Still Spirits Peat Smoke, what it does and how to use it

What peat tastes like

Peat is the smoke people mean when they say a whisky tastes like a bonfire or like a hospital, depending on how much they like it. It comes from drying the malt over a peat fire, and the character it leaves behind is earthy and medicinal rather than sweet, which is why it divides a room faster than any other flavour in whisky.

Still Spirits Peat Smoke gives you that character without the malt or the fire. It goes into a spirit you already have, so it's a cheap way to find out whether you're a peat person before you commit to a bottle of the real thing.

How to use it

The pack tells you the rate and also tells you whether this bottle is meant to stand alone or sit alongside another flavouring, which is the question worth answering before you open it. We hold the Smokey Whiskey bottle as well and the two aren't interchangeable, so read both packs and pick deliberately.

Whichever you use, go under the rate on a first batch. Peat keeps building for a week or two after it goes in, and the batch you taste tonight will be smokier by next weekend.

If you overdo it

You're not stuck, which is the good news. Blend the batch back with more clean neutral base until it lands where you want it. You lose a bit of strength and you gain volume, and it's a far better outcome than a demijohn of something nobody will drink.

What you can't do is take smoke out. There's no filtering it, no waiting it out, and no covering it with something sweet, so the whole game with peat is restraint at the front end.

What to drink it with

Neat, mostly, because a peated spirit gets wasted under a mixer and it fights most cocktails rather than joining in. A drop of water opens it up, which is worth trying before you decide the batch is too heavy.

It also works as a seasoning rather than a drink. A very small amount blended into a plainer whiskey lifts the whole thing without turning it into a peat bomb, and that's the use most people end up settling on.

Shop related products

• Still Spirits Peat Smoke 50ml. This is the bottle the post is about.
• Still Spirits Smokey Whiskey 50ml. Check both packs before you choose between this one and the peat.
• Still Spirits Top Shelf Whiskey Essence 50ml. Blend the peat back into this if you have overshot it.
• Still Spirits Oak Cask 50ml. This puts cask character underneath the smoke.

Did you know we also hold the oak soakers and the bourbon barrel chips in the shop, and they aren't listed online. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.

Where to go next

The homebrew range has the rest of them, and Brewhilder will talk you through what suits the spirit you are making.

Worth reading next: How to flavour a spirit at home with essences and How to store and age a spirit you made at home.

Peat is the flavour I'm forever telling people to go easy on while pouring myself another one.