Oak Maturation adds both color and aroma to a Spirit. After maturation the spirit can be sweetened or have it’s alcoholic strength adjusted.
Colour
Oak ageing adds color to the spirit. Color changes possible follow a sequences that goes: lemon > gold > amber > and (rarely) brown. The amount of color picked up depends on the age of the barrel and the amount of time the spirit spends in it.
Newer barrels and longer periods of maturation give a spirit more color.
Aroma
Oak ageing adds aromas to a spirit such as:
- Vanilla
- Cinnamon
- Cloves
- and Coconut
Ageing
The amount of aroma a barrel can give depends on its age.
A new oak barrel, never used before, gives the greatest amount of aroma.
If a barrel has been emptied and used again it’s called an oak barrel and thus gives less aroma. With every use a barrel is able to give a spirit less and less aroma.
Time
Another consideration to oak-aged spirits is time. During maturation, water and Ethanol evaporate out of the barrel. This concentrates the aromas in the spirit. The longer the period of maturation, the more concentrated a spirit becomes.
With time, often decades, new aromas develop.
Such as:
- Fruit cake
- Dried fruit
- Leather
- and Wood polish
These flavors add layers of complexity to an old
Blending
Blending is an important stage in the production of oak-aged spirits. The contents of each barrel are unique and slightly different. The job of the blender is to use the contents from each, to make up batches of spirits for their brands.
It’s easier for a blender to achieve this if they have lots of different types of stuff.
An example of this is done in Scotland.
Aims of a Blender
Consistency and complexity.
Final Steps
Caramel Color
The color of oak-aged spirits can vary considerably barrel to barrel. This is a problem for blenders who strive for consistency.
Because of this they blend the contents of barrels together to make batches and sometimes, they use small amounts of a coloring materiel (caramel) to ensure the correct color. Caramel color is not sweet and, when used correctly, does not add any aromas.
Some spirits get all or almost all of their color from caramel color. Because of this it’s impossible to have a deeply colored Unaged Spirit.
Adding Sweetness*
All newly made spirits are dry. Therefore all sweetness in an oak-aged spirit is added Post Distillation.
In most cases, this is done by adding sugar.
*in this case, sweetness is referred to as the taste of sugar only. Some aromas are sometimes described as sweet but this is not meant in terms of sweetness of flavor.