Question by cycophuk23: is there any taste difference or benefit to aged vodka?
I know certain liquors are prized for being aged, such as whisky or scotch. I’ve never heard anything like this for vodka. Will aging vodka affect it’s taste in a positive or negative way?
Answers and Views:
Answer by mark
No . Vodka is pure filtered spirits. There is nothing to age or mellow.
Various whiskeys like scotch, bourbon, rye are aged in barrels that are charred. There aging stops once removed from the barrel and bottled.
Wine on the other hand has tannins in the wine that will result in a softer wine (for some wines) over years and does improve after bottling. Of course, this statement is only for those wines INTENDED for aging.
Answer by Corvato
if you aged vodka, you would basically have a whiskey
vodka is filtered, and unaged… thats its definiton
if you took the results, and put it in a charred barrel and let it age for a period, you would have whiskey.
Answer by Drunkband
Sure why not.
http://cr.middlebury.edu/public/russian/Bulgakov/public_html/starka.html
According to the old Polmos Vodka Site, the tradition of aging vodka originated in Poland and goes back for many centuries. The story goes that a long, long time ago a baby girl was born. A barrel of vodka was safely buried underground. Years goes by.. and on the day of the daughter’s wedding the barrel would be dug up, and set up for the wedding celebration. Imagine the surprise of the parents when they realized that there was a different vodka in the barrel. Everyone loves what the vodka, the time and the oak barrel had made. They realize that it was the aging process in the oak barrel that made this vodka so special. Beautiful golden color, a unique brandy-like taste, smooooth.. Aged for at least five years, and of limited supply, this rare Vodka has been awarded a gold medal by the world. Starka now appears to be owned by the Szczecin branch of Polmos.
Starka is a traditional dry vodka distilled from rye grain, produced mostly in Lithuania and Poland. Traditional Starka is made from natural (up to 2 distillations, no rectification) rye spirit and aged in oak barrels with small addition of lime-tree flowers and apple-tree leaves. The process of production is similar to that used in whisky. Sold in various varieties, the most notable difference between them is the length of aging period, varying from 5 to over 50 years. And the natural colour which is taken from the long reaction between alcohol and the oak not from the addings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starka
Vodka does not magically become whiskey if aged in wood. The ingredients of a whisky is grain almost all (all that I know) vodka is a starch other than grain. But even the vodkas made from a grain is not exactly like that odfwhiskey. Okay, this is an extreme example on my part but Corvato too as he over simplfied the idea.
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