Not all moonshiners have the opportunity to buy or store an oak barrel for aging alcoholic beverages. This problem is solved by infusing the distillate on pharmaceutical oak bark or specially made wood chips that imitate the soaking and firing of a barrel. We will consider both options.
Any grain, fruit or sugar moonshine is suitable for infusion. Tannins contained in bark and wood, upon contact with ethyl alcohol, are converted into environmentally friendly substances that change the color, taste and smell of even ordinary moonshine for the better. Depending on the characteristics of the wood and the aging time, notes of fruit, vanilla, flowers, and chocolate appear in the drink.
Moonshine on oak bark
A simple and quick way to refine the distillate, which does not require large time and material costs. The result is a soft tincture with a characteristic cognac scent.
Ingredients:
- moonshine (45-50%) – 3 liters;
- oak bark - 3 tablespoons;
- honey – 1 tablespoon;
- cloves – 5 buds;
- allspice – 10 peas;
- St. John's wort – 1 tablespoon;
- oregano – 1 tablespoon;
- vanillin and coriander - on the tip of a knife.
You can infuse moonshine only on oak (bark), without adding other ingredients. But then the taste will be harsh and the smell will be too strong. I advise you to buy bark and other herbs at a pharmacy, where the quality is at least somehow controlled.
Recipe
1. Place seasonings and oak bark in a glass container, pour in moonshine, mix well and close tightly with a lid.
2. Leave for 14-16 days in a dark place at room temperature, shake once every 3-4 days.
3. Filter the tincture through cheesecloth and a cotton filter. For complete transparency, 3-4 filtration may be needed. Then pour into bottles for storage and seal tightly with stoppers.
4. Before use, soak the finished oak moonshine for 10-12 days, then the taste will noticeably improve.
Tincture on oak bark Moonshine on oak wood (chips)
A more successful imitation of distillate aging in barrels than the first method, but it requires careful preliminary preparation and long infusion. First, the wood must be freed from excess tannins that spoil the taste. This is done by soaking followed by heat treatment.
Chip harvesting technology
1. Chop dry logs without bark into pegs 2x2 cm and up to 10 cm long (approximate dimensions).
2. Soak the resulting wood chips in cold water for a day, changing the water every 8 hours.
3. Pour the soaked oak pegs with an aqueous solution of soda (1 tablespoon of soda per 5 liters of water) and leave for 6 hours.
4. Drain the solution and rinse the wood chips well under running water.
5. Place the pieces in a saucepan, add water, bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for 45-50 minutes.
6. Drain the broth and rinse the wood again with cold water.
7. Dry the wood chips in the air (preferably in the attic) until completely dry (at least two days).
8. Place the pieces on a baking sheet and place in a preheated oven (140-160°C) for 2 hours until a light blush appears.
9. Store the finished wood chips in a dry, warm place (should not become damp).
Oak wood can be replaced with apple or cherry wood. The method for obtaining wood chips does not change.
Infusion
1. Fry the previously prepared wood chips on the grill of an oven or microwave. The notes of smell and taste depend on the degree of firing. Light roasting (at the moment of the first smoke) gives the drink a subtle hint of vanilla, fruit and flowers. Medium roasting (smoke and smell appears) introduces the aroma of coconut, caramel, almonds, and spices. Strong firing (the wood begins to change color) imbues the moonshine with a smoky taste with chocolate undertones (like Scotch whiskey).
During the roasting process, the main thing is not to burn the wood chips. For the first time, I advise you to practice on a small amount so as not to spoil all the wood.
2. Add oak chips to moonshine (45-50%) at the rate of 20-30 grams per liter and close the lid tightly. Infuse in a dark, cool place for 3-6 months (on average). Gradually the color will change. Take a sample every week, monitoring the organoleptic properties of the drink. The duration of aging depends on the properties of the selected wood and your preferences in taste and aroma; sometimes even 15 days is enough.
3. Pour the oak-infused moonshine into another container. If necessary, filter through cheesecloth. Before use, keep for 3-5 days in a cool, dark place to stabilize the taste.
P.S. Many online stores sell ready-made oak chips of varying degrees of roasting, eliminating the need to get wood and make wood chips at home.
In production, oak barrels made from boards of varying degrees of roasting are used for the same purposes, but in everyday life, purchasing them is quite expensive. A not entirely complete, but quite worthy replacement would be wood chips and, to a lesser extent, bark, which can be bought at any pharmacy. How to use it correctly and what to do with it in general is in our article.
