Cider aging advice

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wabber

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So I am thinking about aging my cider with oak and was wondering if anyone has done it before.
 
This lends a very different taste to the cider. Start small and taste/sample often. Try one ounce or so of medium toast chips, and begin sampling after a week or so. You will be fine the level of taste that you find acceptable by sampling every three or four days.

Then rack off of the oak when you reach the desired taste level. As easy as that! Just be prepared for the sampling by using a test vessel or wine thief.
 
If you are a member of the AHA under seminars they have a presentation called cider revolution and he gives a recipe for a bourbon oaked cider. I really want to try it.
 
I like the flavour of 2oz per gallon for the 3-4 weeks before bottling. Using natural oak chips. I have tried toasted and natural, natural had the stronger flavour.
 
noblebrew said:
If you are a member of the AHA under seminars they have a presentation called cider revolution and he gives a recipe for a bourbon oaked cider. I really want to try it.
Would you've able to post that recipe at all? It sounds very interesting.
 
Start small and taste/sample often.

i like this advice. a bit of oak can be really nice, but for me it gets unpleasant pretty quickly. if in a week it's not doing it for you, you can always add more. i microwave the chips in a bit of water to boil quickly and add them in. the oak does seem to age out a bit with time.
 
Would you've able to post that recipe at all? It sounds very interesting.

Treat the cider like a mead and add nutrients.
He recommends back sweetening at about 10%

•Ingredients:
5 gal apple juice
1/2 tsp Fermaid-K + 1/4 tsp DAP
1 tube WLP500 Trappist yeast
2 oz oak chips soaked in enough bourbon to cover them
5 campden tablets + 4 tsp potassium sorbate
•Process
Brew as normal with apple juice. Ferment all the way out.
Pour off and reserve bourbon and add oak chips to fermenter.
Age on oak for at least 2 weeks.
Keg, stabilize, and backsweeten as usual, adding about half of the reserved bourbon (to taste).
 
The two best things I ever did for my ciders were adding oak and malic acid. I use ~1 oz of medium toast American oak cubes for a one gallon batch and let it sit for two weeks. Three weeks is too much, in my experience, but also keep in mind I don't have much in the way of temperature control and live in the Phoenix area. If you decide to take my advice on the malic acid, maybe start with 1/2 tsp per gallon (I use a full teaspoon, but I like sour flavors more than most).
 
The two best things I ever did for my ciders were adding oak and malic acid.

i love the malic acid suggestion too! i keep some on hand and find that it is useful in the kitchen as well, gives a great zing to a bland sauce or fruit compote. i find that the idea of a cider 'recipe' that calls for apple juice is as useful as a wine recipe that says 'grapes' or a beer recipe that calls for 'hops' (no offense meant to the loads of recipes on site- it's just a slight exaggeration to make the point below!). the most important variables among the apples, as far as cider making is concerned, are sugar content, malic acid content and tannin content. non-cider apples have very little tannin (hence a bit of tannin from oak can be nice, or powdered tannin, black tea, or crabapples), sugar levels are easily doctored by chucking in a bit extra, but malic acid levels can make all the difference between a bland and exciting drink! why am i ranting on about that in this thread? i dunno i just drank a lot of coffee
 

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