Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I am wondering the benefits of flavouring your own oak dominoes with port, sherry etc?
Would this work?
I gave a couple of bottles of my whiskey essenenced neutral to a mate and he stored them in his 4L barrel which previously had port in it.
After only 2 weeks the port flavour really came through, so much so it was nearly all port to my taste.
So I'm thinking could you toast and char some dominoes or oak off cuts and soak them in port, or sherry or something to impart a fuller flavour to my whiskey?
I've read a few great threads about oak flavouring, this for one:
http://aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=5827
but couldn't find a discussion on this particular topic.

Are u aiming for Irish whiskey, isn't that aged in old sherry barrels?

yes you can :)

i like soaking some oak in sweet sherry for a few weeks/month then using them to age my rum.
jim beam small batch is port barrels i think. there are many distilleries that use sherry or port casks.

Nice, do you soak them raw or after toast/ charring?

mine are already toasted so I just chuck them in. take a bit longer to age product after they have been in the sherry or port

Wouldn't it be easier just to age on oak then add some port/sherry?

Would the oak filter the port/sherry at all?, keeping some of the undesirables out of the aged product (what ever they may be).

I did read somewhere that a company aged normally in charred barrels then transferred to port barrels for short time to finish off. Are sherry or port barrels charred?

I tried the add port to the drink method. Didn't work.
Neighbour and I tried I emulate jim beam small batch which is bourbon with a nice port hint.
We added various amounts of port to our bourbons till both bottles were gone, not very scientific but hey, was a good night. :obscene-drinkingdrunk:
The whiskey I got back from my mate had that good port flavour just from the barrel.
Just for my tastes it was too much port, admittedly it was only nuetral with essence though to start with though.
Thinking I'll try some sherry Andy, cheers for that :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I put 10 dominoes in a jar and filled it with port, i plan on pulling the dominoes out of the jar filled with port at differnt stages to see how it will go at ageing some rum. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Doubleuj wrote:I tried the add port to the drink method. Didn't work.
Neighbour and I tried I emulate jim beam small batch which is bourbon with a nice port hint.
We added various amounts of port to our bourbons till both bottles were gone, not very scientific but hey, was a good night. :obscene-drinkingdrunk: :

:laughing-rolling: Glad to see you had a go :dance:

rumdidlydum wrote:

Doubleuj wrote:I tried the add port to the drink method. Didn't work.
Neighbour and I tried I emulate jim beam small batch which is bourbon with a nice port hint.
We added various amounts of port to our bourbons till both bottles were gone, not very scientific but hey, was a good night. :obscene-drinkingdrunk: :

:laughing-rolling: Glad to see you had a go :dance:

:teasing-tease:

There's got to be an endless list of ideas for this to add flavour profiles to your drink.
Port
Sherry
Brandy
Malt extract
Vanilla
Chocolate
Peat?

i can confirm that adding sherry soaked oak gives a nice subtle flavour, while adding sherry directly also give a nice flavour, though it obviously isnt a subtle profile.

aging with oak and other items also gives a new dimension to an old drink. add some raisins, add a squirt of honey, drop in a vanilla bean, lots to play with

I was chatting with one of the coopers here in Adelaide. He makes barrels for a number of commercial distilleries. He said he uses secondhand wood from the really old port barrels, but scrapes the first 2-3mm of really port soaked wood off the barrel before reassembling and charring them. This still leaves lots of port flavour, but takes away the really heavy overpowering flavour.

Anyway, doesn't really answer your question, but thought it might be interesting to you.

Hi Fred .... Did you happen to ask him what he does with the off cuts?
I would love to get hold of some of his off cuts etc if at all possible

BennyHiggo wrote:Hi Fred .... Did you happen to ask him what he does with the off cuts?
I would love to get hold of some of his off cuts etc if at all possible

:text-+1: :)

Unfortunately I didn't ask him, but I'll have a chat to him when I pick up the barrels I have ordered. Would be nice to get some oak dominoes which has had port or sherry in it for the last 50 years or so!

Yeah that would be awesome Fred!
Even just off cuts of raw oak when he is making the barrels would be good though. Just a matter of toasting and charring.
Tell us more about your barrels