What is the use of wood chips
The cost of a barrel is directly proportional to its volume. Very small ones - 5-liter - will cost an average of 4-5 thousand rubles, 50-liter - from 8 thousand, etc. But it’s not even this that’s bad; if you regularly prepare cognac products, you can fork out money, but the fact that the barrel is designed for a maximum of 10 refills. After this, there is no longer any use for it - it will just be a storage container. You don't have to be a mathematician to understand how much pleasure will cost. Oak chips for cognac and whiskey are several times cheaper, especially since they can be found for free - in the nearest forest or in a country house where oak trees grow.
You cannot use boards from logging enterprises - the wood goes through a chemical treatment to prevent beetles, rot, and to increase shelf life.
Even if we assume that the wood has not yet been processed, the dubious benefits of such an acquisition are obvious - dusty warehouses, oil and fuel oil from loaders neutralize all the useful properties of the tree.
The easiest way is to find an old tree in the nearest forest and cut off its branch (may Greenpeace and environmental inspectors forgive us). This will truly be a 100% natural product, which will only need to be split into small chips and pre-prepared.
There is an option to buy blanks in specialized stores - 50 grams on average cost 80-100 rubles. This amount of oak chips is enough to infuse 2.5-3 liters of future cognac.
Oak chips “Premium” (highly fired) cubes - price 112 rub. for 50 gr.
Log or bark?
In extreme cases, you can use pharmaceutical bark, which is sold in all pharmacies. But this is just a backup option, since it won’t make real cognac. Before packaging, it is processed, as a result of which a large amount of tannins is lost. The finished drink will not have an intense aroma and color, and the aftertaste will be completely indistinct.
VIDEO: Harvesting technology at home
How to prepare oak chips for cognac
Preparing oak chips for cognac with your own hands consists of several stages:
- Cleaning
After collecting and cutting into pegs with a cross-section of 5-7 mm, be sure to wash them under running water to remove small particles, dust and debris. You need to rinse it 3-4 times, drying it in between.
- Soak
The task of this stage is to clean the wood from the inside. You can simply soak the pegs in water at room temperature for a day, or you can add baking soda at the rate of 1 tsp. for every liter of water. In this case, soda absorbs all the substances that the tree managed to accumulate during its growth. They soak for an average of 2-3 days (changing the water every day), after which they dry again. There is no need to wait until the water becomes clear. This may not work. But some of the substances will leave during the soaking process.
- Digestion
A very important step to avoid the “baseboard” taste of the finished drink in the future. On the other hand, during the digestion process, the pores open as much as possible, therefore, with alcohol there will be a better composition.
To do this, place the pegs in cold water, bring to a boil, cover with a lid and leave on low heat for a quarter of an hour. Then they took it out, cooled and dried.
- Burning
Depending on the conditions under which oak chips for cognac are prepared, they can be fired in the oven at a temperature of 160°C or over direct fire. The degree of roasting can be different - minimal, medium and intense. This subsequently affects the color and taste of the drink. We recommend making all 3 types and insisting on each separately in order to further determine your preferences.
- minimum roasting - golden wood - the taste will be vanilla with a slight bitterness;
- medium - brown - a distinct sound of almonds with caramel notes, the bitterness is felt more, but unobtrusively;
- intense – dark brown – the taste of freshly brewed tea and chocolate will be felt in the future.
If black marks appear on the tree, you cannot use it - such cognac will simply be impossible to drink.
- Storage
Store the prepared pegs in an airtight container to preserve the smoke flavor. It is advisable to use oak chips for moonshine as soon as they are prepared. In this case, all the notes and accents of the aroma will be preserved. The longer the workpiece is stored, the less pronounced the organoleptic properties will be.
Making homemade cognac
In this case, we are not talking about imitation of the taste of cognac, but about real brandy made from grape mash. Try to follow the instructions as closely as possible so that the end result is not a drink made by French masters, but very close to it.
For mash you need to use sweet grape varieties - Isabella, Lady's finger, Lydia, etc. It must be ripe.
- grapes – 15 kg;
- sugar – 1.5;
- water – 2 liters.
- oak chips.
If sweet juicy southern grapes are used for mash, sugar is not needed at all. In this case, you will get pure grape alcohol - an ideal base for brandy.
Preparation:
- The grapes are removed from the bunch and crushed right along with the seeds.
