Third Tasting

May 29th, 2014

Hey, a Thursday tasting!

The color hasn't changed much since...well, at all, really. I don't mind this much, and I'm not worried, as I started from an aged bourbon to begin with, so I'm not sure how much farther that will go. It does have a lovely caramel color though, so I'm OK with that.

I have been battling a cold over the past few days. As a result, I am a little stuffed up, so the olfactory sense isn't what it might normally be. That said, I get less of the sweet odor from the unmodified Rebel Yell, which is odd, since the maple in the barrel batch should give it more sweetness. I do get a nice oak scent, though.

The taste is coming along nicely. In the mouth, there's a nice complexity of flavors, with the maple and the bourbon really starting to come together into something slightly different. The one downside is the finish - it finishes VERY mapley. Almost - dare I say it - too sweet. It has a nice, subtle burn going down, leading to that lingering warming sensation, but the aftertaste on the tongue is all maple.

Tasting!

May 18th, 2004

I filled the barrel on May 8th, which was a Thursday, the same day I bottled the previous batch. I did this with the intention of tasting on Thursdays, just as before. However, due to one graduation after another, I was unable to meet my Thursday target. Instead, I pushed the first tasting back to Sunday.

The color is nice, a golden honey, deep and rich. Darker than the original, as expected. Between the char and the maple, this should be a fairly dark bourbon, when all is said and done. The odor is nice and sweet, with a subtle hint of oak. So far, nothing unexpected. Then I tasted it.

My first sip went straight to the back of my throat, causing me to cough and sputter as the alcohol splashed down my throat, burning through an involuntary inhalation. An inauspicious start. Calming myself, I took my time and tilted the glass back. What poured over my tongue was unmistakably bourbon, slightly smoky, a little warmth, but then quickly subsumed by the intense maple flavor. I took another sip, rolling it in my mouth, letting the flavors mix and swirl and fight each other. They need time, I said to myself. They're still separate flavors. Over time, they should meld together, smoky, and maple-y, and bourbon-y.

I finished the glass and smiled. This could be awesome.

May 25th, 2014

Another Sunday tasting. As I wrote about in another blog, my fiance and I had to do some serious housekeeping this past week, which consumed most of my Thursday and Friday nights, as well as most of the day Saturday. Not a big deal, Sunday worked fine, as tasting the bourbon helped settle our nerves. Much like the second tasting of my first attempt, there is not much to report. The flavors continue to meld, that maple still fighting to assert itself over the bourbon. I still have hope that they will play nice.

One thing that did occur to me about the maple bourbon was how versatile it seems like it will be. With some ice and some lemon, it should be a great drink for a hot summer day. Straight up, though, I think it will be perfect for taking the chill off on a cold winter night. I'm beginning to sound like a broken record*, but I am excited.

Also, I know that I've been bad at keeping this up-to-date (cf three postings today, covering the last three weeks; also, the rest of the blog), but I am going to try to use this as my scientific notebook from now on, recording my weekly observations directly in here, instead of into a paper notebook, and then transcribing.

Up next: more tastings!


*I am not going to say, "ask your parents what a record was", because A) vinyl records are still popular today (though not as prevalent), and B) the "broken record" concept is still used so much in pop culture, that does anyone really not get the reference? I chalk it up with the criticism "You weren't even alive when this came out" when a person claims to like music older than them. What does that matter? Unless an 18-year-old is claiming to have personally been at an original line-up Pink Floyd show, who cares?

Now Barrelling, More Bourbon!

I have to say, it is pretty nice to come home from work, grab a glass, some ice, and have a drink of (mostly) home-made bourbon. I also have to say that I have not shared my home-aged bourbon with anyone yet, because I am not super confident that anyone else will like it. Whatever. I like it. Like those parents* I'm sure we all know who've had an ugly kid that they still love no matter what, I love my bourbon.

Bottling it, though, leaves me with a problem: my barrel is empty! What to do? What to do?

