Aged at Sea?

[tolstoyevsky]

I'm a newbie, so please bear with me. I googled Navy tobacco, and it seems to me there's a missing element.

There is a certain bourbon that I find tasty - albeit overpriced - that claims to be aged at sea, imparting flavors missing from its landlocked brethren and sistren. My favorite Islay Scotches also brag about a briny element. It would seem to me a sailor's smoke would be subject to that environment, but I have no idea how it would affect the taste. Anybody else had that thought?

 

[Philosophical Smoke]

A Navy plug resembling Jeffersons or Laphroaig. I'm on board with that!

I think it would be too niche of a market nowadays where whisky is in high demand.

 

[pappymac]

The Islay Scotch gets its briny element from the salty sea air surrounding the islands. I have asked a few people knowledgeable about the distilling and aging process and the believe the difference between the whiskey aged on land and the whiskey aged at sea is more the motion of the ocean. The whiskey barrels sitting on land just sits there while the whiskey loaded onto a ship sloshes around in the barrel while the ship is underway. Those shipboard barrels are also loaded into containers so they are not sitting out in the open sea air.

Now, you take a barrel of whiskey and set it on the deck of a sail boat or larger sailing vessel on the coast for six months to a year and I would be interested in seeing how the motion and the salt air changes the whiskey.

I am more interested in pipe tobacco which has been packed into different type alcohol barrels like the SPC Barrel Aged Plum Pudding. I also like the nuanced flavors of beer and spirits that are aged in different types of used barrels.

 

[JoburgB2]

The Islay Scotch gets its briny element from the salty sea air surrounding the islands. I have asked a few people knowledgeable about the distilling and aging process and the believe the difference between the whiskey aged on land and the whiskey aged at sea is more the motion of the ocean. The whiskey barrels sitting on land just sits there while the whiskey loaded onto a ship sloshes around in the barrel while the ship is underway. Those shipboard barrels are also loaded into containers so they are not sitting out in the open sea air.

Now, you take a barrel of whiskey and set it on the deck of a sail boat or larger sailing vessel on the coast for six months to a year and I would be interested in seeing how the motion and the salt air changes the whiskey.

I am more interested in pipe tobacco which has been packed into different type alcohol barrels like the SPC Barrel Aged Plum Pudding. I also like the nuanced flavors of beer and spirits that are aged in different types of used barrels.

Oh for heavens sake.

 

[anantaandroscoggin]

I don't know how much this relates, but the origin of IPA (India Pale Ale) recipes was a result of how little of ordinary beers and ales made the long voyage from England to India for the troops there without going off.

 

[JoburgB2]

pappymac, you might be interested in these;
The Maritime malt.
and
Danish aquavit.

 

[Hillcrest]

It would seem to me a sailor's smoke would be subject to that environment, but I have no idea how it would affect the taste. Anybody else had that thought?

No, I haven't had that thought. But didn't sailors store their tobacco in ropes rolled in canvas and tied up called a Perique ? You could try to duplicate it on your own and let us know if there is a taste difference. That thought has occurred to others:

How to make a sailor's Perique :: Tobacciana History

I just watched this nine minute video and wanted to share it with you. A "Perique" means many things, we pipe smokers know and love it as that delicious dark tobacco that they make in Louisiana, the St. James Parish is especially famous for its barrel pressed and aged pipe tobacco. A sailor has...

pipesmagazine.com

 

[tolstoyevsky]

That. Was. So Cool. Thank you!

 

[Hillcrest]

That. Was. So Cool. Thank you!

Your welcome. I was just thinking how you could experiment to answer your own question and while I am the opposite of a science guy, I would think you could take some of your favorite tobacco and put it into two small dishes to dry. But place one dish in a larger dish or pan with a salt water solution on the bottom and cover it or saran wrap it until the water evaporates then remove the tobacco and smoke it and see if it is different from the other dish of tobacco, I would think the salt water evaporation would dry out the tobacco more and mildly mute any topping flavors or meld them together. But as I said I am not a science guy. Let us know what results you get and how you did it. It may even speed up ageing a bit ... at least it seems to age people who live near the sea a bit more then those that don't !

