On Jan 12, 9:46 am, mail box wrote:
On 1/10/2008 10:13 PM, wrote:



There are a bunch of choices for adding a bit of oak to wines and
meads, such as barrels, cubes, chips, liquid essence, and powder.
There are also numerous choices in oak varieties, such as French,
Hungarian, and American.

I'm curious what are the favorite methods employed by members of this
forum. How do you prefer to age with oak and what variety do you like
the best.

I prefer French oak, medium toast. I add it by the fluid cup measure to
my wines and meads, Stavin beads. One cup per 5 gallons of red wine,
less for meads or white wines. More for very sturdy red wines. I very
much enjoy the character, much more so than American oak. I have little
experience with Hungarian oak. My spouse and I refer to the flavor
characteristic of American oak as 'plank', and it takes several years
for that flavor to age out to the point at which it is enjoyable.
French oak is vanilla and soft and flavorful right from the start.

I think I'm starting to get ahead of the MI5 Persecution guy. :-)

Greg

Good luck with that.
May I suggest a kill file?

Cheers,
Ken

Here's one for used up oak....while still wet, put it in a sandwich
bag and freeze it till next time you've got the grill going....put the
oak (minus the plastic bag ) in a foil pouch and put it in the
grill for excellent smoke flavor.