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Author Topic: Soaked or dry?  (Read 2768 times)

Offline unclebrazzie

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Soaked or dry?
« on: April 28, 2015, 03:58:59 am »
Peepz,

I was chatting with my brother the other day. He's as crazy about wine as I am about beer, and at some point, I asked his advice about which particular Pinot Noir wine I should be soaking my oak cubes in for a sour beer I'm brewing.

He was fascinated by the idea that I'd want to flavour oak with wine instead of "the normal way" which means flavouring maturing wine with oak.
As far as he was concerned, almost all the flavour I'd be getting from soaked cubes (and i'm not talking spirits here, just wine) would be oak and tannins, with hardly any actual wine coming through. He also voiced his concern that what little wine I'd be getting would actually be oxydised, and that in this light, it wouldn't matter much wether I'd be using a quality Pinot Noir, or a low-budget WhateverGrapeTheyHave.

His take then, is that I'd be better off just using "naked" cubes, and use the wine for blending (preferrable whilst bottling). This would leave most room for the wine to actually make a difference.

Any thoughts on this from y'all?

All truth is fiction.
--Don Quichote

Offline homoeccentricus

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Re: Soaked or dry?
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2015, 05:06:51 pm »
Peepz,

I was chatting with my brother the other day. He's as crazy about wine as I am about beer, and at some point, I asked his advice about which particular Pinot Noir wine I should be soaking my oak cubes in for a sour beer I'm brewing.

He was fascinated by the idea that I'd want to flavour oak with wine instead of "the normal way" which means flavouring maturing wine with oak.
As far as he was concerned, almost all the flavour I'd be getting from soaked cubes (and i'm not talking spirits here, just wine) would be oak and tannins, with hardly any actual wine coming through. He also voiced his concern that what little wine I'd be getting would actually be oxydised, and that in this light, it wouldn't matter much wether I'd be using a quality Pinot Noir, or a low-budget WhateverGrapeTheyHave.

His take then, is that I'd be better off just using "naked" cubes, and use the wine for blending (preferrable whilst bottling). This would leave most room for the wine to actually make a difference.

Any thoughts on this from y'all?

So, is anyone here on this forum able to compare blending in red wine at bottling time with soaking oak cubes with wine?
Frank P.

Staggering on the shoulders of giant dwarfs.

Offline klickitat jim

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Re: Soaked or dry?
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2015, 08:41:55 pm »
Ive done burboun, and burbon oak. The best way I can describe the difference is compare a barrel aged sour with a fresh beer that the brewer just squirted some lactic acid into.

Offline homoeccentricus

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Re: Soaked or dry?
« Reply #3 on: May 03, 2015, 02:19:42 am »
Just to make sure: first beer would have pure oak plus blending in wine
Frank P.

Staggering on the shoulders of giant dwarfs.