People ask all the time, "How will I know when its done aging?" Well, it really is up to you. First: NEVER listen to anyone else when it comes to aging time. Their pallet could be very different from yours and more importantly, the environment they are aging their bottles in could cause it to age twice as fast or twice as slow as your environment.
The aging time recommendations in the product description are simply the feedback of hundreds of r&d tests on people with award winning pallets and hundreds of customers. For example, the VAST MAJORITY of people prefer aging blanco tequila with french oak only 2 weeks, and it creates a very strong flavor.
One of the great benefits of using these staves is that you get to play master distiller in a sense and be the judge of when its ready. This allows you to have the flavor profile tailored exactly to your tastes.
I recommend taking a half thimble sized taste every week or so once it gets going. Just make sure you swish it around your mouth and coat your tongue. Its not as telling as a full tasting pour in a proper glass, but it gives you a very good concept of how the aging process is coming along. In fact, getting to experience how the drink transforms over time is one of the most interesting parts of using these staves. So, let your own taste buds be the guide, and enjoy the process as much as the finished product!
After you remove the stave, the flavors will undergo a process of "marrying" where they blend together and taste less "separate". Usually 4 weeks gets you a good bit of the way there. The strength of the oak flavor will go down some, but do not expect it to go down more than 5%, MAYBE 10% over the course of a year or so. If you age for too long, you can always blend in some more of the original liquor, aka blanco tequila if you aged tequila until it balances out and tastes good again.
I recommend taking a half thimble sized taste every week or so once it gets going. Just make sure you swish it around your mouth and coat your tongue. Its not as telling as a full tasting pour in a proper glass, but it gives you a very good concept of how the aging process is coming along. In fact, getting to experience how the drink transforms over time is one of the most interesting parts of using these staves. So, let your own taste buds be the guide, and enjoy the process as much as the finished product!
After you remove the stave, the flavors will undergo a process of "marrying" where they blend together and taste less "separate". Usually 4 weeks gets you a good bit of the way there. The strength of the oak flavor will go down some, but do not expect it to go down more than 5%, MAYBE 10% over the course of a year or so. If you age for too long, you can always blend in some more of the original liquor, aka blanco tequila if you aged tequila until it balances out and tastes good again.
Thanks for Chris!
I will read your other articles as well.