Barrel aged and salt???

[leytonangell]

Has anybody barrel aged there mead and if so at what stage have you done this? I have found a site that I can get new oak barrels (approx 5ltr) that I was going to use to age a negroni mix.

Also I have recently had a mead from gosnells (meadery in London) using sea salt has anybody tried this? Will it kill the yeast if added to early?

 

[Jarik]

Its definitely doable. A lot of people on here shortcut it using special oak pieces, (chips, blocks, or sticks) made for 'oaking' these usually fit into your carboy, and can be removed as you see fit, and is generally simpler and cheeper than dealing with barrels. I've not tried it myself, but you may want to go that route at first, see if you like the results, then jump into barreling if you like the results.

 

[theDREWery]

The problem with small barrels is that they have a large surface to volume ratio, meaning that they add oak character very fast. And you don't want to leave a barrel empty and dry, so you'd want to have a lot of mead lined up, as you may only be letting it sit in there for a week or two. Once a few passes have been made, you could start leaving them in longer, as the flavor won't be as aggressive.

 

[leytonangell]

Thanks, I'll have a look into getting some oak bits to try the flavour out and see what I think.

 

[leytonangell]

The problem with small barrels is that they have a large surface to volume ratio, meaning that they add oak character very fast. And you don't want to leave a barrel empty and dry, so you'd want to have a lot of mead lined up, as you may only be letting it sit in there for a week or two. Once a few passes have been made, you could start leaving them in longer, as the flavor won't be as aggressive.

Ok cool, I was thinking of using it after I had ages some spirits,negroni's, manhattans and those kind of things to possibly impart those flavour profiles into the mead. I was also thinking about it for cider too!