I’m new to cider and was wondering what effect oak (cubes of french, medium toast) will have on cider. Is it similar to mead or wine, adding some depth, spice, or caramel; or will it produce mostly off flavors which I have heard can happen with beer?
Recipe:
5 gal local fresh cider (cold-past)
2 cups brown sugar
2 pints water
champagne yeast
3/4 tsp energizer
2 1/4 tsp ferm K
4 tsp pectic enzyme
OG=1.053, projected ABV of 7.4
Planned on adding recommended amount for wine to secondary.
I think a subtle presence of oak could be nice if you made a traditional dry cider.
If it’s a sweeter cider, the oak can get a bit cloying.
Maybe you should split the batch and compare…you may like the oak in either type of cider (or not). Only one way to find out!
I would first boil the oak about 5 times in fresh water each time to get rid of the harsher oak compounds. Otherwise oak can be pretty overpowering, depending on how much is used. But I am interesting in trying the oak thing in a cider one of these days as well.
