Cider Digest #1835

Published in

· 7 months ago

Subject: Cider Digest #1835, 27 December 2013 
From: cider-request@talisman.com 

Cider Digest #1835                                         27 December 2013 

                 Cider and Perry Discussion Forum 

Contents: 
  RE: Cider Digest #1833, 20 December 2013 (Joseph Conway) 
  Conical fermenter  ("Rich Anderson") 

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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn 
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Subject: RE: Cider Digest #1833, 20 December 2013 
From: Joseph Conway <jmccider@hotmail.com> 
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2013 12:27:13 -0700 

I'm going to comment on the oaking of cider and my experience is to go 
easy on it. A few years ago I took one of Peter Mitchell's week long cider 
making classes and I recall he did not like oaking and suggested to go 
lightly if you do it. 

I have added oak to my cider and found the most consistent was to add oak 
cubes that are sold in winemaking supply stores. I make 20 to 30 gallons 
a year of cider and am using 5 gallon carboys to age the cider in. I tried 
the light toast and got results that were too woody. My favorite has been 
the medium toast cubes and the amount to add is easy to calculate. I 
have added 4 ounces of the cubes to 5 gallons and left it in there for 
2-3 weeks. It is very predictable. If you want more oak next time, add 
50% more cubes or twice as many. You can put the cubes in a small nylon 
mesh bag with a string on it so you can remove it when you want. The 
oak stave method Dick D describes sounds like fun for the DIY person, 
but the cubes from the same maker (you can get french white oak cubes) 
are very reliable. Taste it, don't overdue it! 

Joe 

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Subject: Conical fermenter 
From: "Rich Anderson" <rhanderson@centurytel.net> 
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2013 09:18:18 -0800 

Not sure how much of a cone is on a beer tank, but I like our conical wine 
tanks which have a shallow cone of about 6" on a 1000 gallon tank. The 
advantage, at least for a large tanks is the ease of cleaning since you can 
wash and drain all solids and wash water out the bottom valve. They also 
rack fairly clean if not pumped entirely dry from the bottom valve. 

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End of Cider Digest #1835 
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