[Sca-cooks] Documenting balsamic? Slow progress

[Stefan li Rous]

Huette said:
<<< I read somewhere a long time ago, where you could get the same effect of having multiple barrels of different kinds of woods by using planks of those various woods inside your aging barrels.? I don't remember where I read this, only that the gist was good enough to add the woody flavors to your wine or vinegar. >>>

Maybe. But depending upon what you are doing you may not get what you are trying to get.

I have heard of adding oak wood or other sources of tannin, such as tea to meads when brewing them. However, there may be more to this than just the oak or other wood taste that the wood lends when aged in a barrel. 

The following is from the coopering-msg file mentioned recently in another message.  Some of this might apply to vinegar just as with wines and alcoholic beverages.

<<< Mr. Maloney, you are absolutely correct about the purpose of casking beer,
for age not flavor. The main reason for aging in casks as opposed to carboy
or bottles is twofold. First is that unlike glass, wood is porous, regardless
of how hard it is. It is this porosity that allows the cask to 'sweat'
draining off excess water from the wort during final fermentation and aging.
This affects the brew by increasing it's body and acts as a pressure valve
for the cask allowing for greater carbonation which makes for a creamier and
more stiff head. Second, and perhaps most important, is that the wood
completely protects the beer from sunlight. This is important because it is
sunlight that breaks down the prerserving characteristics of the hop's
lupulin. Protecting the beer allows for a longer aging time which equates to
better beer. Anyone who knows and/or enjoys the difference between a typical
'light' beer and a more traditional lagered porter, stout or bock understands
the need for time in proper aging. >>>

I also thought I had this in the coopering-msg file, but I must have read it on a website. Commercial barrels have a specific lifetime they go through. First they are used for one beverage, maybe multiple times, then they are sold for use in a different beverage, then after the one or more times they are sold for another use and finally they get sold on the regular market as used barrels or cut in two and sold in garden shops as planters.  For some of these uses they can only be used once. In others, they depend upon coming from a specific previous use, and specifically not being fresh barrels. This is because the previous use does impregnate the wood with organic compounds.

So for some things, unless you run your pieces of wood through the same processes as the barrels, you would not get everything you counted on.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****