Brandy Storage

[garand]

I was wondering if anyone had ideas about how to store homade Brandy. My dad made Brandy every year as a tradition and I want to store all the bottles that he gave me over the years. I keep them in my basement which is dark and remains at a mid 60% temperature all year long. The humidity swings fairly drastically. I just recently corked them afther having been stored in screw-cap type bottles for sometime. Should I lay them at an angle like wine?

Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

 

[vince]

I store my home made brandy in old single malt scotch whisky bottles, good corks more or less, & never have been able to keep them long enough to worry about long term storage, , but logic dictates that if you have a cork you must keep it moist, so lay them down & rotate them just like you would a fine wine, , IMHO for what its worth I dont have a problem with screw tops if they are plastic lined , I dont want metal in contact with the water of life !
Enjoy, Vince

 

[Bloofington]

Interesting last comment Vince, because there has been speculation that the last release of the Hirsch 16 bourbon was at least partially ruined by long term storage in a stainless steel holding tank, after the aging was arrested.

I was warned of this prior to a purchase three bottles from Binny's last year, and indeed, one bottle tasted like I had turned my back and someone poured water in my bourbon as a joke. The other two tasted like good old Hirsch 16, but although Binny's still has a very low price, I think I've had enough of the Hirsch 16 and will move on. Don't want to risk another bad bottle, especially since I bought the three last year from them when the price was even lower.

 

[vince]

some elixers are made to go in wood, ceramic,glass,plastic or even leather, I do have a stainless steel flask but it is glass lined , & it never would stay in there for more than a few hours hahahaha
Enjoy, Vince

 

[MarkG]

Hmmm, stainless is fairly non reactive, so I would expect it to have little if any effect on taste, but you never know...

Of course a conventional steel screw cap should have a plastic liner, and I would also not use one that was missing the liner.

 

[BigTom]

When I was making Brandy I stored the Brandy the same way I stored my wine. In a wine bottle with a cork. I did try a barrel once but it wasen't chared. The 5 gal. chared barrels are as expensive as the big barrels (New). It takes a LOT of homemade brandy to fill an old bourbon barrel.

 

[vince]

Big Tom, Just think of all the fun Emptying the old Barrell hahahaha

 

[BigTom]

Yea Vince, it could have been a great time. The closest to a barrel of Brandy was the Cider.
My uncle lived on a farm by New Castle Pa. Back behind the house was an apple orchard. It was the kids job to pick enough apples in October to make the Annual Thanksgiving Apple Cider. The apples were picked, mostly off the ground, the baskets were loaded into the pickup truck along with the two old Bourbon barrels and we went off to the cider press. The apples were loaded into the press, pressed offf and the juice was poured into the barrels. When we got home we unloaded the barrels into the back yard right behind the kitchen. Thank goodness for farm tractors. A half a case of brown sugar was put into each barrel. A package of Champain Yeast was also added. Fermintation locks were installed. About a mounth later I was sent out into the back yard with a rubber hose and an very clean brown clorex jug (remember those?). One end of the hose went into the bottle the other end into my mouth. Once the cider got flowing, and I got a healthy taste the jug got filled, the hose pulled and it was back into the kitchen with the juice. Its was funny that I could not have my own glass of that cider while in the house but I sure made a lot of trips out to the back yard to fill that jug.

 

[vince]

Yea baby I do remember the old Brown clorox jugs , big heavy S.O.B.'s , just how many trips a day did you make to "Fill the JUG"?
hahaha Enjoy, Vince