INTRODUCTION

During an era of innovation, oak alternatives are becoming an important tool for spirit maturation. Oak alternative products may be toasted using different types of technology to impart traditional oak flavors or offer new flavors. They are also versatile in application, with numerous product formats and configurations available that may be applied to spirits during maturation or finishing to achieve a desired organoleptic profile.

This experiment explores the High Proof Series of oak alternatives developed by Oak Solutions Group for the spirits industries. Oak Solutions Group and its Research & Development team have over 75 years of combined experience in whiskey barrel maturation and oak alternative product development. The release of the High Proof Series further expands the options available to distillers by focusing on a variety of flavors desired in the spirits industry

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

This experiment measures the impact of four oak alternative products applied as a finishing process. Finishing is a technique utilized post maturation to add specific nuances or enhance the impact of the initial maturation period. In most circumstances, finishing is accomplished by introducing aged spirit to specific barrels or barrel alternatives for a time period determined by the producer – usually less than a year with American whiskeys.

The High Proof Series oak alternative products evaluated in this experiment were created by Oak Solutions Group to offer four different flavor targets.

Products include:

• Sweet Shoppe
• Spice Rack
• Rickhouse
• Charred Barrel

Each of these products is available in different configurations to fit different types of aging vessels. For the purposes of the experiment, barrel inserts and oak flavoring stix were used. Barrel Inserts are thread on a food grade LDPE (Low-Density Polyethylene) rod. Each insert measures 28” x 2.5” x 0.375. The number of inserts depends on desired dosage. Typically seven to ten inserts. Oak Flavoring Stix have 17 sections each containing two 8” x 1.25’ x 0.375” pieces which is approximately 8.5 square feet. The sections are separated and wrapped in mesh and easily adhere to a bung with an attached wire and screw. For additional information visit oaksolutionsgroup.com/configurations.

To evaluate the influence of the High Proof Series products in terms of 1) contact time and 2) dosage rate, the experiment was set up as follows using a total of 78 used whiskey barrels, all 53-gallon capacity:

• 6 control barrels with no oak alternative products added
  
  
• Barrels with Sweet Shoppe products:
  • 6 barrels dosed at 6 g/L (5 stave inserts)
  • 6 barrels dosed at 12 g/L (10 stave inserts)
  • 6 barrels dosed with 1 quantity of oak flavoring stix at 7.65 g/L
    
    
• Barrels with Spice Rack products:
  • 6 barrels dosed at 6 g/L (5 stave inserts)
  • 6 barrels dosed at 12 g/L (10 stave inserts)
  • 6 barrels dosed with 1 quantity of oak flavoring stix at 7.65 g/L
    
    
• Barrels with Rickhouse products:
• 6 barrels dosed at 6 g/L (5 stave inserts)
• 6 barrels dosed at 12 g/L (10 stave inserts)
• 6 barrels dosed with 1 quantity of oak flavoring stix at 7.65 g/L
  
  
• Barrels with Charred Barrel products:
  • 6 barrels dosed at 6 g/L (5 barrel inserts)
  • 6 barrels dosed at 12 g/L (10 barrel inserts)
  • 6 barrels dosed with 1 quantity of oak flavoring stix at 7.65 g/L

One hundred and eight barrels were filled at the participating distillery on December 5, 2018 with an entry proof of 72.85% ABV. The 100% corn mash bill was an eight year old Canadian whiskey distilled to 94%. Samples were taken from each barrel every two weeks. These whiskey samples were analyzed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) to measure the presence of key compounds extracted from the oak products that are influential to oak perception:

Vanillin
4-ethyl guaicol
5-methyl-furfural
Cis lactone
Eugenol
Furfural
Guaiacol
Syringe aldehyde
Trans isoeugenol
Trans lactone

In this report, the data is presented in graphs as a percent of the average. First, an average concentration was calculated for each compound. This was obtained by summing the concentrations from all samples in the experiment and dividing by the
number of samples. Next, the compound concentration of each individual sample in a data set was divided by the previously calculated average.