Sourcing wood: Use a reputable cooperage and buy their aging spirals or get some staves if you can. I purchased from the barrel mill. They used to have seconds barrels that were damaged and I bought one and broke it down and charred it myself. Toasting and charring can easily be done. Proper oak for barrels is matured for years after being sawn. You can find white oak at just about any home improvement store but it SHOULD NOT be used for aging. It surely isn't optimal and quality wood isnt that expensive.
Fuck Barrels: Barrels are expensive an unnecessary. A cheap barrel is a shitty barrel. Use a glass jar and put the oak in it with the juice. Also, don't waste your time scouring for something previously used for whiskey. Most of whiskeys flavor comes from the barrel. You want to argue that point? Go drink some white dog (clear whiskey) and tell me otherwise. On that note, fuck BBQ chips.
Toast or Char: Most wine is done on toasted oak and most whiskey is done on charred. They impart different flavors. Hers is a chart. (Not noted on the chart is floral and coconut flavors in toasted oak. My best results have been toasting at 350 and the charring if desired)
http://homedistiller.org/graphics/oak_aromatoast.gif
http://homedistiller.org/aging/aging/wood
Toasting oak: Splice staves into pieces about 1cmX1cmX4cm. Tightly wrap each stave individually in foil. Set oven to temps that coordinate with the flavor desired from the chart in the link above. Roast for 90-120 minutes. Times may vary. Your house will smell amazing.
Charring oak: Follow process above for toasting and then char the shit out of it with a blow torch. Just get a nice alligator char on all sides and your good to go. (if you bought spirals you can char them as well)
Duration on Oak: This will be dependent on volume of liquid to surface area of oak. The char/toast will also matter. Less is more and you ought to test it weekly. If you bombard it with oak it could become overly woody in a very short time frame.
Are you thinning with ethanol?: Barrels extract different flavor profiles at different ABVs. If you're thinning you juice with ethanol you could try using between 50-70% and oaking it prior to using it for thinning. It would most likely extract the oaks flavors better.
Disclaimer: Could be dangers of vaping carbons if not filtered out of the solution. I haven't aged e-juice on oak. I've worked in a craft distillery, oaked beers, and oaked wines. This thread was made in the hopes of getting people to use the right oak and cheaper methods. Time on oak and amount of oak will need experimenting.
Filtration to a fine degree on oak-aged eLiquids is a BITCH AND A HALF. In our lab we utilize a simple extraction method of the woods in 75% EtOH / 25% VG and vacuum filter the extract. A much finer process, but darned if I am not curious to explore this. From a public health standpoint, I couldn't endorse a barrel-aged Liquid without ASTM type A filtration (10-20micron), which gylcols arent going through... wonder what FivePawns has up their sleeve, or if the reason for myself avoiding their barrel-aged stuff is a complete fallacy :P
From a health standpoint, I wonder where the line is drawn. I was discussing making an absinthe juice and a friend brought to my attention that the herbs have medicinal properties and there could be adverse reactions. That being said, I'm glad you voiced your concern. People should know the possible risks. Shall I mention the elephant in the room? I don't care to. Thanks for your input on what to use to extract the oak profile/lactones. Did you play around with any other combinations before settling on 75/25 EtOH/VG?
ETA: If this concerned you greatly you could use only toasted oak and youd still get a flavor profile that is unmistakeably oak (not like sucking on a tree either).
EXACTLY why we are all so concerned is there is no solid line... fuck me right? (insert jonah hill voice)
Only thing we're looking for is carcinogenic free radicals that present themselves in charred wood. Fine for eating since this is handled by stomach acids, but there is a direct pathway to the bloodstream (sans macrophages) in the lungs. Again from a health standpoint, this is why we aren't standing by a wood fire and inhaling smoke all day. The concentration of these extracts is much less than that of course, but therein lies the difficulty of drawing the line. There are no occupational exposure limits set for this stuff, since our liquids are so new to the world!
Now back to business - @ that Specific gravity, filtration worked best :)
Actually eLiquid is almost 100% alcohol. PG and VG are both alcohols.
Will they extract oak flavor like regular drinking alcohol?
Yeah, famously Five Pawns does it with Castle Long Reserve.
I don't know that it's a good idea though for home DIY, simply because we're inhaling this.
The eLiquid would need to be run through a filter, and since we're basically talking about carbon here it'd need to be pretty fine.
On the other hand I don't know if it'd be bad for inhalation, but I feel like inhaling carbon particulate isn't something I want to do, something about Miner's Lung.
>Ethanol
CH3-CH2-OH Looks like a string
>Glycerol
What matters most is the size and configuration of the molecule. Yo aint gonna to extract shit with that big ass pitchfork.
Red Oak flavor from TPA imparts the same flavor. I would start with that flavoring before I got into DIY oak extracts. Like NN said, filtration is a bitch.
Great for people who dont have any interest in trying to use actual wood. Though you should swap "similar" for "same". And which one has a superior flavor would be subjective from person to person. "Filtration is a bitch"? Well, with experimentation comes innovation. Seems like improving filtration techniques would be a worthwhile use of time since other macerations need filtration as well.