Oh right, fill it up again.

Last post, I discussed the fact that I won't drink the bourbon I have fast enough (barring outside help, which I might get) to need another liter of bourbon in the house in three months. However, we don't always do things based on need, and I really want to try to take a cheap bourbon and add some flavor to it. So, that's what I'm going to do.

The first decision - which is actually the second decision, but I'm getting ahead of myself - was what bourbon to use. Moonshine was a good starting point for my first aging, but as the color and flavor didn't deepen as much as I'd like, I've decided to go with something a little farther along as the starting point. So, I will be using a cheap bourbon. Perusing the selection at my local liquor store, I narrowed my options to Rebel Yell, Evan Williams, and Jim Beam. I passed on Jim Beam because though I am far from being a connoisseur, I know what I don't like, and it's called "Jim Beam". So, I tossed a coin and went with the dollar-more-expensive Rebel Yell. It was also in a glass bottle as opposed to plastic, which isn't that big a deal, but I like it a little more.

For less than the cost of 750mL of Eagle Rare, I walked out with 1.75L of Rebel Yell, more than enough for what I wanted to try. The one downside is that the Rebel Yell is only 80 proof, meaning the resulting liquor will be diluted even further (to about 60 proof by my previous proof calculations (technically, I believe, this is out of the accepted range for calling it "bourbon", but as I'm not planning on selling this, I don't think that really matters, especially if it tastes good)).

Rebel Yell is actually pretty decent. A good smoky odor with a definite layer of sweetness, light in the mouth, and a slight burn as it goes down. Smoother than Jim Beam (my low mark), but not as smooth as Eagle Rare (my high mark for smoothness in my limited experience). I could see myself drinking it regularly. In fact, I would argue it is very similar to my first batch of home-aged bourbon. My bourbon has a stronger odor that permeates your mouth as you taste it, and is slightly less smooth on the finish, but all in all, I would say they are comparable. Even the color is about the same. Rebel Yell is a little sweeter, though.

Recipe for awesomeness!

(Ignore the oils and vinegars
in the background. And the
food processor. I need a better
picture space)

The second decision was no decision at all, as noted above, and was the flavoring to be used. I knew from a few weeks into my first bourbon what I wanted to do next: maple. I stopped by Trader Joe's and picked up a small bottle of Grade B (i.e. "The Good Stuff" - don't let the grade fool you: A stands for "Alright", B stands for "Better"**), roughly 350mL.

Immediately after bottling the previous batch of bourbon, I measured out 1.5L of the Rebel Yell and added it to the barrel. I suppose I could have rinsed out the barrel, but I don't really see the point. I figure one of the selling points of aging in your own barrel is getting all the flavors of other things you've aged. Unless you want something to be really clean, then there's no need to rinse it out. For this, I'm aging more bourbon, so I'm not really concerned that there might be some bourbon left in the barrel.

To this, I added the ~350mL of maple syrup awesomeness, and topped the barrel off with about 150mL of water. Wiping of the overflow, I plugged the bunghole, gave it a few good rolls back and forth, and set it on the stand to mapleize the bourbon.

I am looking forward to the first tasting!

Up next: Tasting!


*I'm not suggesting anyone reading this has ugly kids, but if you do, don't worry, it's probably not your fault. It's just genetics.

**This is not the way the naming system actually works.

Bottling!

Those bottles don't look like
brand-name bourbons at all!

It's been 12 weeks, and it's finally time to get that lovely, lonely bourbon out of its dark, smoky barrel and into a bottle so that it can get into a glass and then into my belly!

After priming the barrel, cleaning it out, prepping it, choosing the right starter, sampling week to week, and the dreaded waiting, I figured bottling the bourbon would be the easy step. I was wrong in two separate ways.

1. I needed something in which to store the newly-aged beverage. The moonshine jars would work, but they lacked something bottle-y, in the sense that they're large mason jars, not bottles. Fortunately, I'd had the foresight to finish off a couple of bottles of other bourbon, and rinsed out and saved those bottles. Challenge #1, overcome.
2. The spout of the barrel is pretty close to the counter top. For tastings, I would place the barrel near the edge of the counter, with the spigot out over the floor. Then, I could put my tasting glass underneath, and pour. This could work for bottling, I suppose, but I didn't trust the flow to be laminar enough over the course of the four foot drop to the floor. I could stand there and hold the bottle, but who has time for that?

To solve Challenge #2, I cleaned off the bottom shelf of one of the cabinets over the counter. The taller of my two bottles was the perfect height to catch the bourbon. For the shorter of the two, I stacked the plates I'd removed from the cabinet to make up the height. With our 4oz funnel and a basket coffee filter to catch any sediment, we were good to bottle!

As you can see from the picture, we filled about a bottle and a half. So, 1.5L of moonshine + .375L H2O + 12 weeks = approximately 1.125L of bourbon. Not a bad yield, if I do say so myself, taking into account that I sampled a few mL each week. One thing I'm slightly embarrassed by is the fact that I added only 375mL of water, even though I knew I was adding 1.5L moonshine, and that the barrel holds 2L. 1.5 + .375 is not 2. I worry that there was some evaporation because I left space in the top of the barrel. More than that, though, I worry about the wood near the top drying out, and having to re-prime it. I guess that's not terribly dangerous, as long as the barrel stays upright, right?

Back to the bourbon. It looks like bourbon, if a little light. It smells like bourbon, if a little, well, light. It tastes...not quite, but almost like bourbon. Close enough to mix with maple syrup and lemon and drink with a good steak. It doesn't quite compare with the bottle of Eagle Rare or Knob Creek that I'd finished recently, but when starting from moonshine and aging for just 12 weeks (or approximately 1/39th the length of Knob Creek), that is probably to be expected. I think that I will be using already-aged, but cheap, bourbon in the future, and trying to increase its quality through increased aging in my barrel. We've seen the moonshine mellow and morph, so why not a cheap bourbon. Jim Beam might become drinkable!

One other thought: I am not a big drinker. Well, I mean, I'm a big guy, and I drink, but I'm not a lush. I probably will not go through this batch of bourbon in the next three months, nor the fairly new bottle of Knob Creek in the liquor cabinet. Which means that when my next batch is bottled, I'll still have some of the old batch. It might be time then to figure out something else to age in the barrel. Maybe some vodka? Or some wine? Mead? Who knows? There are options, and I have three months to figure it out. For now, more bourbon!

Next up: More bourbon! With flavors!

Glamorize the Tedium

February 27^th, 2014

On TV shows like Mythbusters when they get to that point in the myth where they either have to do a task repeatedly or let something sit and do its thing over a long period of time, they go to a montage, or cut to something else for a bit. However they do it, they elide time. They don’t show you the stone rolling around in moss starter for the entire 30 days, they cut to one of the hosts talking about the myth, or working on a part of some other myth. Then, they can cut back to the original myth, nearly completed. It makes sense – no wants to watch the tedium.

Unfortunately, there are no jump cuts in reality. I had to go the long way. After the surprising change from the original Moonshine to the slightly golden, slightly oaky bourbon-type-substance of Week 1, I was expecting big things from Week 2. Not that I was expecting to open the spigot and see Eagle Rare pouring out, but the change, if any, from Week 1 was minimal, at best. Looks like the changes from here on out will be gradual. I can handle that. It’s like cooking – sometimes you just have to sit back and let the food do its thing. Sometimes you have to be patient.

Confession: I am terrible at being patient. Maybe this will be good for me.

March 9^th, 2014

Bourbon, or a small amount of lager?
Well, technically, neither, but let's go with bourbon.

