Any homemade Scotch makers in the house?

"W ä l r ü s" wrote in news:UxfNc.14724$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net:

I can't address the color issue, but if you are distilling "distillers beer" to make your spirits, you should obtain some peat smoked malt from a homebrewing supply. I used some in some homebrew once, and boy was it strong. Ought to do the trick. If you're concocting "scotch" from grain neutral sprits, then I'd suggest the recipe from the movie Mr. Roberts in which they make "Red Label" from grain neutral spirits, hair tonic, coca-cola, and "a drop of iodine for age." I recently tasted some credible home-distilled malt whisky, made from commercial barley wine beer. But it was aged in an actual oak cask.

That's everything I know about home-made whisky.

Doesn't aging in a barrel involve expansion and contraction, and a small amount of air exchange as a result?

Jeff

------------------- oops! i think that you've got it reversed.

after the doctor (william powell) adds the coca cola (for color) and the iodine (for taste), he asks lieutenant roberts (henry fonda) what else is available from the medicine cabinet for age. as roberts reads off the possibilities, the doctor exclaims, "hair tonic! that's got a coal tar base! that'll age the daylights out of it!"

:)

tiger

W ä l r ü s (wälrü snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com) wrote: : Question#1: Do you think you could get the same color, flavor & effect by : simulating an oak cask with aging in a glass bottle with oak shavings? I : figure one gallon of Scotch would have roughly 238 sq inches of oak touching : it at all times. This would almost equal out perfectly to a 3" x 60" x : 3/8" piece of unfinished oak baseboard & it could be bought at any Lowes, : Home Depot or other building store. Do you think I could dice one of these : up, toss it all in a jar & put away for aging?

I was speaking last week with someone who manufactures materials used in wine kits. One of the products they produce is an oak extract. The exact process is a secret, but it sounds like they soak oak chips in pure alcohol, let it sit for a while, take the liquid and cut it to 40%. A few drops in kit-produced red wine is supposed to impart the taste of oak barrel aging. Since you can'y usually buy pure alcohol you can't make it that way yourself, but I imagine you could buy it in a winemakers supply store.

-- Greg Beaulieu snipped-for-privacy@chebucto.ns.ca Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

snipped-for-privacy@aol.comXnoXspam (TIGER123) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m19.aol.com:

Thanks for the correction! It's been years since I saw the movie.