curious about your thoughts

[peaktopview]

i have a 6 month old barleywine which i am planning on adding some oak cubes that i am soaking in a pinot. I added the wine to the cubes in a pint mason jar in plans to soak for a few weeks. i thought it might be a good idea to use my foodsaver and vacuum seal it to minimize oxidation in the wine. i noticed that there were bubbles coming out of the cubes, then it hit me. people use the foodsaver to marinade food. what are your thoughts on infusing (rather quickly) oak cubes, chips, whatever, with the foodsaver, with whatever liquid you are planning on using. would you even need to soak the cubes for a few weeks? it seems like it should work, just wondering what you guys think. no plans to find a quick method, just curious.

b

 

[chezteth]

I don't think it is necessary to soak the oak cubes for a few weeks. Several days would be plenty. My suggestion would be to put the oak cubes and wine in a mason jar. Leave it on the counter for a few days, drain, and add the cubes to your barleywine. Just my $0.02 worth.

cheers,
Brandon

 

[becks41]

I would purge said mason jar with some CO2 if you can to prevent the wine from oxidizing as well as sticking it in the fridge, ever have wine that's been open for a while and been sitting out on the counter top? - not always very pleasant after a few days and I'm sure you don't what that in your beer.

 

[Lennie]

I think the rapid infusion is a good idea compared to lengthy soaking because leaving the cubes to soak for a few weeks is going to wash a whole lot of the oak flavoring right out of them into the wine. Cubes give up all their oak flavor in about six to eight weeks. If you're adding the wine and oak both, no biggie. If you''re dumping the wine, you'll get less oak flavor than if you just added the cubes and a little wine.

Personally I would just add the cubes and a shot or two of wine, theres no real advantage to soaking/infusing the cubes first. Its all going to wind up in the beer. I've done this before and it works fine.