Whisky Wood !

[Sandor]

I have been cutting and splitting some oak a friend dropped off.

I love the smell of freshly split wood. I started cutting this one 20' log, and I smell Jack Daniels. I split some and take a whiff, and sure enough, smells just like Jack.

I know they cure this stuff in oak barrels, I just have never smelled it so strong like this. Is this a certain type of oak? I have split lots of white and red and never smelled anything like this.

 

[Roospike]

Yep , Char and its filtered through them for a set amount of time.

 

[vgrund]

Those of us who are serious (food) smokers value such wood for its flavoring characteristics.

 

[wg_bent]

I have been cutting and splitting some oak a friend dropped off.

I love the smell of freshly split wood. I started cutting this one 20' log, and I smell Jack Daniels. I split some and take a whiff, and sure enough, smells just like Jack.

I know they cure this stuff in oak barrels, I just have never smelled it so strong like this. Is this a certain type of oak? I have split lots of white and red and never smelled anything like this.

I have some very old (maybe 100 years old or so) oak that I was splitting earlier in the year, and it was had a very strong smell that was almost sweet smelling. I had (have) roughly 2 cords of this split oak sitting right next to my splitting station, and the smell was amazing. Then a few weeks ago I dropped a much smaller oak (maybe 10" across) and I noticed that much of the wood looked like sap wood, very light in color, almost no "oak" type grain, and almost no smell. Only the very bottom of the trunk had the typical oak grain, look and smell. Still, the smell of that young tree, was nothing compared to the old beast.

Another nice tree to cut is cherry.

Bad smelling...Try black locust . Yuck!

 

[Eric Johnson]

Whiskey barrels are made from veneer-guality white oak. I met a guy in Ohio once whose job was to procure the stuff. It's a specialized business. I read somewhere that once they've put one batch of bourbon through the barrels, they are shipped to France where they are used to age wine.

Dylan, there's nothing quite like the smell of yellow birch bark burning first thing in the morning. Smells like incense. One of my survival strategies is, on the rare occasions when the conditions are wrong and my smoke is drifting over towards my neighbor's house, I try to keep the boiler full of yellow birch.