Infusing whiskey

[DitchPanda]

So for Christmas my sister in law bought me a whiskey infusion kit. Its got cocoa beans, Thai bird chilis, coffee beans, cinnamon, orange peel and chai mix for botanicals. Its also got 3 different types of wood chips. The kit also comes with 2 empty 350ml bottles and an instruction booklet with several recipes. I took 2 bottles of pretty meh whiskey and am in the process of infusing right now...I made sure to keep enough of each base whiskey to compare to the finished product. Anyway I probably would have never bought one for myself but as a whiskey lover I feel it was a very thoughtful gift and am excited to see the results.

[DitchPanda]

Well I tried the first bottle that I infused with cinnamon, orange peel, cocoa beans and coffee beans. EPIC FAIL. I followed the directions and even after only 24hrs it was undrinkable. Ill check the one with wood chips in a few weeks and see.

[Jigfishn10]

I was wondering how that experiment was going to go....why not add a red vermouth and infuse botanicals that way? Oh wait, someone did that in Manhattan once   

 

JK, I hope the one with wood chips will come out better

[DitchPanda]

3 hours ago, Jigfishn10 said:

I was wondering how that experiment was going to go....why not add a red vermouth and infuse botanicals that way? Oh wait, someone did that in Manhattan once   

 

JK, I hope the one with wood chips will come out better

Cant see how it could be worse 

[VolFan]

I have a couple buddies that do this, and the flavored ones have been iffy, at best. I’m not a big flavored whiskey guy though. The ones they’ve added wood chips or barrel pieces to over time have been much better, but they take longer to see returns. Good luck!

[deaknh03]

I bought a bottle of mid grade a couple years ago, opened it and threw in 2 or 3 vanilla beans then sealed it for a little over a month.  It came out pretty nice.  

[TnRiver46]

Put a barrel stave in some hillbilly ultra clear 

[MN Fisher]

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Put a barrel stave in some hillbilly ultra clear 

There won't be anything left of that stave after a couple days though....

[DitchPanda]

6 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Put a barrel stave in some hillbilly ultra clear 

I'm a plant technician 3 at an ethanol biorefinery so I have an endless supply of "moonshine"... however ours is fuel grade not distilled for consumption so I gotta pass!

21 hours ago, VolFan said:

I have a couple buddies that do this, and the flavored ones have been iffy, at best. I’m not a big flavored whiskey guy though. The ones they’ve added wood chips or barrel pieces to over time have been much better, but they take longer to see returns. Good luck!

After a week with the chips in the color is significantly darker than the base whiskey. Curious how its gonna be.