Anyone tries these?

[Okiejoebronco25]

Working a night shift getting home at 5:30 and starting my brisket flat when I get home. Decided to try this whiskey barrel oak. Anyone have any experience with it? Gimmick? Extra flavor? Meh? Just oak. Curious the crowds thoughts.

 

[Colin1230]

No experience but I would give it a try. I'm sure it will work just fine and give good smoke flavor. But, I suspect you will be paying a premium for the fancy packaging/marketing. I'm really curious what's actually in the 8 lb. package.

 

[Okiejoebronco25]

No experience but I would give it a try. I'm sure it will work just fine and give good smoke flavor. But, I suspect you will be paying a premium for the fancy packaging/marketing. I'm really curious what's actually in the 8 lb. package.

Definitely feels like a solid 8 pounds oak is very heavy , the box was full

 

[Okiejoebronco25]

No experience but I would give it a try. I'm sure it will work just fine and give good smoke flavor. But, I suspect you will be paying a premium for the fancy packaging/marketing. I'm really curious what's actually in the 8 lb. package.

Oh. And they were $10

 

[Colin1230]

How did it turn out Okie? I'm dying to know!
Those are nice size chuncks. I would probably split them for my lil WSM and 22" kettle.

 

[Okiejoebronco25]

How did it turn out Okie? I'm dying to know!
Those are nice size chuncks. I would probably split them for my lil WSM and 22" kettle.

Great flavor. I haven’t tried plain oak yet only pecan and cherry. So guessing similar to regular oak, but don’t know.

 

[Colin1230]

Good looking brisket right there!

 

[luvcatchingbass]

I've messed with "Whiskey" barrel gimmic's a few times. I have never had a bad result but I think you are paying more for a novelty idea rather than improved flavor. Basically you are getting good quality oak that is fancier in my opinion.

 

[Okiejoebronco25]

I've messed with "Whiskey" barrel gimmic's a few times. I have never had a bad result but I think you are paying more for a novelty idea rather than improved flavor. Basically you are getting good quality oak that is fancier in my opinion.

Although I am very new and haven’t used just oak as of yet other than this. I agree. I felt $10 for the 8# box was fair though. Quite a bit in the box

 

[tallbm]

Working a night shift getting home at 5:30 and starting my brisket flat when I get home. Decided to try this whiskey barrel oak. Anyone have any experience with it? Gimmick? Extra flavor? Meh? Just oak. Curious the crowds thoughts.

Nice work on the brisket!

I have not used whiskey barrel oak but in my college days I took an elective called "Beverage Survey" which was all about alcoholic beverages and we got to taste test hahaha. Wondeful elective credit :D

What we learned about whiskey is they simply use Oak wood and burn the barrel. This imparts flavor to the whiskey in the similar way that cooking/smoking/burning with oak imparts flavor to food.

So based on this I feel like it is a bit of a gimmick as grain alcohol spirits do not have a lot of flavor on their own to impart back into the barrel. Once the wood dries I can't see it retaining flavor from the water + alcohol content from the grain distilled/created whiskey.

On the flip side, the whiskey barrel oak isn't going to make your food taste like whiskey. It's going to make it taste like oak smoked brisket lol.

Now, could I be missing something here? Sure. However just logically breaking it down, you are using oak that had some burn already applied to it and happened to be imparting flavor to whiskey. So I think you are just repurposing that same oak to burn/smolder so it can continue imparting it's natural oak flavor to your brisket.

I hope this makes sense and again this is just going off some educated info and applying simple logic, nothing super scientific and peer reviewed hahaha :D

 

[ajbert]

Did the wood have a whisky smell to it? Many moons ago my mom bought a whisky barrel that had been cut in two for use as planters. Both were charred on the instead and both had a definite whisky smell to them. I don't know how old they were, though. I would think they may have imparted a small amount of whisky flavor to the food...maybe.

Oh, they did work great for planters!

 

[bill1]

I tried a bag of Jack Daniels chips years ago and they were fantastic...smelling. (To be honest, I couldn't detect the bourbon/sour mash flavor in the meat.) Then I tried another brand and couldn't smell or taste anything special. I love bourbon, so if someone wants to promote a whiskey barrel chip/chunk brand here, I'd sure try it.

 

[Okiejoebronco25]

Did the wood have a whisky smell to it? Many moons ago my mom bought a whisky barrel that had been cut in two for use as planters. Both were charred on the instead and both had a definite whisky smell to them. I don't know how old they were, though. I would think they may have imparted a small amount of whisky flavor to the food...maybe.

Oh, they did work great for planters!

Definitely had a distinct smell of something. Not sure whiskey, or just charred oak. My first smoke with oak at all so probably just that. I am new to smoking and until this cook I have only smoked with pecan or cherry