Testing Different Oak Char & Toast With Nuclear Ageing

hey guys how's it going I hope you're having a kick-ass week today what I want to do is attempt to test to taste test the difference in flavor between the four woods that I prepared a little while back and to do so I'm going to be using the for staging or new killer aging method using microwave welcome to still everyone I'm Jessie and this is the channel all about chasing the craft of home distillation and making it a legitimate hobby basically what that means is this channel does a whole lot of stuff based around things like this this is you jsut sim and I'm gonna be putting the wood in it today all sorts of stuff like that so that's why you're into guys have a look around and if you dig it hit the subscribe button ring the bell and I'll catch you again next time like I see that the beginning guys today what we're going to be doing is using their new killer aging technique to for sage the stuff nice and quick to see if I can get an idea of the different flavors I can get out of these four different types of wood that I've prepared if you don't know what I'm talking about and you don't know where this wood came from I'll leave a card up top for that and you can go back and have a look but basically what I have here is American Oaks toasted at 220 degrees 180 degrees 120 degrees and raw but charred the liquor that I'm gonna be tasting it is this which is my generation number 5 UJ s is M once again guys if you don't know what this is I put a card up top and I will show you the whole process of making UJ sec it's a playlist all right guys now there is a whole bunch of stuff that I would love to say right now but it gets a little bit boring to go through all the disclaimers at the beginning of the videos so you know what I'm going to do today does get stuck right in and I'm gonna put the disclaimers at the end of the video so if you run into something where you think that I screwed up that you think that I did something silly someone or so forth make sure you check the end of the video for the disclaimers I may have gone over it if not make sure you let me know because that's always awesome and saying that there's a couple of things that I think would be irresponsible of me to not mention first of all we are going to be taking a flammable liquid and sticking it in a heating device so you need to be prepared so I've got one of these on the hand which to be honest probably isn't the best tool for the job if the worst-case scenario happens but it's here anyway what I do have which I believe is probably a better option is one of these a fire blanket and honestly guys I have this and this in my kitchen at all times if you've seen me cook you probably understand why I have that if the house isn't full of smoke you ain't cooking it right and the second thing I want to mention right off the bat is that yes I am using plastic lids and the reason that I'm doing that is I could not find four containable so that were suitable on every level to do this that were identical if that makes sense as soon as I am testing them against each other I wanted everything to be the same all right guys let's get stuck in and get this thing on the road the first thing that I need to do is proof my UJS down to the points that I want to age this stuff at and I've had a whole lot of internal debate about this it's taken me a while to decide but seeing as the name of the game for today is speed I am going to go with 60% I had actually forgotten that this UJS is M was actually sitting at 62% already so you know what I'm just gonna roll with that and go 62% so the next thing I want to do is weigh out the wood and the reason I'm weighing it is because I think at this volume and for this instance having the same volume between each jar is probably the most accurate way to make sure that they are the same that the only variable between each jar is the difference and toast if that makes sense I've now got pretty much exactly 10 grams of oak in each of these jars and as you can probably see I've got them very well marked I've marked off at least sort of four times on each jar just in case things start rubbing off I do not want to be worrying about trying to figure out which chance which later upon the next thing that I want to do is get the alcohol in here and the reason I put the wooden first is I want to be able to put the whole into each jar pretty much the same time so one's not you know sitting for 20 minutes longer than the other even though I don't think that's going to have a big effect on that I want to once again keep those variables as small as possible between each jar other than the oak it's probably also worth mentioning right now that this video is really about testing the flavors between the different Oaks or the different treatment of the same oak I should say and it is not about trying to make the best product possible I'm not so stressed about the amount of oak to ugss m for example maybe it's too much maybe it's not enough that's not really the point the point is to taste the difference between each jar anyway let's get that ujc sim into those jars and once again I'm gonna measure it fairly carefully you probably