3 ways to age and flavour whisky at home

You can take a plain bought spirit and turn it into something considerably more interesting sitting on your own bench, and it is a lot easier than people assume. What you are doing is ageing and flavouring, which is a completely different activity from making the spirit in the first place.

Worth being clear about that up front, because it catches people out. Ageing or flavouring a spirit you have bought is lawful and needs no licence at all. Distilling spirits at home without an excise manufacturer licence from the ATO is not lawful, whatever the gear sitting in the shed can do. Everything below starts with a bottle you bought, and that is the whole point of it.

1. A small oak barrel

The serious version. A small barrel ages faster than a big one, and the reason is just geometry: the smaller the barrel, the more wood surface there is per litre of spirit, so the exchange happens quicker. Weeks rather than years.

Use a new barrel or a properly cleaned one, fill it, seal it, and keep it somewhere cool and out of direct sun. Taste it every week or two. It moves faster than you expect and it will go too far if you leave it and forget it, which is the main way people ruin a barrel batch.

The oak gives you vanilla, caramel and a toasted note, and how much of each depends on the char level of the barrel.

2. Oak chips, staves or a soaker

The practical version, and the one most people should start with. Same chemistry, no barrel, and you can run three different jars side by side to work out what you actually like.

Put the wood in the bottle or a jar, seal it, and taste every few days. American oak leans sweeter and more vanilla, French oak is subtler and more spice. A light toast brings out vanilla and honey and a heavy char pushes it towards smoke and dark caramel.

Strain the wood out when it tastes right, because unlike a barrel it does not stop. Leave chips in too long and you get something woody and bitter that no amount of waiting will fix.

A liquid oak flavouring does a similar job with far more control, and it is the easiest way in if you would rather not guess.

3. Infusing it

The one where you stop trying to copy a distillery and make something that is actually yours.

Jar, spirit, and whatever you are adding. Dried orange peel, vanilla beans, cinnamon, coffee beans, cocoa nibs, dried cherries. A week or two, tasting as you go.

Two things worth knowing. Add one thing at a time until you know what each does, because a jar with five ingredients in it teaches you nothing when it works. And go lighter than you think, especially with cinnamon and coffee, which will take over the whole bottle in a few days and cannot be walked back.

A note on the wood itself

If you are using raw chips rather than something prepared for the job, give them a soak in water first to pull out the harshest tannins. Prepared oak soakers and barrel chips have generally had that done already, which is most of what you are paying for.

Shop related products

• Still Spirits Oak Cask 50ml. Liquid oak, for barrel character without a barrel.
• Still Spirits Mellow Oak Spirit Flavouring 50ml. The softer, rounder version of the same idea.
• Still Spirits Top Shelf Whiskey Essence 50ml. For flavouring a neutral base spirit rather than adjusting a whisky.
• Still Spirits Bourbon Essence 50ml. Sweeter and rounder than the whiskey profile.
• Still Spirits Astringent Note 50ml. For pulling back something that has gone too soft and sweet on you.

Did you know we also stock the wood in store that is not listed on the website, including Sam Willards oak soakers in bourbon, whiskey and rum, bourbon barrel chips, the cedar oak profile and the whisky profile kits. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.

What is online sits in homebrew and Edwards Essences.

Not sure which to start with

Brewhilder will talk you through the difference between an oak flavouring and an essence, which is the question we get asked most about this.

More on spirits and brewing

• Where to get homebrew supplies on the Fleurieu
• Top 5 common homebrewing mistakes and how to fix them

I left oak chips in a bottle for a month once and produced something that tasted almost exactly like a fence post.

Cheers,
Candeece