I spent the weekend boiling honey, enough to make 5 different flavors of 1 gallon bochets. One of them will be a blackberry bochet that I want to oak. So today I was driving around trying to figure out how I was gonna do that and decided that blackberry would taste good with whiskey infused oak cubes. I've got whiskey chips, but I don't care for the taste profile that chips give - its a separate taste, doesn't blend the mead flavors like the cubes do.
I can buy the whiskey oak cubes, the kind from chopped up whiskey barrels. But I already have oak and whiskey, so thought why don't I soak the oak in the whiskey for a couple of weeks and then use the oak cubes? But then thought that I'd loose the initial, and significant, essence of the oak to leaching into the whiskey. Besides, how much whiskey flavor does the oak absorb after soaking for a few weeks? So I figured I'd could throw the whiskey in with the oak.
My big question is: Why not scrap the soaking part and just add a 1/2 cup to a cup of whiskey to the mead along with the oak? Sort of a fortified mead.
Has anybody tried this? Would I get the whiskey taste I want? It doesn't have to be strong, a whisper of a taste would be preferable. Or should I just buy the whiskey infused cubes?
I can buy the whiskey oak cubes, the kind from chopped up whiskey barrels. But I already have oak and whiskey, so thought why don't I soak the oak in the whiskey for a couple of weeks and then use the oak cubes? But then thought that I'd loose the initial, and significant, essence of the oak to leaching into the whiskey. Besides, how much whiskey flavor does the oak absorb after soaking for a few weeks? So I figured I'd could throw the whiskey in with the oak.
My big question is: Why not scrap the soaking part and just add a 1/2 cup to a cup of whiskey to the mead along with the oak? Sort of a fortified mead.
Has anybody tried this? Would I get the whiskey taste I want? It doesn't have to be strong, a whisper of a taste would be preferable. Or should I just buy the whiskey infused cubes?