Soluble Oak™ & Craft Beer
“For craft beer lovers, brewers, and anyone fascinated by barrel-aged beer, Soluble Oak may be one of the most exciting innovations to emerge in recent years.
Most impressive was how natural the effect felt. There was no artificial taste and no distracting flavor addition. Instead, the beer tasted like a version of itself that had spent additional time developing oak complexity. For fans of bourbon barrel stout, imperial stout, American oak aging, and craft beer innovation, the results were genuinely impressive.
For breweries pursuing premium barrel-aged character, for homebrewers seeking authentic oak flavor, and for craft beer enthusiasts interested in innovation, Soluble Oak is a product worth serious attention. It successfully captures many of the vanilla, coconut, spice, and structured oak characteristics that make barrel-aged beer so compelling while offering a faster and more consistent path to achieving those results.
The future of oak-influenced beer may not always require a barrel, and Soluble Oak makes a compelling case for why.“
Bil Cocoran
Editor
Barrel Aging Built Craft Beer's Best Flavors. It Also Left Most of Them on the Table
Barrel aging has been part of brewing since the Celts first stored beer in oak, 350 BC. It re-emerged in modern craft beer in 1992, when Greg Hall of Goose Island used repurposed Jim Beam barrels to create Bourbon County Stout — and it’s been the standard for barrel-aged beer ever since.
Beer Is the Hardest Beverage to Extract Oak From
Beer’s low alcohol content means barrels can only unlock a narrow slice of what oak has to offer. Mostly, it’s the highly leachable tannic acids that come through — while the most prized compounds (vanillins, caramel, cinnamon, oak lactones) stay locked in the wood. And because most barrel-aged beer relies on repurposed spirits barrels, much of what little oak character remains has already been stripped by the barrel’s previous occupant.
On top of that, traditional barrel aging is:
Slow
Expensive
Labor-intensive
Unpredictable
Not sustainable
What That Means for Your Beer
Your beer is living off hand-me-downs — limited oak character, inconsistent from batch to batch, and dependent on someone else’s barrel program before it ever gets to yours. Meanwhile, the aging cycle ties up tank space and capital, and the result is still only a fraction of oak’s real flavor potential.
Exbeeriment: “SOLUBLE OAK BEATS OAK”
The Full Range of Oak, On Your Timeline
Soluble Oak™ gives your beer the complete palette of oak character — not just what a tired, secondhand barrel has left to give. Added post-fermentation, it works with your existing infrastructure, delivers results instantly, and scales to any batch size.
With a minimal amount, Soluble Oak rounds sharp edges and adds a soft, silky mouthfeel. With a slightly greater dose, the full aromatic and oak profile emerges — crème brûlée, toffee, butterscotch, banana pudding, cinnamon, oak, cream of wheat, toasted bread. It’s transformative across styles, from light to amber to dark, and pairs especially well with amber beers. (The exception: very high-IBU IPAs, where its rounding effect can compete with bitterness.)
No repurposed barrels. No leftover flavor from someone else’s spirit. Just oak — the way it should taste.
Proven Head-to-Head, Not Just in Theory
In a Brülosophy ExBeeriment, the same beer was brewed side-by-side — one with oak spirals, one with Soluble Oak. Taster Steve Thanos put it simply: “I preferred the one made with Soluble Oak.”
Soluble Oak™ is a proprietary, patent-pending extraction technology, and a Social Purpose Corporation committed to sustainable production — using 80% less oak than traditional barrels while protecting old-growth oak trees. Learn more about Sustainable Oak.
Mission
Our work is the uncompromised pursuit of pristine White Oak flavor. Our purpose is to help you produce even more outstanding beer with Sustainable Oak.
Ready to dose?
Use the Dosing Guide to choose the right oak, learn how to dose, find a suggested starting point, and see price-to-dose ratios:
The Dosing Guide
New Frontiers for Barrel Aged Beers
With a minimal amount of Soluble Oak™ beer is transformed to have a soft, silky and round mouthfeel. With a slightly greater addition, the natural aromatic and oak profile begin to emerge. Soluble Oak™ is transformative in most styles of beers (from dark to amber to light).
How Craft Brew Experts Are Describing The Taste:
Crème Brulé, toffee, butter scotch, banana pudding, cinnamon, oak (of course), cream of wheat and toasted bread.
Skip the Hassle & Wait of Barrel Aging
Results are instantaneous. Soluble Oak™ is added post fermentation.
Mouthfeel
Soluble Oak™ breaks new ground in craft beer – rounding sharp edges, presenting a quality of unity, while offering varied levels of oak presence.
Beer is Not Good at Extracting Oak
Given beer’s low alcohol content, only a small range of oak compounds can be extracted within barrels. Mainly, the highly leachable/water-soluble tannic acids are extracted, and themost prized compounds, such as vannalins, caramel, cinnamon and oak lactones are not extracted (those which are present are mostly a leftover from the barrel’s previous occupant). Soluble Oak™ stands alone in giving beer the full palette of the best of oak – almost instantly.
Don’t Use Used Barrels - Why Live Off The Leftovers Of The Previous Occupant?
Our view is that beer and oak should not be limited to repurposed barrels, which carry the taste of its lingering predecessor, and only impart limited oak flavors. Great beer shouldn’t live off hand-me-downs, of which the prior occupant has already stripped the best flavors. Many of the 200+ molecules in oak are highly leachable, and some of the choicest flavors and the natural chemical magic has long left (Save the tannins!).
Back to Our Roots
Oak barrels and beer are old school. Barrels were first introduced by the Celts in 350 BC, and have had a long history of storing beer (just ask George Washington). Barrel-aged beer re-emerged in 1992, when Greg Hall of Goose Island used re-purposed Jim Beam bourbon barrels and introduced the wildly popular Bourbon County Stout.
“Side note: 100+ years ago before the blight, chestnut barrels were often used to store beer (stay tuned!).”
Traditional Barrel Aging (Don't Look Back)
- Slow
- Expensive
- Labor-intensive
- Unpredictable
- Not Sustainable
Scalable
Soluble Oak™ is added post fermentation. It requires no changes to existing infrastructure, and is scalable for large production.
Sustainable Oak
Through scientific innovation, we pioneered an environmentally sustainable alternative to barrel aging which uses 96% less oak, and protects majestic old oak trees. Learn how you can be part of the Sustainable Oak stewardship program.
Which beers go best with Soluble Oak?
Mission
Our work is the uncompromised pursuit of pristine White Oak flavor. Our purpose is to help you produce even more outstanding craft beer with Sustainable Oak.