adding oak....

I went to a locale brewer a few days ago an had my first attempt at cider looked at. He said the taste wad good and it was at 16% . He said the only thing I mite want to do is add a piece of oak for flavor .... How do I go about this? Just cut a branch of a tree an toss it on in?

Buy oak chips and chuck them in in secondary, then rack off. You can buy oak essence too. If you want to use your own oak, then you'll need to sterilize and roast it in the oven.

I just conditioned a cider on applewood chips. You can buy commercial chips from the LBS if you're after oak, or you can buy the wood chips available for bbqing. Steam them to sterilize them for 15 min or so, and then toast them at medium heat in your oven until they're just beginning to turn brown and the aroma is obvious. the batch I just did was on the wood chips for about 10 days in secondary. About 1 lb of toasted wood chips. Nice woody nose and smoooooth flavour now!

Add a touch of bourbon...


I would.

Sounds good guys thank you very much ones agen

Spt, spt, ahewm. " He said"

"Do you think I need to age it longer," I ask. I was proud of my 1 year old cider that had been on oak for 1 month early on. I thought the oaking worked out perfect.

"I think if you aged it to eternity it wouldn't be long enough," was the reply. There went my ego out the window.

But then I thought, "This is a man who drinks moonshine that has had strawberry's soaked in it. Cider is like water to him. O well, maybe he will like it better after I jack it up a little."

Mmmmm ...