What bourbon made at home really tastes like
What bourbon made at home really tastes like
Nobody sets expectations on this one, so people either come away disappointed because they were quietly hoping for a 12 year old bottle, or they come away thinking it's identical to a shop bottle when it isn't quite. Both of those are a shame, because what you actually get is good, and it's easier to enjoy when you know what you're aiming at.
What an essence genuinely does give you
The flavour compounds in a bourbon essence are real and they're doing a real job. You get the vanilla. You get the char note. You get the corn sweetness and that soft, slightly fruity middle that makes bourbon read as bourbon rather than as whisky. Put a decent essence into a clean base spirit and somebody who isn't concentrating will call it bourbon without hesitating, and that is not nothing.
It's also consistent, which matters more than people expect. A bottle made with an essence tastes the same as the last bottle you made with the same essence, and if you've ever tried to get two batches of anything homemade to land in the same place you'll know how rare that is.
What it doesn't give you, and why
Time is the honest answer. Years in a barrel does two things that a bottle of flavouring can't replicate.
The first is oxidation. Slow, tiny amounts of air get in through the wood over a lot of years, and that softens the harsher compounds and rounds the whole thing off. There's no shortcut to that. You can imitate the flavours it produces, and you can't imitate the process.
The second is the long tail. A good aged bourbon keeps changing in your mouth for a surprisingly long time after you swallow, and that's a lot of separate compounds all fading at slightly different rates. A home version is a shorter drink. It arrives and does its job and then it's finished.
So the fair description is that a home bourbon hits the same notes and holds them for less time.
Three things that close the gap the most
If you want it nearer the real thing, these are where the effort pays.
A cleaner base. This matters more than which essence you pick, and it's the thing most people skip. A base with harshness in it will taste like a harsh bourbon, because the essence sits on top of what's underneath rather than replacing it. Filtering through carbon before you flavour anything is the single biggest step up available.
Actual wood. An essence and a few oak chips or an oak soaker do different jobs, and running both gets you closer than either on its own. Give it a couple of weeks with real wood in it after you've flavoured it and the middle fills out noticeably.
Resting it. Leave it alone for a fortnight after you've mixed. A freshly mixed spirit tastes like a spirit with something added to it, and the same bottle two weeks later tastes like one thing. Nothing dramatic happens in that fortnight. It just stops tasting assembled.
Don't chase the colour first
Colour and flavour are separate problems and it's worth solving them in that order: taste first, colour last if you want it at all. A pale bourbon that tastes right is a better drink than a dark one that doesn't, and colouring early just makes it harder to judge what you've got, because your eyes will start telling your mouth what to expect.
Set the expectation when you hand it over
This is the bit that turns the whole thing around. Hand somebody a glass and say you made it and it's a bourbon style rather than a bourbon, and they'll taste it properly and be impressed. Hand it over implying it came off a shelf and they'll spend the whole glass hunting for the difference, and they'll find one. Same drink and two completely different receptions, and the only thing that changed was what you said first.
One thing worth saying plainly
Owning a still is legal here and we sell the gear, but actually distilling spirits at home needs an excise manufacturer licence from the ATO and most people haven't got one, so if that's you then what you're doing is flavouring a base spirit you've bought. That's completely legal, and it's what this whole article assumes anyway.
What you'd want for this
- Still Spirits Bourbon 50ml Essence. A straightforward bourbon character, and a fair place to start.
- Still Spirits Top Shelf Wild Eagle Bourbon 50ml. Bolder, with more char in it.
- Edwards Essences Super Smooth Kentucky Bourbon Essence. Softer again if the char is too much for you.
- Still Spirits Honey Bourbon 50ml. Sweeter, and it hides a rough base better than the others.
Did you know we also keep Still Spirits Kentucky Bourbon, bourbon barrel chips, Sam Willard's oak soakers, Samuel Willard's Premium Bourbon and 1125ml spirit bottles in the shop. They aren't all on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.
The rest of it is in our homebrew range, and Brewhilder, our homebrew helper, will talk you through what suits your setup.
Read next
- Still Spirits Honey Bourbon essence, what it does
- Still Spirits Cherry Bourbon essence, how to use it
- Still Spirits whisky profiles, what they do and the law
I'd rather undersell something and watch somebody be pleasantly surprised, which is mostly because I've done it the other way round and had to stand there while they thought about it.
Cheers,
Candeece
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