oak chips ?

[nwaite]

Making a one gal bach of blackberry mead... Is it ok to toss oak chips in ? An how many should I do? There small blocks from the brew store. And at what points the best to use them?

 

[nwaite]

Any insight would be good I'm probably gonna wich over to night an would like to know what yalls think...

 

[cgenebrewer]

I think the reason you are finding a lack of response is that a lot of people dont really have a set recipe for oaking. I just follow wine instructions, and there seems to be a huge amount of variation in even that.
As far as I know, the only form of oaking with considerable "testing" and that is tried an true is oaking in a barrel of specific capacity, ei wine or whiskey barrels.

You should be able to find some form of isntructions for how many ounces per gallon though.

As far as how long, thats where tasting comes in.

I would caution against using too little oak for too long.

 

[nwaite]

To little for to long?

 

[Matrix4b]

The amount of oak depends on the volume and the lenghth of time is depended on personal taste. The toast level is also dependent on the recipie.

I do 5-6 gal and here are my general guidelines:

I use oak chips.

1 oz of oak chips at the point that the Mead is almost clear.

Time: dependent on how harsh I think the brew is going to be. 2 weeks if it is already somewhat smooth, up to a month or two if the brew may be very harsh.

Amount: 1 oz of oak chips in a muslin bag/hops bag put in to the caroboy or brew bucket. Brew bucket is best for easy removal. Otherwise it can be difficult to remove. The muslin bag should be packed loosley so that the oak has a chance to infuse.

Toast Level: I usually go lightly toasted, For my more earthy meads I will go a medium toast, such as my pumpkin hazelnut blend. For a light fruity mead then I definitely only do lightly toasted oak. This is primarily a personal taste issue.

Oh, The amounts and time may work for 1 gal amounts too. Oak doesn't scale down well beyond 1 oz. (About a handful) Chips will infuse quicker than oak cubes. If you are doing cubes add about 50% to 100% of time. Again this is a personal taste and may need some experimenting on your part to get it the way you want it.

Hope that this helps.

Matrix

 

[nwaite]

It dose than you

 

[cgenebrewer]

too little oak for too long I heard is something you want to avoid.

The process is not very..."linear?"

As in, you put in oak, and the flavor will change depending on the amount of time it is in, the alcohol content, toast, the and the oak to mead surface ratio. So if you add say an ounce of oak to a gallon, and leave it in for a week, you will extract certain flavors from the oak. Now if you add two ounces, and half the duration, you will get a DIFFERENT flavor.

oak for too long and you will get flavors you dont want, but put in not enough oak and you will not get to the desired level of flavor before your begin to extract the "other" flavors. So its about finding the sweet spot between amount of oak and duration.