- Pour the liquid into a bottle and, if the grapes were not very juicy, add sugar at the rate of 1 kg of sand for every 10 liters of wort. Drinking water is also poured there, it is measured in advance at the rate of 1 liter per 7.5 kg. Cover with a cotton cloth and send to a warm, dark place for 4 days.
- Stir the mash daily with wooden sticks so that a foamy cap of the pulp does not accumulate - it blocks oxygen, and the yeast cannot fully develop.
By the end of the first day, you can start stirring the mash to prevent souring.
- On the fifth day, the mash will have all the signs of active fermentation - hissing, aroma, the pulp will all rise to the top. Now you need to strain the liquid, and squeeze out the scraps of berries well.
- Add sugar (a small amount) to the juice, stir with a wooden stick, pour into bottles, leaving a third of the volume empty. Close with a water seal and send to a dark place for 35-40 days. The temperature of the mash all this time should be in the range of 19-27°C, for which it is convenient to use an aquarium heater.
- When fermentation stops, the wort becomes lighter in color and the sediment falls to the bottom, it can be filtered and sent for distillation.
- Ideally, use an alambic (copper apparatus) for distillation, but if one is not available, a regular one will do. Pour into a distillation cube and run at maximum temperature, without removing the tails and heads. Stop as soon as the strength of the raw material drops to 30°.
- The resulting raw material is diluted with water to 8°, after which it is put into a second distillation. This is where the heads are already selected (no more than 12%) and the tails are cut off - when the strength is reduced to 30°.
- In order to obtain wine alcohol in its pure form, it can be sent for a third distillation, for which the raw material is diluted with water to 20°. Heads (12%) and tails are collected again after 45°. The strength of the distillate is measured and diluted with water to 42°.
- Now comes the turn of infusion on oak chips. On average, the infusion time should be at least six months, but the longer this process goes on, the brighter and richer the taste will be. Maximum aging time is 3 years.
- Caramelization is a mandatory step to add color to the finished drink. This is done at all production sites. Prepare caramel - 1 tbsp. sugar per 1 tbsp. The water is boiled until brown and added to the strained and filtered drink. Infuse for 10 days and bottle.
The cognac is ready, now it’s time for tasting.
VIDEO: How to make sugar color for homemade cognac
Most luxury spirits are aged for a certain amount of time in barrels made from various types of wood. Many experts argue that there is not much difference where and in what way the alcohol was stored. However, true gourmets are able to detect the tart notes in alcoholic beverages that wood gives it. So, how to infuse moonshine with oak chips?
Why wood?
Since infusing moonshine on oak chips is not a complicated procedure, it’s worth understanding why many people use wood. There are several explanations for this. Oak chips, once in alcohol, act as an adsorbent. This is due to the structure of the material. Wood capillaries, like sponges, pull out impurities dangerous to human health from alcoholic beverages. Aldehydes do not disappear on their own during the distillation process. Thanks to this, alcohol aged on oak chips for several years is a purer product.
As practice shows, moonshine infused with such raw materials becomes softer due to the biochemical substances contained in wood. They also give the drink a pleasant aroma and also bind toxins.
Most doctors agree that oak chips are a product with amazing properties. This drink can help a person get rid of many diseases and improve their general condition. In this case, it does not matter at all where the tincture was made: in production or at home.
What substances end up in alcohol?
Oak allows you to make homemade alcohol softer and more noble. Why is this happening? Oak chips not only remove harmful compounds from the drink, but also release their beneficial substances, including:
Wood comes in different varieties
How to infuse moonshine with oak chips at home? First of all, it is worth clarifying what kind of wood is required for this. Alcohol can only be infused with wood chips made from oak grown on impoverished soil and in a dry climate. Such wood is considered ideal. If you take oak chips made from trees growing in other conditions, you can create a drink with an unpleasant taste. After all, such wood is saturated with tannins. They are the ones who spoil the taste of alcohol.
Choosing oak material
How to infuse moonshine with oak chips and get a pleasant-tasting drink? To do this, you need to choose the right raw materials. Alcohol can be infused on oak bark, oak chips, or each of the methods has its own characteristics:
How to properly prepare wood chips
Before answering the question of how and how much to infuse moonshine on oak chips, it is worth clarifying how to properly prepare the raw materials. Of course, you can purchase the material at a specialty store or pharmacy. But if you wish, you can prepare the wood chips yourself. This requires:
- Find an oak log of the required size. It should be left at room temperature until completely dry.