Then again, maybe the changes will happen faster than I expect. At the end of Week 3, the color of the bourbon was still a light caramel. That hasn’t really changed much. The odor, however, has undergone a slight, but significant, change. The original moonshine had a very medicinal scent, like rubbing alcohol. In the first two weeks, I noticed that the oakiness was starting to develop, but was still a secondary odor to the medicinal odor of the moonshine, meaning that when you smelled the sample the first thing that hit your nose was that medicinal odor, and then there was a faint oak scent.

This week, when I drew off my sample, the first scent that hit my nose was oak. That oak was then quickly overpowered by rubbing alcohol, but the important thing that the first thing I smelled was oak. I’m only three weeks in, but between stuff I’ve read online and general common sense, I knew that any changes I saw would be incremental, and given that there was almost no change last week I wasn’t expecting much this week. So, to have the odors flip around like that, and to have it happen this quickly, was surprising to me.

The taste underwent a similar change, as I noticed the definite oak overtones immediately on my tongue. Once again, the medicinal flavor surged and overpowered the oak flavor, but it was definitely there. The bourbon is also ever so slightly less harsh to drink. Overall, I think this is showing signs of improvement.

March 13th, 2014

One thing I had been wondering about the barrel was whether or not I should be doing anything with the barrel physically. Even Sarah had asked me about it. Everything I had read, and what I understood about the barrel, gave the impression that all you did was poor something in the barrel let it sit there, and then poor something else out. If you take a tour of the winery, they will show you rows of large oak barrels that basically sit around or weeks or months or years.

This past Saturday my buddy Jim came over for breakfast. This is, of course, the same Jim who gave me the barrel, so I was excited speak with him about my progress. I showed him the jars of the moonshine I have used, and told him how harsh the moonshine was, how medicinal it smelled, and how what was coming out of my barrel was already improvement.

“Are you jostling it?” he asked.

“Jostling?”

“Yeah,” he said. “There’s no natural convection, so every day I picked mine up and just roll it back and forth a few times.” He demonstrated this by picking up my barrel and passing it from hand to hand, rolling it gently as he did so. “It increases the amount of liquid that is exposed to the surface of the oak.”

And there it was, the answer to the question we had been asking for the past couple of weeks, without even asking the question. After learning this, I began jostling my barrel, at least once a day. The few days I was able to jostle it leading up to this week’s tasting didn’t seem to affect the bourbon much, but hopefully over time the effects will be noticeable.

March 20th, 2014

I have noticed something. In my first taste test, I saw some pretty significant changes. In my second test, not so much. Then, in my third test I experienced another significant change. That was followed by the fourth test, in which I saw no significant change. Perhaps, it takes two weeks to see noticeable change, and so my odd-numbered tests will be the more interesting tests. If that holds true, this week should see some significant changes.

That does not hold true. The color is a little darker this week, but not drastically so. I know that I said earlier, that in reality we cannot jump cut and elide time, and while, in reality I went long way, this is a blog, so let’s skip some of the tedium. Week six is the halfway point, but other than that nothing significant to report. Weeks seven through ten are pretty much the same.

Slightly darker (take my word for it).

May 3rd, 2014

It’s the final count-I mean, tasting. It’s the final tasting. The color hasn’t changed much in the past few weeks, nor has the flavor, though I do have to say is radically different from where we started. I know the three month time frame is just a suggestion, and it could take less time or significantly more time to age, but I am confident that I can bottle this next week.

Next up: bottling!

Well, this got away from me a bit...

Ok, so I had intended to update this on a weekly basis, but that irascible old coot known as life got in the way. If you read my other blogs, you know that I am engaged to be married, so my wife-to-be and I are in the midst of planning a wedding, she is wrapping up school, we're both working, and I am, frankly, not the best at prioritizing my tasks. Also, I'm kind of lazy.

That said, I have not neglected my bourbon-to-be! No, no, my barrel is still chock full of corn-based goodness, and I am still tasting it weekly to ensure quality.

