Still Spirits Mellow Oak, what it does and how to use it

What Mellow Oak is for

A spirit that has just been made, or a neutral base you've flavoured yourself, will often taste a bit raw at the edges, and the traditional answer to that is years in a barrel. Almost nobody at home has a barrel, and even the people who do are not waiting 3 years to find out whether it worked. Still Spirits Mellow Oak is the shortcut, and it puts the oak character into the spirit directly rather than waiting for wood to do it slowly.

It sits at the gentler end of the oak flavourings, which is what the name is telling you. If you want something heavier and more like a cask, that's a different bottle, and I'd start here before I went there.

How to dose it without overshooting

The bottle tells you the rate and that's the number to work to, because these get reformulated and a figure in a blog post does not. What I would add is the bit the pack can't tell you, which is that oak is very easy to overdo and almost impossible to take back out.

So start under the rate rather than on it, stir it through properly, and then taste it. Add a little more if it needs it. Working up is slow and dull and it's the only direction that's recoverable, because a spirit that has gone woody and bitter is a spirit you're stuck with.

Give it time before you judge it

The flavour keeps developing for a week or two after you add it, and what you taste on the first day is not what you'll get. That catches people out, because they taste it straight away, decide it needs more, add more, and then find themselves a fortnight later with something far heavier than they wanted. Add it, put it away, and come back to it.

What it works on

It suits anything that's meant to taste aged, so a whiskey, a bourbon or a dark rum all take it well. It does nothing useful for a gin or a vodka, where the whole point is that the base stays clean, so save your money on those.

If you'd rather use real wood, oak soakers and barrel chips do the same job more slowly and with less control, and plenty of people run both and compare.

Shop related products

• Still Spirits Mellow Oak Spirit Flavouring 50ml. This is the bottle the post is about.
• Still Spirits Oak Cask 50ml. Go here when you want a heavier cask note than Mellow Oak gives.
• Still Spirits Top Shelf Whiskey Essence 50ml. Use this for the whiskey profile before the oak goes anywhere near it.
• Still Spirits Top Shelf Distillers Caramel 50ml. This deepens the colour once the flavour is where you want it.

Did you know we also hold Sam Willards oak soakers in bourbon, whiskey and rum, along with bourbon barrel chips, in the shop where they never make it onto the website. 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 the flavourings, and Brewhilder will help you decide how heavy an oak suits what you've made.

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

Oak is the one I always think needs another week, so take my dosing advice as something I give rather than something I follow.