Adding Oak Flavor to your Cider

[danz]

Of course what's described here is very dangerous and should never be attempted unless you're outside and sober

I stumbled across a technique called Nuke aging where you microwave a high proofed booze in a mason jar with short 10-30 burst till you see movement, add your wood chips then put the lid on to create a vacuum. The hot liquor opens the pores of the wood and the vacuum forces the liquid into the pores extracting the flavors rapidly. After a couple of days you can repeat to further intensify the flavor but I found that there is still a strong booze flavor. So what easier way to remove the booze?

This is actually a very high proofed spirit and took forever to burn off the alcohol but the final result was liquid oak that added a great complexity to my cider. I will do some more precise measured experiments and report my results.

Enjoy!

 

[BrewSavage]

that seems like a lot of work as opposed just putting oak chips in your primary.

 

[danz]

Well I have noticed a higher/faster concentration of oak flavors/aromas vs adding directly into the fermenter as well I can prepare a batch for future use and control exactly how much flavor I want immediately.

For some it may not be worth the effort but there are lots of advantages especially if you only want to flavor a bottle or 2.

 

[SanPancho]

waiting for those precise measured experiment results...

Did you use a neutral spirit? wondering what a little bit of rum or brandy flavor left in the oak concentrate might do for the cider, especially as a holiday bev

 

[danz]

After making this a couple of ways I found that adding a higher proof spirit works better and is easier to burn off the booze then just plain vodka. I still need to work out the ratio but you want about a 1:3 chips to booze ratio.

I also discovered a blend of 50/50 American Dark Oak & French Oak is a great combo to add some real depth and complexity.