French Oak Chips Medium Roast – 250g

Used to age your spirits. French oak is generally used for Brandies, Rum etc while Americal oak is used for whiskeys. That said, Changing it around can get a unique flavour profile.

How do you use oak chips in spirits?
In general it involves soaking 10gms-50gms of oak chips for every litre of spirit for about 1-3 weeks (dependant on taste). The longer you leave it the more flavor and woodiness it will impart. You can often reuse the same chips once or twice after, just soak it for longer.

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Almost 80% of the flavor contained within whiskey or bourbon comes from the barrels they’re aged in. This is why oaking your homemade moonshine is such an important step that shouldn’t be skipped. Don’t think because you don’t have an oak barrel means you can’t age your moonshine, there are simple and cheap alternatives that will give you amazing results. In this article we’ll discuss the four variables that affect the end flavor of your spirit and how to age your moonshine with either oak cubes, chips or oak barrels.

Here is a great artical from Learn to Moonshine.  https://learntomoonshine.com/aging-homemade-whiskey-and-bourbon

Four Variables Affecting Flavor

  1. Species of oak wood chips or barrel used
  2. Amount of wood toasting and charring used
  3. Amount of time wood is left to soak in the spirit
  4. Proof or % abv you are aging your whiskey at

1. What Species of Oak Wood Chips or Barrel Should I Use?

Oak commonly infuses hints of caramel, toasty, nutty or vanilla notes into the alcohol it comes in contact with. Different species of Oak will give different flavor profiles. So some experimenting is necessary to achieve the desired flavor. Below is a list of the most common oak species used in flavoring bourbon and whisky and an explanation of what flavor you can expect from each.

  • American White Oak – By far the most commonly used often described as having an intense oak flavor with high vanilla and aromatic compounds. These compounds include aldehydes and acids such as vanillin, vanillic acid and syringaldehyde. American white oak chips release these aromatics faster then other species so the wood needs less contact time with the alcohol.
  • French Oak – Imparts a much softer oak flavor then the American White Oak. You’ll notice a sweet spice flavor with hints of allspice and cinnamon. French Oak chips have more flavor compounds and tannin’s then American white oak.
  • Hungarian Oak Chips – Imparts a more pronounced oak flavor then American White Oak. You’ll notice hints of black pepper, roasted coffee, bittersweet chocolate and vanillin

For more on these flavor profiles here’s a good article that I came across online: An in depth look at aging and oaking alcohol. It goes in depth into the types of Oak, talks about chips vs cubes vs staves and get’s into the science a little more.

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