On Day 5 of wood aging with the Whisky Stiks, the change is gradual. On the nose the small bottle has a wonderful smoke aroma and good oak taste but not too strong with less sharpness of the alcohol, I will leave this another day or two.
The large bottle has wonderful aromas of smoked oak and hickory, taste is still quite sharp and overpowers the wood tastes for now. Will leave this another 5 days and taste again.
Where we are so far;
Whiskey aging quietly at home, day 4 now and not much change from yesterday, small bottle looks to be a shade darker.
Oak has been used for centuries to age Whisky or Whiskey, with various nuances added by the cooper in toasting or charring the barrel to the distillers taste. The aging then takes years or decades. What we are trying to do here is hurry it along a bit. But aging is aging, once the desired colour and aroma is achieved it will still require a minimum of 3 months to a year to really show its potential. The small amount of spirit in the bottle has more wood contact than say in a 500 or so liter barrel and is able to pull out colour and some flavour a bit quicker.
In the short term a spirit aged on oak chips of WHISKY STIKs will make a great mixer in 3 weeks to a few months adding another level of aroma and taste to your favorite cocktail.
Spirit has now been on the STIKs 72 hrs and the colour is still improving.
Day 2 and 48hrs on the STIKs. The spirit in the 750ml bottle has almost taken twice as much colour on, will be testing aroma and flavour from the 5th day.
Day 1 and 24hrs on the STIKS. The 750ml spirit is showing good colour as the bottle is wider and the colour can be seen better. I will test for aroma and taste about the 4th or 5th day. The small 150ml bottle has acquired colour but it is not as intense as the bottle is only 20mm thick.