 

[VDL_Piper]

I think that nature does impart a nuanced flavour to things that are exposed. Not sure whiskey ever made it on a boat in the old days but rum sure did. Islay’s get salt air influence and I’d imagine so would tobacco. Tea is also another with blends like Russian Caravan inheriting flavour from the journey over the Himalayas so your premise is real.

 

[BayouGhost]

I’d think you could fire cure leaf with peat, but i’m not sure if it was ever done. As for the bourbon, I would think the barrels to be nearly or completely air-tight. It does taste good however. The wonderful Islay flavors are from the terrior of the land, the air mixing freely with piles of malt and thousand year old peat used in the firing of the malt. I have wondered if tobacco was packed into barrels, topped with rum and pressed or twisted into ropes or periques to conserve space in transit and for preservation, hence the “navy rolls” or similar designation. This may also explain the use of the word perique for pressure packed or twisted and aged tobacco, applied to a different type of product. The translation in very bad and corrupted French could maybe be “Dad’s way of doing things” which could be a slang for “The old way”. It could also be a shortened Pierre to Per or “The way Pierre does it” which would make sense as well.

 

[OzPiper]

In Spain Sherry that has been stored/matured on the coast at Sanlucar de Barrameda (named manzanilla) has a saline or salty tang quite distinct to sherry from Jerez or Montilla-Moriles further inland.

It is possible whisky/whiskey may be influenced by storage in a maritime environment

But I would think the smokiness of Islay malts may have more to do with high iodine/mineral content of the local peat and how much the barley is exposed to smoke during the malting process.

 

[Astrag]

A couple years ago I visited a famous Scottish distillery in Skye, which made the definition “made by the sea” their motto. The distillery is indeed literally “by the sea” but I discovered that the barrels are aged in the mainland (they simply have not enough space to let them age on site). So the marine notes which are characteristic of their whisky come from the ingredients: the peat is close to the sea and the water they use to produce the liquor (water which I tasted) is a bit brackish. Given that, I think the most marine influence in the taste is given by the ingredients of something instead of the air where it ages (although this is a romantic thought).

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Jefferson's Ocean Is the one aged at sea, and it is about the rocking of the ship, but also the changes in temperature. I don't detect any saltiness to it, but I've only had a tasting of it. I was not about to buy a bottle of that swill for what they wanted. It's a gimmick, nothing more. Also, unlike bonded warehouses, there is no guarantee that every bottle was actually aged in a ship. It's just bullshit to hook people interested in trying it.

 

[First Sealord]

In the old days of sail, sailors carried twists of tobacco in their pockets while working on deck. I am sure the tobacco absorbed the wonderful saline qualities of the life at sea.

 

[pappymac]

Oh for heavens sake.

?

 

[Chasing Embers]

Jefferson's Ocean Is the one aged at sea, and it is about the rocking of the ship, but also the changes in temperature. I don't detect any saltiness to it, but I've only had a tasting of it. I was not about to buy a bottle of that swill for what they wanted. It's a gimmick, nothing more. Also, unlike bonded warehouses, there is no guarantee that every bottle was actually aged in a ship. It's just bullshit to hook people interested in trying it.

It dropped to $80/bottle during the Corona madness. I bought a bottle of it and it really wasn't worth the price even then.

 

[Chasing Embers]

?

I was wondering the same thing.

 

[pappymac]

pappymac, you might be interested in these;
The Maritime malt.
and
Danish aquavit.

I just had a bottle of Old Pulteney 12 Year Old Single Malt last spring. It was good but my current Scotch preference is Talisker.

I've had Aquavit but its been a few years. I may have to consider buying a bottle.

 

[pappymac]

It dropped to $80/bottle during the Corona madness. I bought a bottle of it and it really wasn't worth the price even then.

Fortunately for me I tried the Jefferson's Ocean at a Whiskey & Ashe Flight Night and I wasn't impressed.

(Whiskey & Ashe is a whiskey & cigar bar about 3 miles from my house. They only allow cigar and pipe smoking on premise, no cigarettes, no vaping. I love this place!)