This has been asked before, but no answer was given. We’re brewing the base beer in a week or so, so here’s the question again: what happens if you soak oak cubes in red wine for - say - two weeks? Will the wine in the cubes spoil? Would it be better to add red wine at bottling time? This is for a Russian River Supplication clone.
I’ve soaked cubes in wine for 2 years with no ill effects. two weeks will be fine!
A wine-loving friend of mine reasoned as such:
if you’re going to soak the cubes in wine, the wine will take up oxygen and “spoil”. Sure, your cubes will taste like wine, but the catch it that they’ll taste like oxidised wine which is probably not what we want.
He proposed simply adding the cubes, and blending with freshly openend wine at bottling time.
Soaking cubes in wine for two years…now I can’t imagine that not having a negative effect on the wine flavour, but perhaps the oak flavour have become so powerful that the wine flavour doesn’t register much. In which case, any cheap ass wine would do, right?
:
Your cheap ass has been removed from this collabrew. We need a good bottle of Pinot Noir. Plus another brew buddy.
Put the oak and wine in a soda bottle with a carbonator cap. Hit it with CO2 and purge the headspace several times. That should minimize your O2 concerns.
Yes, been thinking a bit, and I was going to put cubes and wine in a keg under a CO2 blanket for two weeks.
Hmm, come to think of it. Will it matter that the wine gets carbonated?
Could also use a vacuum sealer with a canning jar attachment. I don’t know if either are popular/available in Belgium.
I have 1 oz of french oak med toast cubes aging on pinot noir for 3 mos now in a mason jar. I boiled the cubes a few rounds first to minimize any harsh tannins, sanitized a small mason jar/lid, then added the cubes and poured the wine over them directly to the top of the jar. I have not opened it and do not plan on opening it until I add just the cubes to a flanders red that is aging in my basement. I don’t think the wine will be that oxidized.
Kegged them to be sure.
Does that mean you don’t want my CarafaIIISpecial any more?
[quote]the wine will take up oxygen and “spoil”
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I have made over 1200 gallons of wine, and have never had an oxidation issue from adding oak chips (which have a much higher surface area than cubes, thus more opportunity for oxidation)
I have made over 1200 gallons of wine, and have never had an oxidation issue from adding oak chips (which have a much higher surface area than cubes, thus more opportunity for oxidation)
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If I open a bottle and pour it in a vessel, why would it not oxidize?
[quote]If I open a bottle and pour it in a vessel, why would it not oxidize?
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Any oxidation is far below my detection threshold.
I have made over 1200 gallons of wine, and have never had an oxidation issue from adding oak chips (which have a much higher surface area than cubes, thus more opportunity for oxidation)
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I don’t think the oxidation concern if from the oak itself, but rather from pouring the wine into another vessel in open air. It is the exposure to air that is the concern.
Yes, obviously. Open a bottle of red wine, pour a few glasses, put the cork back in and leave the bottle unopened for a week, and bang oxidation.
Does the volume of wine vs. air in the vessel have a significant impact?
I imagine if you filled a jar with cubes and wine, with minimal head space you could minimize oxygenation.
But I could be wrong.