Red Oak

[jmd445]

I'm running my pot still slow, a sugar wash, I couldn't find scraps of white oak so I ended up with Red Oak. I'm going to char the oak and seal it in a container with my distilliate (avg 100 proof), anout 1 gallon.

To try to get a mild flavor how long should I seal it?

Will it be worth it?

[Barney Fife]

Nobody's responding because likely none of us oak neutrals. Not sure what you'll get, so you'll have to decide if it's worth it, but it should be fine, and likely unique.. Oak as long as possible, no worries there.

[noobsauce]

I havent done it with straight neutral but i would be careful with the oaking..start with a small amount of oak. Since neutral is essentially "tasteless"...last thing you want to do is drink an oak tree as oak is the only flavour you are working with.

*though apparently someone has figured out how to make better than crown royal with just neutral and oak

[HookLine]

I have oaked neutral. It was okay. Use much less oak than you would for flavoured spirits.

But personally I would not bother again. Save the oak for the flavoured stuff.

[Hack]

I've read that read oak has more tannins in it and will impart a bitter taste to your hooch. It might be worth the extra work to track down some white oak.

[jmd445]

Thank you for the responses. How long should I soak it. It's been 4 days and there is a god brown color?

Jim

[noobsauce]

I think the best is, less is more for now...Once you got your color which should happen quite fast..try taking some out for now and letting it sit longer with less...can always add more but hard to take it back out..

[Hawke]

Most of the color will come out first. It's not untill the oak sinks, that you will know how it tastes. In between will be several phases of good and bad.

[Barney Fife]

What Hawke said. If you just want the color, fine, take it out, but it's not aged until it's aged with the oak for a long time. Leave it in until final bottling, longer the better. Years.

I think many of the oaking problems folks have is from trying to use it for flavor instead of using it for aging, which is flavoring through slow, subtle chemical changes, many brought-on by the oak's presence.

[MuleKicker]

I too have oaked neutral. It tastes like wisky.......with something missing. like corn.