- The prepared log must be cleaned of bark. It can be used to prepare bitters. The rest of the wood should be made into wood chips. The dimensions of each piece should be no more than 2x2x10 cm.
- Oak chips that will be used to infuse moonshine should be filled with cold water. The raw materials must stand like this for at least 24 hours. Every 8 hours the water must be changed to fresh.
- After this procedure, the flail needs to be leached. To do this, use a baking soda solution. You can prepare it yourself. It is enough to dilute two tablespoons of baking soda in 10 liters of water. You need to soak the wood chips in the solution for 6 hours.
- After the specified time, the oak chips need to be washed, poured into a deep pan, filled with clean water, and then boiled for 5 minutes.
- The water needs to be drained and the raw materials washed. Oak chips should be dried in a dark but dry room. This takes at least a day.
- Finally, the raw materials must be heated well in the oven. Oak chips should be placed in an oven preheated to 150˚C for two hours.
Raw materials prepared using this method can be stored for many years.
Does roasting affect the taste of the drink?
How long to infuse moonshine on oak chips? In this case, much depends on the recipe, as well as on the degree of firing of the raw materials. These factors also affect both the aroma and taste of alcohol. The wood should be grilled before use. There are three ways:
- Light firing. The raw material remains light brown in color. In this case, moonshine infused with oak chips will have a pleasant aroma of fruit, vanilla, and also have smoky notes.
- Medium firing. The wood chips take on a brown tint. Thanks to such raw materials, the alcoholic drink will acquire the taste of almonds or caramel.
- Strong burning. The wood should become dark brown. A drink infused with such wood chips will have a chocolate taste with a slight hint of smokedness.
Which moonshine is better to use?
How long to steep moonshine on oak chips? It depends on taste preferences, on the method of firing the raw materials, as well as on the type of alcoholic beverage. For infusion it is better to use:
- grain;
- sugar;
- fruit moonshine.
As for the last type of alcohol, you should use chacha to prepare an elite alcoholic drink. This is moonshine made from grapes. Of course, a lot depends on taste preferences. If you use oak chips in combination with other types of moonshine, you can get an unpleasant result. The drink may acquire a strong odor or bitter taste, and may also contain harmful components.
Classic recipe
So, how to properly infuse moonshine on oak chips. To do this you will need oak chips and moonshine. It is best to use a drink whose strength is 45˚.
To prepare a tasty and aromatic drink, you need to add wood chips to a container with alcohol. In this case, it is necessary to observe proportions. 1 liter of alcohol requires 20 grams of raw materials. How long does it take to infuse moonshine on oak chips for this recipe? It all depends on the desired result. On average it takes from 3 to 6 months. When the drink is completely ready, it is necessary to remove the wood from it. Now you know how to infuse moonshine with oak chips.
To prepare the drink, use a glass or stainless steel container with a sealed lid. Plastic products are not suitable. Moonshine should be infused in a dark and cool place.
Recipe with raisins
If you want to get an alcoholic drink with smoked, vanilla and grape notes, then you need to infuse it with oak chips and raisins. The cooking process is simple. For 3 liters of moonshine you need 20 grams of raisins, 60 grams of burnt wood chips, a handful of oak bark.
All components must be combined in one container and infused for 2-3 months. Finally, it’s worth trying the finished drink. If necessary, the infusion time can be increased. The result should be a soft, slightly astringent alcoholic drink.
How to speed up the process
How to infuse moonshine on oak in just a few weeks? In this case, spices will help. For 1 liter of moonshine you will need 0.3 grams of vanillin, two peas of allspice, two cloves. The drink must be infused in a glass or stainless steel container. The room should be dry, cool and dark. How long should moonshine be infused with oak chips and spices? It takes 2 to 3 weeks to prepare an elite drink.
It is worth considering that alcohol prepared according to this recipe will not have healing properties. To obtain the required color, you will need to add caramel, which reduces the strength of the alcoholic drink by 2 or 3˚. This factor should be taken into account during the first distillation.
Alcohol “Country style”
Is there another way to infuse moonshine with oak chips? A recipe for making an alcoholic drink may include various herbs and spices. How to make moonshine “Country style”? To do this you will need:
- high quality moonshine with a strength of at least 45˚ - 3 liters;
- white sugar for caramel syrup - 2 large spoons;
- medium-burnt oak chips 4x4x10 centimeters - 6 pieces;
- rose hips - 15 pieces;
- black pepper - from 3 to 4 peas;
- black tea, preferably large-leaf and high quality - 1 teaspoon;
- St. John's wort - 1 teaspoon ground or 1 small sprig.