noticed that I did 300 mils per y 300 mils well basically what I wanted to do is find the smallest possible volume that would submerge all of these sticks and all of the jars and the reason for that is that I don't want to waste a whole lot of product you know that's made not to know delicious plastic lids all of that but I wanted it to be the same for each in any case now it's time to get them into the microwave and I'm going to microwave all four together spaced the same distance from the middle of the microwave out so they're kinda like on a ring or on the outside once again trying to create as few variables between each jar as possible so there we go they're ready to go I have one minute dialed in on the microwave any idea is that you want to use short bursts and the microwave to make sure that you don't overshoot the temperature you're aiming for I've seen different temperatures recommended for this process and it's going to kind of depend what you're comfortable with I guess I am going to aim for 60 degrees Celsius which is help me out guys I'm guessing I don't know like 145 Fahrenheit or something like that is that about right 145 150 somewhere around there I don't know sorry Americans once again remember that this stuff is flammable and you're putting it in something that has the potential to make things catch on fire so be careful make sure that there is no metal in there whatsoever and make sure that you're using microwave safe glass as well stuff that isn't gonna blow up in the microwave that's not good the idea is that you want to blast it for a little bit stop take a temperature readings see what the temperature is like in there and then move forward again inching your way closer to the temperature that you want overall obviously this is going to depend on your specific microwave the volume you're doing and all those sort of things so if in doubt go smaller do like 30 seconds at a time 20 seconds at a time whatever it is you just want to make sure that you're not boiling the crap out of that stuff without knowing it this has been in there for 1 minutes now and I have gotten all of about 9 degrees so I know that I can wear any up to 28 degrees right now I know that I can easily go so I know that I can easily go for another minute and a half an hour and not have any problems just be aware though that it seems like the time for temperature is not necessarily linear in these things so keep that in mind we're up to 40 degrees now 41 degrees in fact so I'm gonna knock this back down to doing little bursts of 30 seconds at a time now to be honest I haven't kept track of the total time that I've microwave this for and to be honest it doesn't really matter because I don't want to be giving people you know microwave it for three minutes it'll be good that obviously there's problems with that I'm guessing it's about three minutes so far and right now I am at 58 degrees Celsius now what I am noticing already make me guys let me show you this guys yeah it's not too hot you can see that you can see that there is some color to this already and what you may also be able to see I don't know if you can see it on camera is tiny little bubbles coming up out of the wood let me put that back in for 20 seconds and first when I saw those bubbles I was a little bit worried like where are they coming from what's going on here is something boiling off and my conclusion is that no it's not what is happening however is that the heat is causing the alcohol somehow because it's not pressure to penetrate into the wood and the air bubbles or the air in the wood is being forced out and bubbling to the surface so close another 15 seconds and I think we're done and those bubbles coming out of the wood are kind of key to this process of nuclear aging but we'll get onto that in a little bit I'll give you a full explanation of what I know we got these jars up to sixty degrees I got the lids on nice and quick and they've been sitting out at room temperature now for about I don't know 20 minutes half an hour something like that and they're only sort of slightly above room temperature you'll also notice there each of the little pop tops on these jars has sucked in and that indicates that the lids have indeed sealed and we have created somewhat of a lower pressure inside these jars why do we do this the idea is that this nuclear aging technique relies on sort of two things first of all basically the alcohol is acting as a solvent it's stripping things out of the wood and pulling them back into solution or at least suspension back into the liquid itself so heating that solvent makes it more effective at what it does second of all the pressure changes we're creating force the liquid into the wood and then drew it out of the wood much quicker than that process would take place if it was just at a stable temperature on that note what I'm gonna do now is pop these guys into the freezer to get them cooled down nice and quick so I can do this whole thing all over again [Music] I didn't need to call these way down but I did want to make sure that there was a pretty big temperature difference between when I sealed the jars up and when I opened them and the idea is that there