Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

can anyone give me a rough idea how much volume is lost to oaking?

Not exactly there are a few variables involved ABV it is stored at grain of the timber the temperature and moisture content of the area its stored in. However there are some calculations somewhere (not sure where off the top of my head) that will give you a rough idea of how much you are likely to loose over a give period of time this is what is referred to as the angels share doing a google search on that may well locate them ;-)

If you age using glass and chips/sticks/ cubes, you wont loose much.

If you use an oak barrel, you will loose a fair bit. Done right, you'll get the best product from wood, but there is cost and loss involved.
Pour yourself a glass from an oak barrel, and you won't mind sharing some with the angels, if thats what they do to your hootch.
Its worth it.

thanx guys :smile:

i'm planing to use charred chips in glass so no angels share, but i wasn't sure how porous oak was.
<shrug> guess i'll just have to suck it and see. :shifty:

Oak is somewhat porous otherwise it wouldn't work for aging , the trade off is you lose some ABV

Oak chips or sticks won't soak up much, it's not a shamwow.

sam_and_liv wrote:Oak chips or sticks won't soak up much, it's not a shamwow.

Ha good one :laughing-rolling: kinda meant aging in a barrel

Just reading up on rum and a figure they quoted for the Angel's Share was up to 6% loss per year in warmer climates where rum is normally distilled, and around about 2% in cooler climates. However, I am sure the wood characteristics and surface area to volume of rum will play a role in determining the Angel's Share

croweater wrote:Ha good one :laughing-rolling: kinda meant aging in a barrel

aging in barrels arn't very practical for me. the smallest barrel i've seen is 5l and i'm more interested in batches of about 2l. my interests lay in chasing different flavours, so like my brewing, small batches and never the same thing twice. :))

so i guess i can expect to loose some volume. i guess if i recycle them until they no longer have a desirable effect should minimise the loss.

Ha ha, yeah the angel share can be fairly dramatic for the big boys, why do you think it costs 10 gorillas for a bottle of 50 year old :think: cos theres fuck all left in the barrel and it needs to be over 40% for them to sell it as scotch ;-)

But yeah if your doing small batches wont matter, acutally just cooked some of the french oak staves I got in the weber, understand why you woulnt want to do it in your house :teasing-tease:

Yeah, the charring isn't all that nice, but the toasting is.
Sweet vanilla...yum