Wine Barrel Aged Whiskey and Sulfides

[JustStillin]

Hi All,

I'm finishing some whiskey (Straight Bourbon, 21% Rye) in a used red wine barrel.  Periodic assessments indicate a detectable, albeit slight, sulfide pickup.  I've casually treated the tasting sample with a small piece of copper yielding some good results. 

So, to do this on a production scale for the finished product, I'm investigating a standardized treatment via copper sulfate.  Questions:

• Has anyone ever attempted trials with Copper Sulfate additions to whiskey for this purpose (akin to winemaking practices)?
• Would the copper sulfate addition take the product out of compliance?  I can find the regs for allowable materials in winemaking (copper sulfate included).  I haven't found something similar for spirits (other than allowable color and flavor materials) per 27CFR 5.143(c).

If I opt for the physical contact with copper metal route, does anyone have a guideline for time & surface area per unit volume?

Regardless, I'll be tooling around with some bench trials.

 

Thanks in advance!

[SlickFloss]

What we’re/ are your filtration plans?