Other uses for my oak!

[Elmer]

1)
After racking my brunello from the carboy to the barrell. I had a good amount of oak cubes, that after a month and half, I was assured that they were used up.
I was going to clean them and freeze them and toss them back in a wine later, but I have other cubes for that.
My neighbor suggested I through it in my grill.
I did, it smells great!

2) I had to buy a bottle of whiskey for a family on saturday, and because I am out.
Since I can no longer afford good whiskey, hell I can afford middle of the road whiskey, so I had to settle for the $12 a bottle stuff. I was going to buy some Black Velvet (my father's favorite), but honestly whiskey should be from Tennessee or Ireland!

So to make a long story short (too late), I bought some whiskey whose name I can not even recall, might be something like Early times. I poured it into my fancy glass container and took a sip. Bit harsh, so I dropped 1/2 once of Med Toast Hungarian cubes into 3/4 a litter.
I took the other 1/4 liter and added Heavy toasted American Chips.

have a feeling I should have added more cubes, but it is an experiment,
And honestly one I have never thought to do before.

 

[JohnT]

If you liked that with whiskey, you should try it with rum. Been told that a good rum turns out fantastic.

 

[Elmer]

If you liked that with whiskey, you should try it with rum. Been told that a good rum turns out fantastic.

I have enough 1/2 empty bottles of Bicardi Rum I could give it a shot.
I can fill up some mason jars and give it a go.

However I would say that If I had good rum or good whiskey , I would not fudge with it.

My uncle makes a plum rum, and other berry rum that is beyond excellent.
Basically like a making a Dragon blood, but with soaking berrys in rum....

I never thought about it but, I should give him some oak!!!!!!

 

[JohnT]

Try a small amount, say about a cup or so. No need to fill the jar all the way up. You also may want to consider running it through a coffee filter after you have oak aged it.

 

[Boatboy24]

I'm a charcoal griller and am definitely a fan of using the spent oak cubes on the grill. The wine soaked cubes seem to impart a richer, smoother oak experience (IMHO), than the "normal" oak you'd use for grilling/smoking.

I like the idea of using it to enhance a not-so-expensive bourbon or whiskey. The rum idea sounds good too, but I think I'd only want to use it on the darker rums.

 

[sour_grapes]

Wish I had thought to save all my oak cubes over the winter for BBQ season! Well, there is always next year.....