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How do you age white spirits?


Alpo

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Brown spirits is easy. You put it in wood.

 

Booze comes out of the still looking like water. You put this in a wood keg and you let it sit there for a certain amount of time and the booze picks up both color and flavor from the wood. Bourbon, scotch, Irish, dark rum.

 

But white spirits - gin, vodka, light rum. How did they age that and have it stay clear?

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4 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Brown spirits is easy. You put it in wood.

 

Booze comes out of the still looking like water. You put this in a wood keg and you let it sit there for a certain amount of time and the booze picks up both color and flavor from the wood. Bourbon, scotch, Irish, dark rum.

 

But white spirits - gin, vodka, light rum. How did they age that and have it stay clear?

Ex the rum, I don't believe I have ever seen Gin or vodka marketed as aged, or Moonshine for that matter. I believe they are simply bottled and sold.  Could be wrong, but I am something of an enthusiast! ;)

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You don't age them. One of the biggest reasons that a number of Whiskey companies also make and market Vodka is that it is an instant cash flow product. It doesn't sit in a warehouse aging while taxes are being paid on it. Anyone marketing Aged vodka is just playing on the ignorance of the Yuppies buying it.

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Vodka drinkers don't have time or patience to age it... it never makes it :)

 

also, modern vodka should not be distilled, but rather rectified that produces tasteless, chemically clean ethanol regardless of the type of grain/carbs used, that is mixed with filtered water to produce vodka.   "Distilled" vodka was traditionally called "bread wine" and was never much filtered, it has a distinct aftertaste of rye or wheat or the sweatness of potatoe starch.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectified_spirit

you can infuse vodka with pepper or honey or garlic or fennel - that takes some time but usually months, not years

 

 

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this is a made in Poland distilled bread wine using very old Russian recipe.  I actually personally knew the founder - he recently passed away.  he researched it for many years.  it's not cheap, but you will be amazed how different it is from vodka - it's like Tequila blanco made out of grain!

 

https://polugar.com/

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37 minutes ago, Last Call Saul said:

this is a made in Poland distilled bread wine using very old Russian recipe.  I actually personally knew the founder - he recently passed away.  he researched it for many years.  it's not cheap, but you will be amazed how different it is from vodka - it's like Tequila blanco made out of grain!

 

https://polugar.com/

Interesting! Thanks. I’ll see if I can snag a bottle.

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Two novels. Alas Babylon. This little group is trying to survive after World War 3. They make a still and turn part of the corn crop into shine. They got a keg from somewhere, and they are aging the moonshine in the wood.

 

That made perfect sense to me.

 

One of Griffin's Brotherhood of War novels - The Berets. They're dropping some paratroopers in this farmer's field. The farmer and lieutenant Tom are watching them come down, and the farmer pulls out a quart mason jar of clear liquid and takes a swig and offers it to Tom - "I made it myself". Tom is expecting the throat searing gagging reaction to moonshine, but it does not happen. And he comments to the farmer that it's pretty good. The farmer explains that the secret is it has to be aged. "This is over a year old."

 

But it's still clear, so apparently it was not aged in the wood, and leaving it sit in the glass for a year doesn't change it at all. So my question - how do you age white spirits - and have them still be white?

 

Apparently making whiskey is another thing that Mr Griffin does not know anything about? :P

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The Moonshiner I knew aged it in the truck.

(Wisky Blanc, Tabernack!!!)

17 hours ago, Alpo said:

Brown spirits is easy. You put it in wood.

 

Booze comes out of the still looking like water. You put this in a wood keg and you let it sit there for a certain amount of time and the booze picks up both color and flavor from the wood. Bourbon, scotch, Irish, dark rum.

 

But white spirits - gin, vodka, light rum. How did they age that and have it stay clear?

 

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5 minutes ago, Yellowhouse Sam # 25171 said:

Lets hear for bathtub gin!

When I first heard of bathtub gin, I thought that somehow they were distilling it in the bathtub.

 

I have since heard, or possibly read (don't really remember) that what they would do was make the raw alcohol, which comes out of the still at around 195 proof, and take a half full container over to the bathtub and fill it the rest of the way up from the tap. It was easier to fill a big container from the bathtub than it was from the kitchen sink, so that's why they did it that way. And that cut the raw alkie down to 80 or so proof - tadaaaa - gin.

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In yore belly!

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