1k_wayne

Recipes 

I've got 3 gallons of cider that's been going for a little over 2 weeks now. It started as an experiment to see how far I could push the alcohol level. I started with 2 lbs brown sugar and 3 lbs of cane, and added 1 lb of cane a day for the first three days for 8 lbs total. Yeast is K1V-1116, and the SG is down to 1.040, so it's already pretty potent, won't go dry, and is going to have to age a while.

A friend of mine suggested trying to make it into Johnny jump up. I know that was originally cider stored in whiskey barrels in Ireland, but I don't have access to a barrel. I was wondering if adding some Jameson and aging on oak would work. The question is how much whiskey and how much oak for how long? Anyone tried anything like this before?

pompeiisneaks

Recipes 

never tried, maybe you should soak the oak chips in jameson for a while,a nd then add to the cider? I'm no cider expert, though, only done a few apfelwines myself.

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~Phil
Fermenting: nada
Kegged: Aramis Pale Ale
Bottled: Nada
Drinking: All of the above :)

Vlax79

Recipes 

I would add the Jameson to taste at bottling.

As for wood aging, how much oak are you going to use and how long.

Also you may want to check out Jamil's show on 7-29-07 on wood aged beers.

Just my $0.02
This does sound awesome.

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Rum...as bad as it is, is still better than the Molasses wine that it's made from. I have a 1.5 liter test batch in the basement...It is going to be drinkable...someday...But I don't think it will ever be good. - B.K.

discooby

Recipes 

I’ve heard of using small chard pieces of oak in glass jugs and letting it “age” for a while but think this is sometimes/only done for “homemade something else” where the abv is pretty hefty. Putting small chucks of oak in the cider might work though I’d be leery of other things growing in the cider from the contamination.

I’d go with what pompeiisneaks suggested, maybe also mixing in some high abv to kill any nasty’s ??

1k_wayne

Recipes 

This cider is already over 16%, and has the sugar potential left to go all the way to it's 18% limit. I'd call that pretty hefty, and standard procedure for oak chips in wine is to boil or steam them first for 10 minutes anyway so I'm not too worried about nasties. I like the idea of soaking the oak in whiskey before adding them to the cider too.

It's just that I'm really not sure how much oak or for how long. I've heard everything from 1/10 oz per gal for 2 weeks to a month, all the way up to 1 oz per gal for 6 to 9 months.

Thanks for the link Vlax, at almost an hour I'll have to save it and listen later.

Fathand

Recipes 

Take this for what its worth but I have read up on adding Oak to Mead and have a batch aging on French Oak chips right now in a 5 gallon batch so the verdict is still out. But everything I have read seems to say go lite on the oak as it can get too strong a flavor fast if you add to much. Again based on what I've read I went with 1 oz. and will give it a week and then taste.

If you add a small amount you can always remove when you get the desired level of oak taste, add too much and there really isn't much you can do.

Also another hint is to add the chips to the liquid in a sanitized muslin bag so you can remove the chips without having to rack. I tied mine off with some sanitized fishing line and can simply pull it out when ready.