Activated Charcoal filtration

  • Sanjit_Keskar
    Topic creator
    Member Sanjit_Keskar
    Joined: 17.08.2017Posts: 12Ratings: 0

    How is it that when Jack Daniels  is passed through activated charcoal the whisky acquires its  smoky flavour but when vodka is filtered through  activated charcoal to remove impurities it does not capture any smoky flavours>  It is the contact time or/and the depth of the charcoal filter that the spirit moves through?


    Also, since vodka is so highly rectified (by distillation) what impurities remain to be filtered out anyways?


    Thanks  

  • bedlamborn Member bedlamborn Joined: 18.09.2016Posts: 611Collectionbedlamborns CollectionRatings: 21
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    @Sanjit_Keskar 

    I have never heard that charcoal filtration gives any taste to a spirit/whisky it just removes impurities.

  • hwchoy Member hwchoy Joined: 28.07.2015Posts: 462CollectionHeng Wah’s CollectionRatings: 3
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    @bedlamborn possibly it depends on the charting level of the barrels. The rum Zacapa Edicion Negra also claimed that their heavily charred casks imparted a smoky flavour to the rum. 

  • horst_s_2 Administrator horst_s_2 Joined: 01.07.2014Posts: 507Ratings: 661
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    @Sanjit_Keskar Jack Daniel does NOT produce smoky whiskey. Filtering thru charcoal will reduce sharp tastes from a whiskey. If you burn casks from the inside to produce an inner charcoal layer, then there will be a boundary zone between full charcoal and just tempered wood, which will result in some smoky aroma.

    Kind regards, Horst Luening, Master Taster, Whisky.com
  • Sanjit_Keskar
    Topic creator
    Member Sanjit_Keskar
    Joined: 17.08.2017Posts: 12Ratings: 0
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    Thank you


    It seems i got my base fact wrong.  there is no smokiness in Jack Daniels

  • nate.leal Member nate.leal Joined: 18.05.2019Posts: 1Ratings: 0
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    @horst_s Is a whiskey with a “smoky aroma” not a “smoky whiskey?” Certainly, filtration does not produce a smoky aroma. But if/since aging in a chard cask adds a smoky aroma, can it accurately be said that “Jack Daniels does not produce smoky whiskey?”

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