Oaking alternative with powdered tannin?

[kmcrae]

Was going down a rabbit-hole the other night looking into adding oak to a future brew and came upon these two products: TANNIN RICHE (French), &TANNIN RICHE EXTRA(American):
http://www.scottlab.com/product-132.aspx
http://www.scottlab.com/product-131.aspx

Has anyone every used these in a beer? My searches didn't really bring up anything with the exception of use in ciders and wines. Seems like it could be an interesting alternative or maybe just fun to experiment with?

 

[Sippin37]

Sounds interesting. Maybe try adding different amounts to a few bottles and see if you get the taste you are looking for? I would love to hear any results as an alternative to oak cubes.

 

[pdxal]

The tannin wouldn't give you the same flavors as oak.
You would get a flavor to balance sweetness- a tannic flavor but without the vanillin that you get from real oak.
That said, sounds like a good experiment. I'd try directly adding them to a glass of beer to test before adding to a whole batch. Perhaps a glass of bud light or a cheap craft beer to avoid other flavors in the beer from covering up the impact.

 

[kmcrae]

The tannin wouldn't give you the same flavors as oak.
You would get a flavor to balance sweetness- a tannic flavor but without the vanillin that you get from real oak.
That said, sounds like a good experiment. I'd try directly adding them to a glass of beer to test before adding to a whole batch. Perhaps a glass of bud light or a cheap craft beer to avoid other flavors in the beer from covering up the impact.

Based on the descriptions of the product, I'm not sure if that's true in regards to this specific tannin. Reading the Tannin Riche Extra sheet it states "This proprietary tannin contributes nuances similar to Tannin Riche but with heightened perception of vanillin oak character." The Tannin Riche description reads "Tannin Riche imparts hints of coconut and vanilla together with a perception of sweetness" So maybe this is like the Colonel's 7 herbs and spices version of tannin?!?

I think testing it as you suggested is probably the way to go. Won't really know until I get the order in. Will post an update when that happens. It'll probably be a bit of time before this happens, as I don't want to put an order in just for tannin... Worse case it might be an interesting option to have in the arsenal with maybe an overly sweet (or under-attenuated) brew to help balance it?

 

[pdxal]

I agree, an under attenuated or overly sweet beer would probably be the best use for this. Let us know how the experiment turns out.