should be a audible when you open them it's got me beat anyway let's take these down to let's take these down to 30% and see what actually tastes like so there is a little bit of openness but to be honest and not a whole lot yet for all of these I would say that the color is coming through I mean look at that quite nicely already but the flavors not really there yet and I would like to see if I can get some more flavor out of this because there's not a huge difference between these to be honest so I'm gonna do another whole cycle which means working these back in the microwave getting them up to sixty degrees again sealing them up letting them cool or forcing them to cool down to actually what do I get these two in the end I think these are about ten degrees Celsius yeah okay so they're at 16 degrees Celsius right now and my guess is when I came out of the freezer it would've been about 13 degrees but it doesn't matter too much because they all had the same thing done to them so I'm gonna whack them back in the microwave remember guys make sure the lids are often with other stuff and do the whole thing all over again to be honest I may do it a third time or even a fourth time depending on what the flavors are like I think at this point it's probably best just to catch you when I'm done with us and let you know what the results are so here's the skinny guys I ended up doing three heat and cooling cycles in total and I wasn't quite where I wanted it but I was concerned that doing another fourth cycle would kind of push it over the top too way too much so what I did is just lift it I just let them sit as they were on the shelf and the cupboard for another two days so this is two days after I first put this in the microwave as you can see the color has come along absolutely wonderfully especially ditch hardware has that sort of nice red hue to it now which I really like but it is really interesting to see the the color that you can drum up in the space of two days that's pretty nuts anyway let's whip the tops off and see what we have on the nose these have definitely evolved a fear but since I last talked to you guys it's much more of the the actual wood coming through now sort of the more woody notes smelling them smelling them straight out of the jar they are smelling a lot more complex than what I remember it being a couple of days ago but I think the real test is going to be get these out cut it down to today I'm gonna aim for 40% I don't want to get too high because I want it to be you know really friendly and approachable so I can sort of really taste it not just drink it but I don't want it to be too low either because I want it to be more of a drinking experience if that makes sense they're not drinking it down at 30% anyway let me measure out a nice little portion of each of these and we'll get stuck in you've probably noticed that one of these things is not like the other I did have five of these little snifter glasses but unfortunately unfortunately I'm a bit of a baboon and I've broken two of them already it's about time I head back to the Akshar I think because they're actually they're actually really good little glasses for the sort of stuff I've got them sitting in order of char kind of it's a 120 180 220 and the raw Plus charred at the scene so they're in order of color I guess at least so the first thing that jumps out to me straight away is that forget about the char cuz I think that's maybe a little bit different you've literally got burnt wood with raw wood almost so I think that's kind of an outlier here but with these three in this order that kind of moves from light and bright and woody through to dark and warming notes down here with this one in between and I know those aren't flavors but they seem to be the nicest way to describe that this is sort of more full more rich raisiny dark fruit comforting sort of flavors i guess and this is more sort of spring fruity but not actually fruity if that makes sense sort of fresh the freshness of fruit almost this is the only glass that i can actually smell would you know like just would in some ways the the charred version has kind of a mix of both of these but to be honest i'm finding it a little bit hard to get much off listen it's probably to be honest this glass hold on i'm really disappointed that I didn't have four glasses that are the same for this but that is what it is I guess I'm not getting any smoke off the charcoal one now maybe just a hint of ash but more along the lines of sort of caramel maybe a little bit of kind of spice I can taste wood which is really interesting and makes sense I guess because you expect the middle of those pieces of oak to be relatively raw still but I do get a little bit of spice I'm gonna say spice maybe a touch of sort of licorice licorice cinnamon and cloves is probably more what it is actually but that is mixed with the oakiness and a hint of sort of caramel enos or something like that as well not getting a lot of ash or smoke or anything like that on the side which is interesting to me and for me personally I guess a little bit disappointing but I know objectively that's maybe not the way most people would see that let's go to this next