There is no need to add too much of the last component. It's better to put less than more.
Additional Ingredients
To make the drink more aromatic and softer, you should add:
- 1 tablespoon each of white and black raisins;
- 1 pitted prune;
- no more than 3 centimeters long;
- 15 grams of oregano;
- 15 grams of thyme.
These components do not need to be added. However, thanks to them, the moonshine will acquire a more interesting taste. You can also exclude St. John's wort from the recipe. But you shouldn't give up vanilla.
Cooking process
First you need to make caramel syrup from sugar. It should be a light brown color. The remaining components should be placed in a glass container and carefully poured with moonshine. Finally, add the prepared caramel syrup and seal it with a lid.
In terms of time, you need to infuse moonshine on oak chips for at least 14 days. However, it is worth considering a few rules. A week after adding all the components, it is necessary to remove the prunes and vanilla from the container. In general, it costs from 14 to 28 days to infuse alcohol. In this case, the container must be shaken periodically.
What to do next
When the moonshine acquires a more pronounced aroma and its color becomes darker, it is necessary to filter it. To do this, you can use gauze, pre-folded in several layers, as well as a cotton filter.
The finished alcoholic drink should be poured into glass containers and left to rest for three months. If desired, this time can be increased. Containers should be placed in a cool and dark place. As a result of this procedure, the taste of the drink will become softer and more harmonious. At the same time, all tanning compounds will be removed from the moonshine. If after the specified time a precipitate has formed, then the alcoholic drink should be filtered again.
What not to do
You can infuse moonshine on oak chips for more than 3 months. Much depends on the desired result and recipe. However, there are general recommendations. What should you not do?
- It is not recommended to fry oak chips for too long. If you are doing this for the first time, you should practice on a small amount of raw materials. Black wood chips cannot be used.
- You should not use damp or raw material to infuse moonshine. The wood chips must be dry and burnt.
- It is not recommended to infuse alcohol in containers made of plastic. This drink can become poisonous. After all, alcohol can corrode all types of plastic.
- You should not add a large amount of spices and wood to moonshine, violating the proportions. This may negatively affect the taste of the drink. It will be almost impossible to correct the consequences.
- You should not overexpose the moonshine. This can also affect the taste and smell of the finished product.
- It is not recommended to infuse large amounts of moonshine on wood chips using an untested recipe. It is better to put a small amount of alcohol.
In conclusion
Moonshine infused with oak chips acquires a pleasant and mild taste. Even with the same recipes, in each case an ambiguous result will be obtained. Alcohol will differ in both taste and aroma. However, oak chips are still the best material for removing harmful compounds from moonshine. As a result of infusion, the drink becomes noble and purer.
Chips for aging alcoholic beverages must be made from high-quality oak wood that is at least 90-100 years old. Only the lower part of the trunk is used - up to 7 m in height.
No additional substances that increase the oak aroma or increase the extract content of substances are used in production - oak chips are a completely natural product.
On average, 300-500 g of wood chips are used to keep 80 liters of drink.
The effect of roasting level on the drink:
Lightly fired - subtle hints of vanilla, fruit and flowers
Medium roasting - bright aroma of vinyl, almond, coconut, spices, caramel.
High firing - rich smoky, chocolate effect.
Light, medium and high firing
Unburnt wood chips
Uncharred wood chips used during alcoholic fermentation improve the tannin structure and stabilize the color of red wines. The aroma profile reflects the characteristics of fruit and almond with a slight oak tone. You can also note an increase in the intensity of the aftertaste.
Burnt wood chips
The combined use of medium and deep roast wood chips during aging increases the aromatic complexity of the wine. Medium-fired wood chips enhance the sweetness and oak flavor. Highly fired wood chips have an intense aroma with a predominance of vanilla tones and a strong oak tone in the taste.
Table: quantity of oak chips for cognac or wine and required aging time:
The best results were obtained when using:
- for processing white tableware (dose 0.3 - 1.0 g/dm3), holding time - 6 - 12 days;
- for red table fortified and dessert wines (dose up to 1 g/dm3) - aging time 6 - 30 days;
- for cognac and calvados alcohols (dose 5 - 30 g/dm3) - minimum aging time - 3 - 6 months.
