in used cooperage.

Re: Straight corn whiskey

Unread postPosted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 7:24 am
by Letthemeatcake
Hey Chuck,
Is there a certain amount of time the whiskey should stay in the charred barrel? I am totally new to this, but find it really cool! Does the barrel need to be completely full or is it ok to leave a certain amount of air. Also, once in the barrel should the barrel be turned and rotated every so often? Thanks in advance for your answers

Re: Straight corn whiskey

Unread postPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 11:58 pm
by cowdery
Age, i.e., time in wood, is one of the primary differentiators among whiskeys. Bourbons can be less than four years old but most are four years and up. "Up" can go up to 20, even 30 years, although to me the sweet spot is 10 to 12.

Inevitably there's a little head space in the barrel, which only grows as the whiskey evaporates as it ages, about 4% per year.

Commercial distilleries don't agitate their barrels. Ideally a barrel will be put into the warehouse the day it's distilled and not touched again until it's removed to be dumped. Moving barrels is expensive work.

Re: Straight corn whiskey

Unread postPosted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 9:49 am
by p_elliott
I believe Markers Mark rotate the barrel's locations in the warehouse over the course of it's aging.

Re: Straight corn whiskey

Unread postPosted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:19 pm
by cowdery
p_elliott wrote:I believe Markers Mark rotate the barrel's locations in the warehouse over the course of it's aging.


There's rotate and there's rotate. I believe Let Them Eat Cake was talking about rolling the barrel, agitating it. You're talking about barrel relocation to even aging.

Maker's probably does more rotation that anyone else but no one, including Maker's, practices routine rotation of every barrel, as was common in the past. What Maker's says is because their dump tanks are so small and because they sell everything they make as Maker's Mark, a little rotation to ensure that all of the barrels age as evenly as possible, make economic sense.

Putting in bigger dump tanks might make more sense.

Re: Straight corn whiskey

Unread postPosted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:16 am
by p_elliott
I realize that eatcake meant agitating the barrels you just expanded it to moving the barrel's. I was just trying to point out that MM does move at least some of theirs. I didn't mean to confuse the issue.

Re: Straight corn whiskey

Unread postPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:10 am
by WhiskeyBarLeela
Bourbon HQ wrote:You can buy small charred barrels to age whiskey. I believe it's http://www.1000oaksbarrel.com

I bought a 3 liter barrel and it works great. I use it to further age things like Old Fitzgerald, which I think tastes and little young. I poured 2 liters into it and aged it six months more, and what a difference!

Gayle


I wasn't aware that you could "re-barrel" or continue the fermentation process with whiskey that you've purchased. Then again, I haven't really felt the need to do so.

Straight corn whiskey, aye? Where the heck are you getting your whiskey from? LOL. Sounds like a pretty interesting taste-test. I guess I would continue aging process because clear whiskey is generally not the way to go.

Re: Straight corn whiskey

Unread postPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 6:14 pm
by delaware_phoenix
Fermentation is the process by which yeast converts sugars in the mash to ethanol, CO2, and other congeners.

Aging is the post-distillation process by which whiskey is matured through contact with oxygen and oak constituents which transforms some original congeners into more flavorful forms, as well as adding many new flavor elements from the oak.