is my oak broken?

[ed9362]

hi guys,
i have been using medium char oak that i bought from an online supplier and it has worked just fine, after a day or two it already has good colour.

having used most of my medium char i bought 2 kilos of what they call heavy char, i oaked some macwhiskey at 10 G/L the same as what i have done with the medium char and after 4 days the whiskey has only the slightest tinge of colour, rather than the rich colour i usually get from the medium char.

is it normal for heavy char to colour slower than medium or is there some problem with the oak i have bought

cheers,
ed

[bluc]

Maybe one was french oak colours fast and the other american oak colours slower

[ed9362]

they both claim to be american oak, the only difference is one is heavy char and the other is medium, i thought the heavy would colour quite quickly, maybe i was wrong (although that is an extremely rare event)

[Zak Griffin]

The colour comes from the toast, not the char ;-)

[ed9362]

So would I be right in saying that it has been charred more but toasted less, I'm assuming that over the 6 months I plan to oak it for that the color will work itself anyway, would you agree?

[coffe addict]

The colour comes from caramelised sugars in the wood, the toasting creates lots of caramelised sugars. Toasting burns them. The charging creates smoked flavours and helps filter some of the fusil oils.
Chared wood will still colour nicely but the alcohol has to work it's way in and then out through the charing.
Yes it will colour but will start a touch slower.

Hope this helps

[Zak Griffin]

Excellent post CA :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[ed9362]

Helps a lot, Thanks