mmm-hmm okay so compared to this one it's got much deeper and darker notes and darker in terms of hitting towards dark fruit and dried dark fruit I guess raisins even like even a little bit figgy maybe mmm probably not so much actually it doesn't have the the spice and the pepper of this one which is interesting to me I was hoping to get a little bit of that here I would describe this as a much more rounded full bodied flavor than this though let's go on to the 180 yeah okay so on the nose this is now that I've tasted the others and smelt this let me smell this again - this has got much more of that that real kind of sweet appealing wallet sweet and approachable sort of bourbon flavor to it I guess that rule hmm I know people describe it as vanilla but I don't it's not really vanilla to me it is kind of I guess but more like more like vanilla essence not a vanilla pod tell me between vanilla essence and caramel I guess and then playing with the butterscotch that was there already hmm okay so as you drink it it's much much brighter much brighter sparkly light compared to this anyway more along the lines of this is a red wine this is a white one does it make sense so it's sort of it's more light dances on your tongue and it's got those sort of fresh fruit flavors rather than the dried fruit flavors even though it's not really fruity oh my god I'm not so great at this anyway and I'm expecting this one to be even more like that but I'm actually just like me but let's try one tweenty interesting okay well the party happens at the end where first goes into your mouth there's not much going on a little bit of sweetness a little bit of bite from the alcohol but then as you swallow the oak flavor is much bigger and bolder than anything else on the table it's more fresh more woody it just tastes like tree do you not I mean not not like any of these other flavors that it's morphed into hmm which makes me think what I should have done for this as well as just done some straight raw oak like nothing done to it whatsoever I think that would have been there would have been interesting even if it wasn't perhaps overly delicious so there's definitely a continuum going on from here to here an aroma and taste if this is red wine and this is white wine this is almost heading towards champagne or something in terms of following that analogy I guess it's it feels more dry on the time and more light more crisp I guess is the word too until you swallow and then you get a big burst of oak there is also some vanilla going on and this one and this to me is actually more specifically vanilla and I think that's because there's a fair bit of sweetness in it but it's not a lot of other complex things happening compared to this and this especially so I think for me personally this is my favorite there's no way that you can say that this has better than that to someone else because taste is such a subjective thing if you're talking about a specific thing on the other hand how do we get the most oaky flavor into a spirit then I have to say that these ones are the bad ones and this is the good one so if you got to pick something specific that's a different story but just overall it's totally up to you so the obvious thing to do next I think guys is have a little bit of a blend action going on here and what I off the bat and thinking three parts of the 221 part of the charr and the 180 and two parts of the one tweenty to boost it up with some oak but before I get into that I want to go I want to go through some of those disclaimers that we talked about at the beginning of the video first up once again I know I already said it even though I said I wouldn't but yes yes I am using these lids I understand that there is a bit of a pain point for the community and I totally understand why for those of you that are saying that it doesn't do anything or that the liquid isn't touching them so it isn't going to do anything I definitely think there are strong arguments to be made against that point of view and I hope to do a demonstration on that sometime soon for the channel so please guys if you are going to be doing something like this or you are going to try the nuclear or forced aging don't think that I'm condoning the use of these caps or plastic caps or anything like that it's just the way it had to be for this video to keep things so on second yes I totally understand that this is not really aging that time and patience is something that has been lost in these jars here but once again please guys remember that's not what this video is about this video is not about making something that is the most delicious or the best right now it's not about saying that nucular or for staging is good as traditional aging in the barrel that's all about me being able to taste the difference between these different chars and then being able to use that information for something in the future when I do decide to age something four to four years whatever it might be three yes guys this can be perceived as a dangerous experiment or a dangerous practice for those of you that do not wish to be putting a flammable liquid in a microwave I totally understand that for those of you that do wish to try something