How to blend your own whiskey style spirit at home
Blending is where making whiskey at home stops being about following one bottle and starts being about what you actually like, and the Still Spirits Whiskey Profile range is built for exactly that, because each of the 4 leans a different way and you mix them until the glass tastes the way you want it to.
What the 4 profiles are
They're 50ml flavourings labelled A to D, and they're made to be used together rather than as a finished whisky on their own.
- Profile A. The rounder one, with malt and light wood in it, and it's the one most people build a blend on.
- Profile B. Sharper and fruitier with a green apple edge, and a little of it goes a long way.
- Profile C. The smoother, more classic whisky note.
- Profile D. The rich one, with chocolate and vanilla, for a deeper dessert style dram.
Read the packs side by side before you start, because the dose is printed on each one and that's the number to work from.
Start from a clean base
Every blend goes onto a clean neutral spirit, and the cleaner it is the more you taste the profiles rather than whatever's underneath. A bought neutral spirit is the simplest route and it needs no licence, because flavouring a spirit isn't distilling. Distilling your own base needs an excise manufacturer licence from the ATO first, and that's a federal rule, so it's the same answer wherever you live.
How I'd build a blend
Split a bottle of your base into a few small jars, so you can try more than one idea at once without wasting a whole batch. Profile A goes into each jar at the pack rate as the foundation, then a little of one other profile goes into each, B in one and D in another. Give them a day to settle before you taste them side by side.
Write down exactly what went into each jar, because the one you like best is no use to you if you can't make it again. Once you've found it, scale it up to the full bottle in the same proportions. If it isn't quite there, a few drops at a time is plenty, with another rest before you decide.
A bit of oak helps
Even a short rest on oak rounds off the edges of a blend. Still Spirits Oak Cask gives you that aged character without a barrel, and it's worth trying on one jar against one without so you can taste what it's doing.
Shop related products
- Still Spirits Whiskey Profile A Spirit Flavouring 50ml. The usual foundation for a blend.
- Still Spirits Whiskey Profile B Spirit Flavouring 50ml. For a sharper, fruitier lift.
- Still Spirits Whiskey Profile C Spirit Flavouring 50ml. For a smoother classic note.
- Still Spirits Whiskey Profile D 50ml. For richness and a dessert style finish.
- Still Spirits Oak Cask 50ml. Aged oak character without the barrel.
Did you know we also stock the Still Spirits Whisky Profile Kit and Sam Willards whiskey oak soakers in the shop. They're not on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.
- How to scale a spirit blend so batch two matches
- 3 ways to age and flavour whisky at home
- Still Spirits Oak Cask, what it does and how to use it
Not sure where to start, Brewhilder will help, or have a look through the homebrew collection.
My blending notepad has more crossed out lines in it than good ones, and I'm fine with that.
Candeece
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