Soluble Oak™ vs Barrels
Advantages of Soluble Oak™
Prompt sales of your production has positive implications on several levels, giving your business the competitive edge and a nimbleness and flexibility to deploy capital towards new opportunities. Soluble Oak™ reduces operational costs: finance, labor, heating/cooling and warehousing (also gives ability to use a smaller warehouse).
There are over 200 organic compounds in White Oak, many are fragile, complex, heat sensitive and difficult to extract. Soluble Oaks™’ groundbreaking proprietary all-natural technology captures these delicate and difficult to extract compounds.
Traditionally, the oak compounds which are released within the barrel are determined based upon specific alcohol concentrations. Different concentrations of alcohol unlock different compounds. Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (below) confirms that distinct alcohol levels of wine, spirits and beer within barrels fail to unlock some of the most elusive and complex flavors (such as the vannilins, 5-hydroxyfurfural (caramel, bread, almond), diacetyl (butter) and complex oak lactones). Sometimes, even negative attributes of oak are extracted using traditional methods. For example, given the high cost of barrels, in the effort to maximize return, some spirits manufacturers may use high alcohol levels within casks.
Sometimes, even negative attributes of oak are extracted using traditional methods. For example, given the high cost of barrels, in the effort to maximize return, some spirits manufacturers may use high alcohol levels within their barrels.
It’s hard to overstate how important it is that Soluble Oak™ has no secondary flavors. In other words, it is without non-oak flavors, that the only thing that you taste is oak. This sets Soluble Oak™ miles apart from competitors.
After two years of intense R&D, we paused with industry experts from the wine, spirits and craft beer industry, and asked for a brutal assessment, begging for honest and tough criticism. We tested every known oak product, and blindly compared it to Soluble Oak™. We would only continue if Soluble Oak was the best.
Soluble Oak™ dominated in being the only product mimicking barrel aging, and was clearly the only product with no secondary flavors (without non-oak flavors). It’s just oak.
Only a small portion of the alcoholic beverage touches the actual barrel. Barrel design has been around for hundreds of years, and the design is highly inefficient and most of the barrel is not even used for imparting flavor. Soluble Oak™ uses 80% less wood than traditional barrels. That is an 80% carbon footprint reduction.
Soluble Oak™ can also extend the live of old barrels and revitalize old/neutral barrels. After 4 years, barrels impart little additional oak flavor (though oxygenation and esterification continue from within the barrel). Soluble Oak™ can re-vitalize and extend the life of tired neutral barrels by replenishing those pure essential oils and compounds which have leached from prior usage. However, most Soluble Oak™ users bypass the barrel system all together, and use it strictly in finished products.
Our partners are concerned about the environment, and feel great as leaders promoting green alternatives which significantly reduce carbon emissions. Manufacturers can proudly use the Soluble Oak™ icon on their products.
Soluble Oak™ is a B Corporation, a company meeting the highest standards of social and environmental responsibility. After processing, 100% of the oak is repurposed into other products (including the production of activated carbon and use as a soil additive for water conservation).
Oak barrels are often made from old growth oak trees, well over 100 years. Please take this opportunity to learn this (little known) wasteful production method. Learn more about Sustainable Oak.
Disadvantages of Oak Barrels
Given the numerous organic compounds in oak which are delicate and volatile, much in the traditional manufacturing process kills, neutralizes or diminishes some of the most important flavors. These prized compounds not only taste extraordinary, but are important catalysts in chemical changes, and this is particularly true with the molecules which are important in improving mouthfeel. Cooperages commonly use steam and/or fire when drying and bending staves. These methods can destroy flavor.
A) Steam used in barrel making leaches flavors. Steam is a common method used in barrel manufacturing which kills, neutralizes or leaches out many of the best flavor compounds.
As an example, consider tannins. Tannins in American Oak (quecas alba) are especially hydro soluble; meaning that they are highly leachable with water or steam. Yet steam is commonly used for bending staves (shaping for use in rounded barrels). Also, rather than air drying oak in a yard for several months, cooperages often save time and expense, and buy oak which has already been kiln dried. Within kilns, oak is typically steamed 30 – 45 days at 180 – 225F°. That is 30-45 days of flavors being leached with steam. It smells fantastic walking into a dry kiln of White Oak, but the magic is being lost into the air.
B) Fire used in barrel making can destroy delicate compounds and flavors.
A) The direction of the oak grain of barrels inhibits flavor. To avoid leakage, grain orientation is primarily quarter sawn. This is meant to reduce the flow of liquid and stop leakage. In other words, this design which restricts this flow or leakage, also restricts the flow of those very attributes for which the barrels are now exclusively used. And toasting, and especially charring, also creates an impervious inner layer within the barrel, further inhibiting the flow of prized flavors. The ancient design is contrary to the current function.
B) Staves do not come from the best part of the log for flavor. The richest extractives come from the center of the log (much like the choicest part of a watermelon is in the heart). This might be obvious, but the heart is the oldest part of the tree, and rich in flavor. However, staves are primarily harvested from the outer portions of the tree, where wood is most clear (without knots). Staves cannot have knots, or the barrels would leak.
Barrel design has changed little in over two thousand years. Barrels were first designed as a better means to transport liquid (barrels could be rolled, and they wouldn’t leak or shatter). Now barrels are used to impart flavor, and 80% of the wood fiber in barrels is not used to add flavor (most of the design is just to give strength to the barrel). Also, cutting oak staves is a highly wasteful process, and a large portion of the log is discarded.
With a similar end product, Soluble Oak™ uses 80% less oak than barrels.