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Cider Digest #1832
Subject: Cider Digest #1832, 18 December 2013
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1832 18 December 2013
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
brief notes on "easy oaking" cider (Dick Dunn)
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: brief notes on "easy oaking" cider
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 21:27:02 -0700
since it's been quiet for a bit...
I've played around with oak in cider now and then...forgive me if this
seems a sin but I maintain it's less so than jalapeno-coriander-coffee
"cider". I'd like to write more details, but I've delayed this way too
long, so I thought a few numbers and hints right now might help folks get
a little bit of help in time for this year.
Also, I'm intending this for anybody who would like to introduce some oak
character into a cider, without the substantial effort of maintaining
barrels! I have the utmost respect for cidermakers who use real barrels,
but barrels are expensive and barrel maintenance is a craft in its own
right.
Don't use lumber-store red oak! It will give your cider an overtone of,
err...cat urine. (no graceful way to put it) Use white oak, preferably
from a known source which will have the right species. If you have anybody
handling/recycling wine barrels near you, there's your target. On the
small scale, if you can get even a few staves, you can sand off the wine-
soaked layer (it's not very thick), clean them up, bandsaw into strips,
and roast them.
Numbers: You don't want to over-oak!...you don't want the cider to taste
like sucking on a twig. I've done some calcs on my own and also checked
some industry figures. The surface to volume ratio for a standard wine
barrel of about 220 liters (59 US gal) has somewhat over 18 sq ft of
interior surface area in contact with the wine, which works out to say
40-45 sq in per gallon -max-. So for a home cidermaker with a 5-US-gal
(19 liter) fermenter, tone it way down to maybe 100 sq in (ie 20 sq in
per gallon). Remember that if you're sanding down and reconditioning,
you're creating the equivalent of "new oak" which will be very assertive.
Soak the oak for a while after preparing and toasting.
Roasting or not: My experiments say that you want the equivalent of a
medium toast on the oak. If you toast very little, it's too raw-woody.
If you toast too much, you get weird caramel-y notes that suggest you've
mistreated your cider.
How to toast/roast: I tried the obvious: take a small blowtorch to the
wood. Not good. It scorches some wood fibers but leaves most of it raw.
Instead, "roast" in the oven. Figure out what you can fit diagonally in
your oven (blessing if you have a large commercial one) and cut to that.
Enclose the strips of oak in aluminum foil, but don't wrap tightly--the
idea is only to keep away from the direct radiant heat of the element,
but allow the heat in. Give the strips half an hour or so. Makes the
place smell nice too! I find 350 F is about right for the so-called
medium toast. Don't go over 400...the oak gets over-toasted and starts
to break down (crumble).
I'm intending this note as a hopeful start to a discussion on using small
amounts of oak in small-batch cider.
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
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End of Cider Digest #1832
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