Smoked Whiskey has a unique smoky taste that complements the traditional flavors of the whiskey. Some people enjoy smoked whiskey on its own, on the rocks, or in cocktails like my favourite – a Smoked Whiskey Sour.
You can smoke whiskey a number of ways, my preferred method is in one of my smokers. The process is the same, no matter what type of smoker you have, ie. offset, pellet, etc.
What you’ll need:
- A bottle (or more) of your preferred whiskey
- A foil tray. (You want to create as much surface area to absorb the flavour)
- A smoker (seems obvious, right?)
The ZGrill has a “cold smoke” mode, which just engages the fan, allowing you to smoke using a smoke tube, without adding any heat to the process. To ensure the temperature stayed low enough to smoke cheese, I also had two trays of Ice Water in the smoker. These became smoked ice cubes too.
Added the tray of Whiskey to the smoker, then fired up a smoke tube full of Heatbeads Apple Pellets with a Hot Devil butane torch.
There’s no set amount of time for this process. The longer you leave it, the stronger the flavour. You can overdo the smoke flavour though, which will remove the flavour profile of the whiskey itself. I usually leave it for about an hour, but you can go as long or short as you like. Maybe test it along the way.
Once it’s done, let it cool, then funnel it back into the bottle. I usually filter it through cheesecloth, in case it has picked up any impurities during the process.
Now it’s ready to serve, however you drink your whiskey. Neat, rocks, or a cocktail – like Whiskey Sour.