Cider Chat 222: Ask Ryan | Quarantine Quad Series | Part 2
Part 2 of the Quarantine Quad Series called "Ask Ryan" continues with Ryan Monkman of FieldBird Cider, Ontario Canada answering questions from Cider Chat listeners on working with oak barrels.
Listen Part 1 of the Quarantine Quad Series
Ryan addresses:
Stacking Oak Barrels
At FieldBird they call climbing up stacked barrels: Monkey climbing, where they uses e barrels as a ladder.
Managing Head space in a barrel
Using a solid bung for a full seal and not a bung with airlock
How to sanitize a barrel that’s been sitting for 6 months untreated.
- First smell barrel - if not funky you likely are ok
- Find out if it will hold water.
- Can take 2-3 days for water to absorb into the staves.
- Avoid chlorinated water or find a way to dechlorinate the water (Do reverses osmosis to remover the chlorine)
- TCA - is formed when oak is mixed with Chlorine
- Also known as cork taint
The Gold Standard for cleaning an empty barrel is steam.
- A winery may have a gamajet that is used to clean the barrels via steam.
- Turn on for 15 minutes
Burning sulfur sticks or barrel disks in empty barrels to protect barrel from oxygen which deters spoilage from occurring.
- Light on the sulfur on fire and seal the barrel
- Hang the sulfur and avoid drop the disk of sulfur into the barrel
Lighting sulfur disks to put into barrels
More caustic ways to clean oak barrels
- In the US - Scotts Labs has oak restorer that can be used to clean barrels.
- A caustic cleaner to mix with water
- Citric acid and 300 ppm sulfur (Potassium metabisulfite - KMS)
- KMS is water soluble. - should taste like lemon water hold unpleasant aroma out of wood and knock back the population of spoilage
- Ryan has had to do this up to 3x to clean out the barrel
- If using KMS - use 600 ppm - because 1/2 of KMS is sulfur
- Citric acid and 300 ppm sulfur (Potassium metabisulfite - KMS)
Avoid used Sodium Metabisulfite because is can cause instability in the cider and the sodium sticks around.
A Cooper can re-cooper a barrel, but this might cost more than a new barrel and should be a last resort
Contact for Ryan Monkman at FieldBird Cider
- website: https://www.fieldbird.ca/
- Instagram
- FieldBird https://www.instagram.com/fieldbird.cider/
- Ryan Monkman https://www.instagram.com/rgmonkman/
Mentions in this chat
- Stories in Ciderville - send in fiction and nonfiction essays to read out loud on Cider Chat to ria@ciderchat.com
- Full Juice Magazine Spring Edition
- September 1-6, 20202 England Cider Tour
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