like this I urge you to be really careful to have a fire precaution around a fire blanket or an extinguisher that's suitable for a liquid fire and obviously to do your research and and to do this carefully I believe that it's a risk that can be managed to a point where I am accepting of it and happy to do so I'm not saying that you should enough of that it had to be said or there was going to be chaos in the comments but let's do some blending game all right so what did I say I don't even remember what I see before so I'm just gonna make something up again now I think it was three parts this I definitely this is once again guys if it's for me it's for my own personal flavor flavor sort of preferences or whatever then I'm gonna be heavy on this because I like that full deep dark fruit warming sort of flavor I dig it and then it's just me making I actually did four of those in the end but hey sue me I think what I'm gonna do from here is the one of the charges because there is something interesting going on there but I can't place my finger on exactly what it is I like about it one from that one from the 180 and let's go to from the okie 120 interesting so on the nose the thing that comes out the most the light and sort of fruity side of things more than the warming and the dark and the other sweet vanilla actually there's more vanilla in this than I smell anything else smell the 220 by itself again yeah it's totally whoa that's crazy so yet again guys the thing that we put literally twice as much as anything else in there is probably the least represents by since which is bonkers alright let's let's try it I mean it's nice I would say that it smells nicer than any one of these by themselves so now when it hurts your tongue you get a little bit of sweetness a little bit of the dark warming dark fruit characteristics from this you get the dancing fresh white whiny sort of stuff in the middle and then as you swallow you get hurt with the oak hmm that's actually that's actually pretty enjoyable like this Sachi yeah but I'm not done I want to make something that's a little bit warmer so this time four of the one that I think I like and half not even half of everything else this is more what I was expecting let's try mm-hmm-hmm okay so yes to the flavor profile everything I like up until I was expecting the oaky punch to hit me and it didn't so let's do a little bit more of the the least that's been okay so I'm still getting the big dark warming flavors in the middle but I'm getting enough of the oak to show up at the end to kind of change that flavor and not leave it as being sweet in your mouth so it makes me want to go back and try more let's try it against this blend now that I've gone one of each way personally I have to say that this is kind of more enjoyable for me to drink but I have to kind of admit that I think this is actually better overall okay this I think has more of a wood profile that I like but what I haven't talked about is the base spirit that's sitting in behind it this to me gives me what I want in the wood but it kind of takes away what's special about the you J is this M it sort of masks up I kind of masked up the butterscotch and the corn and leaves it a little bit flat on there aspect where as this kind of more emphasizes it yeah it does okay okay I was wrong my intuition at the beginning was wrong and now that I think about that and I've gone back to it I think I'd even have to say that maybe I would enjoy this more as well anyway team I feel like I have rabbeted on for long enough so once again guys I have to say a huge huge huge freaking thank you to the patreon people that have started contributing to the channel this is me being speechless sorry I apologize for not being around so much in any way shape or form over the last week I've been away for work I apologize for that but especially to the new guys that have reached out to me and I have been able to say hi back to you I apologize for that and I assure you that's not normally my jam also I totally totally remember that I promised seemed a little bit of wood towards a couple of people and I will still do that guys I promise anyway guys if you liked the video hit the thumbs up button for me that would be awesome leave a comment down below and let me know what you think of all of this it'll be really cool to have your opinion because I learn a buttload from that stuff and everyone else does too if you really like the video and you're not subscribed yet make sure you do so down below ring that bell as well and I'll catch you guys next time see ya

Channel: Still It

Views: 182,891

Keywords: Nuclear Ageing, nuclear aging, forced aging, how to nuclear age whisky, how to force age whisky, differnt toast levels, toasted oak, chared oak, american white oak, oaking whisky, how to oak whisky, ageing whisky, test, testing, for science, home distilling, chase the craft, still it, jesse, oak ageing, colour change, oak flavour, flavour, what flavour, what flavour does oak, how dose oak, how fast can you age whisky, moonshine, whisky, barrel, oak, aging, forced ageing, speed

Id: uWpf9N90Kqg

Length: 27min 47sec (1667 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 15 2018