Oak Cubes vs Chips vs Spirals... Which is better for Homebrewing?
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- Опубліковано 27 сер 2024
- Today we're trying to find out which form of oak is the best! I have French oak in cube form, chip form and spiral form. We are oaking a traditional mead and seeing which one tastes the best. The video has all the information you need for the test... it was a fun one and I hope you enjoy it!
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I bought some chips from Walmart, sold for grilling, could have sworn they were oak but when I got home discovered they were hickory, put in the oven to toast them and caught them on fire, duh duh duum... But used them in a grape, pineapple juice wine and I actually like it quite a bit.
I made an experimental mead in which I took some orange soda (artisanal, not, like, Fanta or something. Still soda though), shook all the carbonation out of it, added honey, and fermented as usual. It ended up tasting like popcorn, which took me by surprise but I ended up really liking.
r/prisonhooch would love this
I just wanted to see what would happen lol
Very cool! I would have loved you to include a glass with no oak at all to see what effect the oak did to enhance or reduce the un-oaked flavor.
That would have been a good idea!
Be careful with spirals in 1 gallon carboys. I used one once and it swelled some and never could get it out of the bottle.
Oh wow, thanks for the heads up!
I switched to using oak barrels. I only bulk age in oak barrels now the mead comes out completely different. The micro-oxygenation you get from the barrels along with the added residual value of what the barrel had previously adds to the complexity of the mead.
That sounds fun! I don't have a ton of experience barrel aging mead
@@ManMadeMead I did a Vikings blood in a whiskey barrel came out fantastic, has a whiskey note on the back end. I'm currently making a Cab Sauv pyment and a Chenin Blanc pyment both aging in bourbon barrels. This is Jay Drewry winner of the cattle battle BTW
Ooh, I like both of those! Hey there!
I use almost all Kveik yeasts at this point. and have started mixing them as well. it gets fun when you do.
I think what's happened here is it takes less time for the chips to release the effect due to how small the pieces are. I think the thicker wood, the longer time you're going to need to extract the flavors.
I've only made a few meads, but my best was a blueberry melomel. The blueberries were homegrown and the berry skins gave the best flavor, tannins and mouth feel
Nice! I pick black raspberries on the trails where I live and make a killer mead from them.
I did this with apple wood chips with some wine. Came out better than some 10USD wine from the dollar store
Added variable--- time of oak in mead.
Taco Tuesday mead? Goes well with corn chips 😉
Yes!! Was wondering about oaking chip!!
I'm gonna try the oak cubes real soon!!
Fun comparison!
Good test! I just started a brew with Amburana spirals last week. I'd thought that, with more surface area exposed, it would be the most effective.
If this brew doesn't reach the desired effect, I'll definitely try chips instead.
Thank you for all the hard work you put into your videos. Can you or anyone recommend a recipe for a mead that could take the place of Baileys Irish Cream for coffee? Thank you, Edward.
Oh man... I think that would be really tough. The big draw to Baileys is it's consistency, you would have a really hard time replacing that consistency with mead.
Really Enjoyed your Video , Thanks ! 🐯🤠
A friend of mine, a winemaker in Livermore, advised me that these kinds of additions to flavor do not last as long as in wines aged in oak barrels. So the oak presence may not last as long in your mead. Second, if you are making small batches and using simple siphons then the oak chips won't be a problem, but with larger batches (of wine) I have found the oak chips fouled my diaphragm pump and I stopped using that form in my wine because of that. Since then I have changed over to barrels, and a small flexible impeller pump.
Grew my own oak tree, going to try and toast a bit today! This makes me think I can add a bit more / for longer, so thanks!
Does the oak need to cure awhile before you use it? Or is it safe to throw in as soon as you cut and process it?
@@splatterkat3838 good point, the Internet definitely tells you to cure for months or years, I just dried it for a week or two. It worked very fast, perhaps the flavour is a bit harsh and smokey now (even with a 190C roast), but I decided to embrace that and blend the one liter of oaked cider with a batch of high-ABV low-acidity cider I have in secondary to get a more Scotch-like drink. Was definitely worth it for the experimentation stage I'm in.
I have a chunk of Amburana in a Blannd for going on 3 weeks and it is giving it flavor but not at a rate I was expecting lol.And that is just fine, no hurry right. I also found the flavors I initially added were a little lacking so in went more spices. every piece of wood will yeild different amount of flavor and tannins at different rates as no two pieces ar the same even in the same tree. it makes it interesting for sure.
Lolz. A few dudes standing around drinking wine tasting wood. 😂
Very interestng!
Not tried oaking my wines or meads yet, but plan to on my next batch. Thanks for posting this video, I will definitely get chips for this. It would be fun to see a similar kind of comparison between American and French oak chips, and between different toasting levels?
I keep seeing onion wine and garlic wine on UA-cam I have an idea for a cooking wine it's onion garlic and tomato with some Italian spices like 10% abv
That's interesting! I don't know if I will personally try it - but it sounds interesting! haha
Happy Homestead did a cooking wine video with onions.
Thanks! I switched to cubes and I really dig it.
For Hornindal, did you load all nutrients upfront? When I make a hydromel with Kveik, it is done overnight.
Also, if you purchased Hornindal from White labs, it is an isolate, one strain of the original hornindal mix. I contacted them to ask about it.
I believe I front loaded it
The spiral has an inferior low surface area/agitation design and is just easier to clean
Isn't the length of time listed on the bag for aging whiskey?
Perhaps it was a weak spiral, all of the spirals I have used from the same company produced huge oak flavor, and that is just using 1 spiral for a 5 gallon batch. I know you even mentioned you previous experience using spirals. I am still going to continue using them, but yeah, definitely weird result from your test.
Where can I get you and BCs Meads?
I want to try them.
We don't sell them unfortunately! Maybe if we go pro, we will be able to one day!
I believe the wood is acting like a tanin.. it would affect more in a non temp controlled room. just my thoughts
I want to here the guy in the middle opinion more I would love to here him say look mofos this tastes like doggy poop lol 😂😂
Guy in the hat really looks for any opportunity to show off how much he knows. Reminds me of Martin from the Simpsons.
How would you adequately remove the oak chips or cubes once happy with the amount of oaking?
Rack the liquid
My wife and I bottled a pear mead last night and the flavors played quite well but it had a watery finish. We think it needs oak but we don’t really know where to go for that. Know what type of oak might work with pear and honey? Also, we’re in OKC so if you know of a local supplier it would help too.
The Brewshop in OKC & Learn to Brew (closer to Edmond) are both awesome! Really any kind of oak can work with honey - it just depends on how dark or light toast you want it!
@@ManMadeMead we go to learn to brew a lot but they’re on the other side of the city from me. Didn’t know if the Brew shop though. Thanks!
Maybe toast the chips a bit mate. I would have love to be a tester.
Just like barrels, some good some not so good.
Too much exposed end grain with the spirals = lesser quality end product.
I just made a mead with all local ingredients from the scottish Highlands the honey is from one village over 4lbs of it I also put in heather flowers I picked and pine spruce I picked earlier in the year also I stuck in some whisky oak cubes I got from Glen ord distillery see how it tastes in a years time.
That sounds super fun!
@@ManMadeMead its all pretty much on my doorstep its part of the fun sourcing your own ingredients I make whisky aswel I have my own secret source for spring water but mind you tap water in scotland is best in europe I usually just use tap for my mead