Charcoal filtering

[JDWebb]

I like to sit in my overstuffed easy chair by my reading table and enjoy a nice bourbon or tequila at times. I enjoy Jack's Single Barrel as well as his Gentleman's Jack, I also like Jose Cuervo's Reserva De La Familia which has a nice oak finish. I like my best of liquors straight up, I don't think they were meant to be diluted with all kinds of fruit punches, juices and whathaveyou. So, my question of the day is, as I sip on a nice cool glass of Winter Jack Cider, has anyone sent their mead through a charcoal filter, say mesquite or applewood and soaked a few wood chips? I know aging in barrels is extremely difficult based on the small amounts brewed and the needed surface contact with the wood.

 

[fatbloke]

Charcoal filtering is often used in making certain spirits (often vodka), but it will strip out a lot of flavour.

If you wanted some oaking, there's plenty of products that help.

Oak chips, cubes, staves, spirals or even small barrels.

Often available in different origins of oak and different levels of toasting.

He'll, you can even add clean, cooperage quality, white oak saw dust to primary ferment to give a hint of "barrel fermented" taste......

Get reading my friend, there's lots of guidance out there....

p.s. and yes, I know EXACTLY what a coffee percolator is, but I use an Italian stove top mocha pot, that makes as close to espresso as I can without needing a mortgage for a proper steam maker

 

[JDWebb]

Ahh, another coffee aficionado, and I have to tell you the best cup of coffee I ever had came out of a porcelain percolator that set atop a wood campfire. It was about 30 years ago, but it's still the best I ever tasted!

Thanks for the info on the charcoal & wood chips, I saw them at my brew store, seen where they've been used in brewing other liquors, and would like to give it a try in a small batch.

 

[fatbloke]

Ahh, another coffee aficionado, and I have to tell you the best cup of coffee I ever had came out of a porcelain percolator that set atop a wood campfire. It was about 30 years ago, but it's still the best I ever tasted!

Thanks for the info on the charcoal & wood chips, I saw them at my brew store, seen where they've been used in brewing other liquors, and would like to give it a try in a small batch.

Not a big fan of the "Americano" style drip type coffees. To watery for me.

Turkish/Arabic coffee is devine, if sweet.

Whether your fave choice is about the maker or the origin of the beans, I don't know (i don't believe it when I hear "America makes the best coffee" - Italy and the Arab world have that pegged IMO/experience. Luckily for all of us, the US is a good, diverse place, so it's easily found and I don't necessarily mean the coffee fascists of Starbucks either ). And I routinely get ready ground/roasted, Lavazza Gold.

Enough of the silliness , with oaking, if you can find some cooperage quality oak, then mill/grind/plane it, as it can go in like that and simulate barrel fermentation if in primary.

With oak chips, staves, spirals etc, those normally have origin and toast levels. I don't recall any maximum but a bit of searching should give you detail on which you might prefer for all of the above.

It can be a bit of a lottery, but I'd suggest that you focus on the signs of "over oaking" as it's easy to add more, but a bit of a Bugger to remove too much......

 

[fuelish]

Heck with coffee....get on the yerba mate train.......you can brew it hot, you can brew it cold, has a multitude of health benefits. Even the new Pope drinks it
With that said, I do have a camp percolater and know how to use it, but the drip is oh so convenient, and my French press turns out some good coffee. Coffee on my days off, yerba mate on my 12 hour night shifts (terere', aka brewed cold)