American Oak Infusion Spirals - Medium Plus Toast

I bought this to mellow out some mead I made that turned out less amazing than it should have been. The mead I made had fusel alcohols in it and I haven't figured out why since it is the first time I've ever had a brew come out with those flavors. I've oakes wines with chips before but never a spiral. I will never use chips again. This spiral was easy to use and fish out after bottling. Not only that, the spiral did exactly what I'd hoped it would do, which was mellow out my jet fuel flavored mead. Not only did it mellow it out so it was drinkable, it imparted a gorgeous vanilla, smoke, and bourbon flavor. My bad mead became very drinkable and delicious after only six weeks of bulk aging.

In case there’s anyone like me hoping to salvage a failed mixture of whiskey, in this case bourbon, this is a great product. I also wanted to share some tips and learnings. First, I was only working with about 700ml of whiskey so I broke off a piece of the spiral, about an inch or 4-5 spirals. Put it in a mason jar and used a syringe to taste daily. Already day 1, there is a noticeable change in flavor. So I left it and went back the next day, and it was great. Toasted marshmallow notes with red fruit flavors underneath. It removed the spikeyness that was at the back end of each sip, which was my original goal. Foolishly, I didn’t dump it out then and there. I left it for another day, and guess what, a bitter oak flavor appeared at the back when I sampled it day 3. I dumped it then, but it’s too tannic now. I’ve added some eagle rare to try to smooth it out, but the lesson I learned is that you should taste daily and dump it as soon as it’s good. It’s not gonna somehow magically get better than good. If you’re working with small quantities, it won’t take much time at all, no matter how small of a piece you break off. Cheers!

These spirals do not fit through a standard cork size bottle neck....Yes, I realize that these are apparently meant for home brewers etc.....but a huge trend these days is to use a product like this to (e.g.) turn a mediocre bottle of scotch etc. into a better one....These just don't fit and really can't be broken or modified to do so without turning them into near sawdust....This, I feel should be clearly delineated in the product description. Zero stars! Useless....and I had to open the package to find out, rendering them unreturnable.

Great for adding that Oak flavor to wine. I found that the heavy toast version goes excellent in Pinot Noir. These really make the difference between pretty good wine, and great wine. If you brew in glass carboys, your wine can taste a bit sterile at the end. The solution? Add Oak. Unless you want to spend your trust fund on an actual barrel, this is by far the best way to introduce the woody flavors into your wine.Highly recommended, and will be purchasing on the regular!

Easy way to add some oak to your home brew. They fit easily into a 6 gallon glass carboy, and were retrieved equally as easy. I let one spiral sit in about 8 ounces of bourbon for a week prior to adding both to a stout. The medium plus spiral did add a bit of color to the liquor, thought much less than I was expecting. After about 5 weeks of sitting in the beer, the oak/bourbon is extremely subtle and can be easily missed or preceived as something else (someone guessed a vanilla bean). Next time I think I'll use two.

Good for infusing "toasted oak" character to a wine or spirit. I really like these sticks to easily split into thirds for gallon jugs. A clear spirit will take color in under a week and full oak flavor in 6 to 8 but I leave mine in for longer. I reuse them a couple times also (soak in grain alcohol if used in wine or in a small amount of same spirit to sanitize before introducing to a larger spirit container)

Ordered oak spirals to infuse honey with whiskey.......soaking in whiskey now - then will place spiral for infusing honey in 4 weeks. Seems like a perfect fit for my honey infusion . . . .Bee Happy : )

Got these sticks to treat concord wine with oak flavor to enhance its flavor. I like the fact it helps clear the wine and does introduce oak flavor into the wine. Since I don't have oak wine barrels, this is a good alternative.