Oh to go back and relive those days......
Aged at Sea?
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Although not from Islay, one of the best single malts I ever had was a Springbank from the ‘60s made from locally grown barley. And water from a local spring.
Unfortunately due to steep price rises I’m unlikely to taste that again. Unless one of my mates is exceptionally generous
I have been too distracted of late to do science, but here's my latest thought. The Meijer down the street sells seaweed sheets. The sheets do not crumble easily. I'm thinking a one-inch-square sheet moistened with a drop of water (rum?) placed in a baggie of mixing Virginia and allowed to breathe might prove interesting. What's more sailorish than seaweed? (I was Army). If it fails, it fails.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 !
Smoke some C&D Shandgaff if you want some sea salt.
As for aging stuff in barrels on ships it feels more like a marketing thing to me.
I had some Old Tub bourbon last summer as I was searching for something affordable to have on hand... it tasted exactly how it sounds.
As for aging stuff in barrels on ships it feels more like a marketing thing to me.
I had some Old Tub bourbon last summer as I was searching for something affordable to have on hand... it tasted exactly how it sounds.
My first favorite bottle was a barrel pick of Jefferson’s Voyage 19, a wheated. So sweet and so smooth.
Where I work is very (2km max) close to the North Sea, the wind almost always comes from sea here (south west) so you can smell it next to the fumes of chemical factories closeby. But it doesnt affect the taste it has. I suppose it is only affected when the salt contents can actually penetrate the tobacco. Could do a test with opening a tin, letting it sit outside and smoke it in about a week or so, but im afraid airquality in general will spoil it.
If you are picking a barrel of Knob Creek, not at the distillery, they send a kit with barrel proof samples from 3 barrels, distillery water with a graduated beaker and a chart to equalize proofs if you choose, and a chart that shows exactly where in the rickhouse the barrel is resting.
Even the location in the rickhouse has a significant impact on the aging process. Barrels higher up and closer to the walls are exposed to greater ranges of temperature, altering and accelerating the aging process. Barrels are not airtight, air and water molecules being smaller can more easily escape than alcohol molecules. Changes in temperature and barometric pressure move the whiskey in and out of the wood, where it extracts flavors.
Barrels on a ship at sea are typically exposed to the sea air, greater changes in their environment, and the major factor of motion. Sloshing around in the barrel exposes the whiskey to the wood more quickly and evenly and is generally considered to accelerate the aging process.
Jefferson’s Oceans releases are by voyage. Individual barrels from the same voyage will still have differences, sometimes very significant.
Whiskey pricing varies due to a number of factors, including supply. A bottle in high demand, say Blantons, will command premium prices on the secondary markets even if they are not as “good” as other bottles where demand is lower relative to supply.
I’ll admit I’ve never tasted a Jefferson’s Ocean that compared to that single barrel pick of wheated bourbon from Voyage 19, but your mileage may vary.
A friend gave me a pour from a single barrel of Glen Grant last night, 34 years old, and it was amazing, rich and dense and smooth, but it cost hundreds of dollars a bottle. On the other hand, I could point you at a dozen bottles of bourbon at $50 or less that I think are superior to bottles costing 3-4 times as much.
There are certainly better and worse whiskeys by objective measures. We once had seven tasters from our bourbon crew pick the same barrel from a group of seven barrels of New Riff in a blind tasting. But palate preferences are highly individual. For example, I tend to like wheated bourbons. Heavy oak and double oaked bourbons, not so much. I like some scotches, but heavily peated scotches, not so much. But that is taste, not quality.
Don’t measure whiskey only by the price. If the only bottle I could ever have was Rebel Small Batch Reserve I would be content, and it’s $30 a bottle.
Even the location in the rickhouse has a significant impact on the aging process. Barrels higher up and closer to the walls are exposed to greater ranges of temperature, altering and accelerating the aging process. Barrels are not airtight, air and water molecules being smaller can more easily escape than alcohol molecules. Changes in temperature and barometric pressure move the whiskey in and out of the wood, where it extracts flavors.
Barrels on a ship at sea are typically exposed to the sea air, greater changes in their environment, and the major factor of motion. Sloshing around in the barrel exposes the whiskey to the wood more quickly and evenly and is generally considered to accelerate the aging process.
Jefferson’s Oceans releases are by voyage. Individual barrels from the same voyage will still have differences, sometimes very significant.
Whiskey pricing varies due to a number of factors, including supply. A bottle in high demand, say Blantons, will command premium prices on the secondary markets even if they are not as “good” as other bottles where demand is lower relative to supply.
I’ll admit I’ve never tasted a Jefferson’s Ocean that compared to that single barrel pick of wheated bourbon from Voyage 19, but your mileage may vary.
A friend gave me a pour from a single barrel of Glen Grant last night, 34 years old, and it was amazing, rich and dense and smooth, but it cost hundreds of dollars a bottle. On the other hand, I could point you at a dozen bottles of bourbon at $50 or less that I think are superior to bottles costing 3-4 times as much.
There are certainly better and worse whiskeys by objective measures. We once had seven tasters from our bourbon crew pick the same barrel from a group of seven barrels of New Riff in a blind tasting. But palate preferences are highly individual. For example, I tend to like wheated bourbons. Heavy oak and double oaked bourbons, not so much. I like some scotches, but heavily peated scotches, not so much. But that is taste, not quality.
Don’t measure whiskey only by the price. If the only bottle I could ever have was Rebel Small Batch Reserve I would be content, and it’s $30 a bottle.
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I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned this somewhere else on PM.com forums before.
I remember boarding a container ship for inspection to find that the cargo manifest listed three containerized tanks of whiskey. That's three times 16,000 gallons of whiskey. Very little air (just like in barrels) inside the tanks when they were filled and sealed for shipping.
I remember boarding a container ship for inspection to find that the cargo manifest listed three containerized tanks of whiskey. That's three times 16,000 gallons of whiskey. Very little air (just like in barrels) inside the tanks when they were filled and sealed for shipping.
I think the original point of Jeffersons Oceans was the notion of the bourbon would be constantly sloshing around in the barrels to help it age/flavor.
I actually had a bottle of Oceans release #2 then following releases.... wasn't impressed. I did not get anything extra like salty ocean notes in the bourbon. I believe the original voyage of Jeffersons Oceans only had 2 barrels of bourbon on the ship. Gimmick all about marketing. For that price, could buy a lot of good bourbons for cheaper.
I actually had a bottle of Oceans release #2 then following releases.... wasn't impressed. I did not get anything extra like salty ocean notes in the bourbon. I believe the original voyage of Jeffersons Oceans only had 2 barrels of bourbon on the ship. Gimmick all about marketing. For that price, could buy a lot of good bourbons for cheaper.