Question about wood chips from whiskey barrels. Need advice.

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bbqbrett

Master of the Pit
Original poster
Jan 17, 2013
1,654
592
About 10 miles from the blue turf!
Yesterday I saw a friend of mine. He frequents a bar and they know he smokes food as well. They gave him chips from a newly destroyed whiskey barrell. He can't use them so he gave them to me.

They smell wonderful but they are still soaked\wet from the whiskey. Have a few questions as I have never come across this.

Does anybody know how long they can stay good before they need to be used? I am assuming they will mold. Don't know if they would stay good for awhile since they wood was soaked with alcoholic beverage.

Or does anyone have a good easy way to dry them out?
 
I don't think they will mold if you set them out to dry in a dry place. Can you put them on a sheet pan in your smoker for a few hours at a low temperature? Or perhaps in an oven with the door ajar? That might dry them out.
 
They shouldn't mold at all. If they are from a real whiskey barrel (aged for years) they will be good for long time. I had a whiskey barrel used for a planter for years. The metal stays gave out and when I cut it up I smelled the whiskey still. I reserved the good wood, gave it a good scrub, let it dry and had some great whiskey barrel smoked steaks.

Since its chipped up it may not last that long. Just set them outin dry place on newspaper or cardboard for a week or 2. Sun is best.

RG
 
Thanks for the input mneeley and radioguy. I don't have a good dry place as we are supposed to be getting rain this weekend. I might have to try the oven method and see how that works.

I might just keep a small sample of them as is and see how it goes and try to dry most of them.
 
IMHO I think you should wait till you can do it out side the house, flash point on alcohol is very low. Turn your grill on low warm it shut it off let the sun finish drying them.
 
I have no experience with whisky wood chips. But i was wondering how the taste is when smoking with it? Ive been interested in trying it but didnt want to waste time abd resources if i dont end up liking it.
 
I have not tried whisky barrel wood chips but I have used the Jack Daniels wood pellets from BBQer's Delight. I can't say that they imparted much of the whiskey flavor but they did give a nice mellow smoke taste like the oak that the barrels are made from.
 
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