Liquid smoke is worth considering

[Johnny B Shiney]

Bourbon has a distinctive taste that I find kind of hard to describe, earthy? grainy? smokey?, and ive never really been able to put my finger on it. The stuff ive made has always been very nice but always missing this.

Lately I tried maple syrup, not the syrup that is maple flavoured but proper maple syrup after reading a thread on this forum and I feel I got slightly closer, but definetly not it....anyway.. a mate mentioned liquid smoke, used by jerky makers and bbq fanatics, so I gave it a try and I reckon ive taken a bit of a leap forward, there is definetly a taste there that is closer than ive ever been to the real thing, however it is early days and I have a lot more experimenting to go yet.
I have only tried Stubbs Hickory at this stage.

For the record
Macs BWKO, through a 4 plate bubbler
5 months on toasted oak at 30g per litre
30ml per litre of maple syrup
10ml per litre of liquid smoke.

Anyone else tried this?
Anyone see a problem with the liquid smoke? Im pretty sure its safe.

[Zak Griffin]

5 months on oak at 30g/L? That's a loooooot of oak, more than double what most of us use...

[Johnny B Shiney]

30g a litre is a bit too little for my taste, and the best ive made yet has been 60g per litre for anywhere between 4 and 10 weeks, I know many will say this is too much.

I am looking forward to trying the above recipe with 60g per litre and am only using the 30g because its all i have left. The 30g per litre is the closest ive made yet but im putting this down to the maple syrup and liquid smoke, at this stage.
I should also add I am not sipping this straight, I am a mixer with pepsi max being my cola of choice.

[bayshine]

I think you will get there with a minimum of 10 months on chared oak,12 months or more would be better :handgestures-thumbupleft: