Small dilemma.

[duskb]

I have been soaking some oak cubes and bourbon in a ziplock Baggie for over a month now. Today in a senior moment my wife managed to lodge the Baggie between a cabinet and the microwave puncturing the bag and leaking most of the bourbon out. She then put the Baggie in the sink to clean the up mess without thinking about it. Of course I'm furious now.

I looked the bag over and it's a pretty small cut, enough to drain the fluid but most of the cubes remain protected. (it looks like the corner of a cube punctured the bag.) Question is can I transfer these cubes to a new bag and resume soaking and expect the cubes to be sanitized enough to brew with or do I lose the cubes and the time they spent soaking?

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Im thinking that when you resume soaking in bourbon any little microbs that might have gotten in there will meet their demise. Give your wife a smooch for cleaning up the mess, and move on...

 

[day_trippr]

Even if there isn't any contamination, I'd expect the lost extract represented the easiest to pull out of the cubes, so re-soaking the cubes is unlikely to provide the expected intensity...

Cheers!

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Bourbon is self sanitizing. I'd just keep on soaking them.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

Think about how long you can leave an opened bottle of bourbon in your liquor cabinet without it getting nasty with bacteria. I think you'll be fine if you soak them for a while longer.

 

[duskb]

Even if there isn't any contamination, I'd expect the lost extract represented the easiest to pull out of the cubes, so re-soaking the cubes is unlikely to provide the expected intensity...

Cheers!

I thought the same thing. Not all of the bourbon was lost but most of it was. There should still be some flavor left especially since I had planned on soaking the cubes for two months.

My main concern was the loss of the cubes too.