I was thinking of using one of these to “age” a few different liquids and was wondering if has anyone used one to give barrel aged notes to their liquid. They work wonders on whiskey in just a few days, and I think dropping one in some liquid for 2 weeks to have the effect that I am looking for.
Something similar was tossed around at one point only using barrels.
1 Like
I could see buying a barrel and aging a liquid for 2 month to a year, but if it can be done in weeks to a month with the spiral, then I am all for it.
Yeah, it definitely sounds interesting. Maybe @LordVapor can let us know if he ever bought a barrel and tried it. He might be interested in this as well.
1 Like
I bought one, but have yet to give it a go. Probably next weekend I will be mixing some stuff. I will give it a shot then and be ya’lls guinea piggy.
4 Likes
Hmmmm. I want to maybe try it too. Maybe. 
I’m dreaming of a brandy, orange, coffee, infused oak.
One of my favorite flavors, so far, is VCT (Vanilla Custard Tobacco) Private Reserve by Ripe Vapes. It is barell aged for two months. This will be experiment #1 for me, but first I need to perfect the VCT itself:
Test One
Nicotine juice 100 mg (100% VG) 6%
PG dilutant 14%
VG dilutant 64%
Vanilla Custard v2 (CAP) 12%
Western (TPA) 1%
Bavarian Cream (LA) 2%
Butterscotch (LA) 1%
Total 30ml
1 Like
BRV Liquids has a liquid they sell called Colonels Custard…it was my absolute fav for a long time. they released a whiskey barrel aged version called The Generals Custard…it was ok. i didnt like it as much as the Colonels Custard. On that note, they released a max VG of the Colonels Custard and that was even better than the original version. i should get a bottle of that and see if i still think that highly of it…
Alternatively you can buy some medium toast oak chips that are made for wine and beer. I purchased some a couple weeks ago and dropped one into my Simple Custard, i havent got around to removing and filtering the liquid yet as it still has a ways to go as far as curing.
I won some Creme Brulee from Golden State Vapor awhile back and while i found the liquid unvapable due to how quickly it gunked my coils it did make me curious about using oak as it is oak barrel aged. The oak barrel imparted a fantastic flavor to the liquid.
I was in chat discussing oak chips with one of the people and he pointed me to the oak chips, he said he had been using them for quite awhile. I bought these: French Medium Toast Oak Chips
I have a 60 year old oak in the back yard, next up will be learning to prepare them myself.
EDIT TO ADD: One thing to keep in mind is that different toast levels and different types of oak will impart different notes. I chose the cubes i chose as they will impart a Creme Brulee/chocolate undertones and fruity cinnamon notes which should go well with my custard.
4 Likes
I will definitely give them a try as well!
As far as making them I would suggest cutting the blocks, the closer to the core the deeper the flavor. Dry them out to the point of firewood, if you want to add more flavor I would dry them a bit more. Soak them, but for no more than 24 hours or the wood may sour. You can use water, whiskey, wine - whatever flavor you want the wood to take on. Then char the blocks over a fire pit or use a torch to your desired level, have a water bucket ready to dip them in to stop the process. Finally, let them dry out again.
2 Likes
Day 1
Mixed up some VCT ( http://e-liquid-recipes.com/recipe/752482/VCT ) for the test batch. I use a drink mixer to blend my liquids, and it has a cool effect that happens when I float the blades above the liquid. It pulls up a bubble of liquid and spins it fast enough to create a vortex in the liquid, creating small air bubbles and perfectly mixing the liquid very quickly.
Note: The bubble does not work in high PG.
4 Likes
Day 3
Very little oak flavor, but it is starting to develop.
Day 5
The barrel flavor is starting to come through better and overall flavor is awesome!
6 Likes
Day 15:
Can you say liquid gold? The flavor development is now hitting on all cylinders! A beautiful amber color has now developed and the oaky flavor is now a star of the liquid, but has not over powered the other flavors.
The makers of the spiral say that there will be no really flavor from the spiral after 2 weeks, but that is also for alcoholic liquids, so I am going to give it another week and see if it gives up any more flavor.
8 Likes
So, after vape this all day, I resisted the urge to do so while it was steeping, I must say this is an amazing product! I highly recommend it to anyone looking to add a natural barrel age flavor to a liquid, with out breaking the bank on buying a barrel and large amounts of vg/pg and concentrates to fill the barrel.
Some notes on my process over the past 2 weeks:
The batch is 200ml
The first day and every three days the liquid was mixed and warm steeped at 125’f in a hot stone unit for 3 hours. I did this to help the spiral breathe.
Nicotine solution was added on day 15.
All further aging will be done at room temp.
3 Likes
Hi Chef. I did use 1ltr oak barrel on a vanilla honey for 2 weeks and is in my adv rotation . These spirals look way less messy. The key is to just use pg and pg flavors with the oak (i.e. make enough juice for say 120 mls but leave out nicotine and vg until the 2 weeks are up then double strain the concentrate) This will leave you with a pre-steeped ready to shake and vape in your vg/nicotine base. I jumped all in with a barrel and 32 oz concentrate for about $150. It worked out great but had me worried for 2 weeks. I then put Scotch in the barrel for 1 month and really enjoyed that. This seems better to use the spirals but you do need to let it breath a little every other day like an hour. If you’d like a bottle that I’ve done this to just let me know. The aging process is relative to the amount liquid in contact with the wood and the viscosity of that liquid so more surface area and no vg = less time. You could just age some pg to pull out the flavor, I use max VG so I aged the flavoring.
I would love to trade with you! I just took the spiral out and stained it through a coffee filter today(1 month) . It came out very close to the original, we bought another bottle to do a side by side; the only thing I found laking was the almond flavor. Next time I will go with your method of using just the PG and concentrates, the VG is just too thick, which is why I felt the need to have to heat steep every 3 days. This did made a huge difference in color and flavor, but is a step that can now be eliminated! Thanks Vapedini!