When last I blogged, I had cleaned out and primed the barrel. Next up, bourbification! Bourbonifaction? Bourbonization? I like bourbonization, let's go with that.

Next up, bourbonization!

The first step is to put something in the barrel, which led to my first question: what do I put in the barrel? I poked around the internet for a couple of days, and found many contrasting opinions, many of which weren't all that helpful. Basically, I asked the internet, "What do I put in my barrel?" and received the response, "Anything!" The most informative sites explained how to barrel age cocktails, and why that's a great idea. Awesome, but unhelpful. I did find a barrel site that instructs owners to fill with the bottles of clear grain alcohol that came with the barrel. The only things that came with my barrel were a plug, a stand, and a spigot. Unless the bottles were teeny, I didn't have any.

This actually was a good start, though, and led me to discover how bourbon is actually made, what moonshine actually is, and how both relate to my barrel.

First off, moonshine. I don't know about you, but when I hear the term "moonshine", I think of southern hillbillies distilling booze in their bathtubs, storing it in mason jars, and selling it to friends under the table. This is surprisingly accurate, even to this day. However, some companies have taken the name and applied it to their corn whiskeys, since they're producing essentially the same thing, just using a professional facility and not passing the liquor through a car radiator. At least, I assume it's not. I really have no idea. Haven't gone blind yet, so that's a plus.

Second, Bourbon. Also known as bourbon whiskey, it starts with a corn mash. Water and then yeast is added, and the mash ferments. More water is added, and the mixture is distilled, usually to 130-160 proof. This spirit is then poured into a charred oak barrel, where it sits for a few years (the patience of distillers astounds me), during which time it becomes bourbon. It is drawn from the barrel and diluted to the appropriate proof, generally in the 80-100 range. If we take a step back to the 130-160 proof spirit, add some water at that point to dilute the alcohol down to around 100 proof, we have corn whiskey, also known as moonshine. Thus, a shortcut in this process is to take moonshine, put it in a charred oak barrel, add time, and boom - bourbon.

The worry I had now was whether or not moonshine was actually sold in stores up here in New Hampshire. To my surprise, I discovered there's actually a brand of moonshine made right here in New Hampshire. What better to use for my first bourbon? Well, frankly, something that isn't twice the cost of pretty much everything else on the shelf. Ok, scrap that, we'll go with some Midnight Moon 100-proof Moonshine.

It even comes in mason jars. The legends were true!

February 13th, 2014

First up, a taste test of my starter. It's moonshine, basically pure, straight-up corn whiskey. Immediate observation was that it was clear. Second observation was that, judging by the smell, I may have bought rubbing alcohol by mistake. Third observation, the taste. Yup, this might be rubbing alcohol. Very sharp, intense burn, but no real nuance. Just burning. And, it left my lips tingly and numb.

Frankly, as long as the odor and flavor mellows even a little, whatever comes out of this barrel will be better than what's going into it.

Each jar of 'shine is 750mL, the barrel holds 2L, so I will be adding 375mL of tap water. This alone should mellow things out a bit. Using the equation V₁C₁ = V₂C₂, we have (1.5L)(100Proof) = (1.875L)(x) or 150/1.875, which is 80. So, by adding the water, I’ve diluted the moonshine down to 80 proof. I think. Maybe that equation isn’t applicable in this instance, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be. Proof is just a measure of the concentration of the alcohol. Not sure what aging does to the proof, but at the very least, we know we’re starting at 80.

February 21st, 2014

Big day – the first tasting! I pulled the stopper from the top of the barrel, then opened the spigot to draw off about an ounce of the liquor. Right off, I noticed that the color had changed, in that the spirit actually had some color – a very light, but distinct – golden hue.

The odor is still distinctly medicinal, but there is a hint of oakiness there. The taste is still harsh, though there are hints of the oak/char in it, and a sweet note. The finish is not smooth, and there is a sort of bitter aftertaste.

I don't want to make these too long, so I'll stop here for now.

Up Next: Months of incremental change!