DIY Oak Barrel

Hello Fellow vapers!

Have heard about steeping Eliquid in Oak Barrels. Apparently Five Pawns does this. I’ve seen online 1L Barrels for about £40. Has anyone done this and is it worth it? I fancy putting one of my Custard creations in to give it a try

Thought about this myself.
You would need to steep the barrel beforehand for the full effect of the flavouring.
My suggestion would be, for your custards, fill the barrel with a vodka(or any alcohol, sherry would be lovely or a fruit liquor ) and a couple of vanilla pods.
Leave well alone for 6 months or above and the flavours would penetrate the wood to help impact any discern able flavour to your mix.
Otherwise you would just impact a wood flavour to the mix which you could get with the FA oak?

I like the vodka idea! I make toffee vodka which i like to leave for about 6-8 mouths a time, could see what effect the barrel has! It would probably give a nice flavor to the custard. Didn’t know about FA Oak? Have you tried it?

I highly recommend Vanilla (Bourbon) FA if you haven’t tried it.

It doesn’t have any alcoholic tones to it but tastes exactly like what you’re looking for.

The flavor is a lightly sweet vanilla that has been aged in an oak barrel; hence the “Bourbon” name since Bourbon is aged in oak. I use it in my custard and it works very well with Meringue FA at a 1:1 ratio.

@Gibronze
Haven’t tried the FA oak wood but by all accounts it is a great flavouring and adds that oaky note to the mix.

The term Bourbon actually came from the name of an Island near Madagascar where vanilla was grown. Has nothing to do with the alcohol Bourbon. I learned that here, actually. I was very confused why my bourbon vanilla didn’t taste like vanilla bourbon at all. :stuck_out_tongue:

I thought that was why they had the Madagascar version too…? Vanilla Bourbon still has the oak flavor but there was some assumption on my part since it isn’t alcoholic but has the “aged” characteristics of Bourbon. Does the island near Madagascar have oak trees or something? …I’m not even gonna ask about tahity :confused:

No clue. Madagascar Vanilla and Bourbon Vanilla are, from what I gather, supposedly the same thing in the vanilla bean world. Why FA has them as separate I have no idea. I’ve never done a side by side comparison of the two. The Madagascar is labeled as “Classic” vanilla. We need an FA rep on the forum to give us the skinny on why they have a million vanilla flavors. :stuck_out_tongue:

EDIT: So, upon further investigation, I believe you may be right. The flavor is described as “woody sweet and spicy”. Whereas the Classic says “Pure vanilla, nothing added” and the Tahity says it is vanilla and almond.

I am going to try this. I found some cool oak barrels.


This one looks awesome for custard - http://oakbarrelsltd.com/vanilla-extract-barrel-1-liter.html
http://www.swaggergoods.com/shopforbarrels/
http://shop.gobourbon.com/collections/barrel-products

Barrel care PDF - http://copperworksdistilling.com/site2/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Copperworks-Distilling_Barrel-Owners-Guide.pdf

I would keep in mind that when steeping in oak barrels, you will lose some of the mixture due to it being absorbed into the wood just as when alcohol is aged in oak barrels. It’s called the “Devil’s Share” :smiling_imp:. The “Angel’s Share” :innocent: is what is lost due to evaporation, though more with alcohol and less likely with what we would be making. Now thinking about it makes me wonder if the PG components would seeping the wood faster than the VG components due to their respective viscosities thereby changing the ratio of the mixture. Hmmm… Too early to be thinking this deep…Where’s my coffee again? or whiskey, now that that is on my mind. :smiley:

I don’t think the final result would lose that much. The purpose of using a barrel to age alcohol is because changing humidity causes the wood to expand and contract, drawing in the alcohol when expanding and pushing it back out when contracting. Causing the alcohol to filter through the wood, infusing the flavors of the wood into the mix.