I don’t know much about brewing, but I’ve been seeing some videos on youtube that have me curious. Apparently “oaky” flavor notes come from oak wood, either in the form of oak wood casks or just little cubes added in. How does the wood not ferment? Because growing up I’ve heard so many horror stories about methanol poisoning and I don’t know how this would work.
In: Biology
In addition to the other answer: Oak wood is quite chemically active. It’s got a high content of tannins. They are dry and bitter, but their taste isn’t their primary purpose. What they also do is provide an *astringent* effect. That means they react with many molecules and make them “knot up” and clump together, especially proteins. If you were to add an astringent to egg white, for example, it would quickly coagulate. It is more reactive with longer chains of molecules, and make them clump up and fall out of solution.
This is relevant for alcohol because brewed alcohol is **never** pure. Yeast primarily makes ethanol, yes, but it also makes a whole bunch of other more alcohols. Some of them have a good taste and make the overall taste smoother(why whisky is smoother than vodka, since vodka has few of these), while some just taste oily and plain bad. Generally, the more complex the alcohol, the worse the taste it imparts. But the oak can help clean these up to a degree, thanks to its astringent effect. Thus, it balances out the taste to a significant degree.
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