The standard dosage is from 0.5 to 4 g of chips per 1 liter of wine. In fact, the decision is left to the winemaker. The dosage depends entirely on the desire to impart a rich oak tone to the wine. It is also possible to prepare a concentrate in a small volume of wine with a high dosage of chips (approx. 10g/1litre), and then blend it with the rest of the wine. The properties of the chips are similar to those of the new barrel, which has more intense aromatic characteristics.
Unfried or lightly fried chips are recommended for alcoholic fermentation. Medium and strong types of roasting are used during wine aging.
Before the start of alcoholic fermentation, chips or powder can be added to the wort or pulp. Oak tannins will help stabilize color and lock in the fruity aroma of the wine. At the end of fermentation, the chips will add a complex aromatic profile and roundness to your wine. During aging, the chips allow the manufacturer to monitor the development of oak aroma tones. By using a medium to high roast blend, you can control the oak flavor in your wine.
Can be added freely, to a container or barrel. You can also use fabric containers made from porous material. Cotton bags for food use are also available, both empty, which can hold the desired number of chips, and pre-packed bags of 6 kg each (3 bags per box). In order to improve the exchange between oak and wine, we advise winemakers not to overfill the bags.
Oak shepa is not made sterile, but it is cleaned well enough and therefore does not require special processing. But if you are not sure about the storage conditions and want to avoid any problems, you should rinse it for 5-7 minutes in sulfated water at room temperature in order to avoid too much loss of its aromatic properties. And you need to keep in mind that due to the risk of producing some phenols, which give off-tones, you should avoid washing oak chips with chlorinated water.
If you use oak chips during fermentation, they should be kept in a container throughout the fermentation period. If you are using chips when aging wine, the contact time is between 3 and 8 weeks, depending on the intended purpose. The extraction takes place quite quickly (from 1 to 4 weeks depending on the size), but more time is needed to assimilate the extract with the wine.
Re-using fine oak chips is not advisable, since the chips are quite thin, the drink penetrates through the chips and extracts all the necessary components in a short time. And larger oak cubes and bars can be reused.
Recipes:
Cherry wine on oak chips
Cherry – 1 kg
Vodka – 400 ml
Cinnamon – 1.5 g
Nutmeg - 1 g
Sugar - 250 g
Oak chips
Cover the cherries, crushed together with the pits, with gauze and let stand for about 2-4 days so that the cherries ferment. Then pour sugar, spices, vodka and cherries into the container. Cover with a lid and leave for about 6-18 days.
At the next stage, it is necessary to filter the tincture and bottle it, adding oak chips at the rate of 12-14 g per 3 liters of cherry liqueur.
Leave to ripen for at least a month.
Cherry liqueur made with oak chips will have a pronounced cherry flavor, light sweetness and tartness, thanks to the oak chips.
The use of oak chips during fermentation and aging is a common practice in wine production and has a positive effect on flavour, body and overall quality. In particular, oak imparts many volatile and phenolic substances to the wine, each of which individually and collectively contribute to the composition. Aging in oak barrels also makes a significant contribution to the organoleptic format. Due to the porosity of wood, oxygen slowly penetrates through it, helping to soften astringency, stabilize color and weaken some aromatic characteristics. Although fermentation and barrel aging are desirable for many wines, they are often not practical for many reasons, including financial constraints. Oak barrels are very expensive, take up a lot of space and need to be replaced regularly with new ones to consistently achieve the desired effect.
All this forces winemakers to look for less expensive alternatives, in particular oak chips. The chips can be added to wine, fermented and stored in steel, glass or plastic containers, and the effect achieved is similar to that of wines made in oak barrels.
Many factors influence which volatile components are extracted from oak into wine and in what quantities. Their content is influenced by the duration of contact of the wine with oak, the origin of the tree, its quality, level of roasting, and others. Wine type and grape variety may also be major factors influencing extract. Among the volatile components, the most characteristic are:
- Furfural (dried fruit tones)
- Guaiacol (burnt tones)
- Whiskey lactone (oak and coconut)
- Eugenol (clove, smoke, spice)
- 4-ethylphenol (labradorite dacite, barnyard)
- 4-ethylguaiacol (cloves, smoke, spices)
- Vanillin (vanilla tones)
- Lilac aldehyde (vanilla)
The most significant influence on the aroma, taste and quality of wine is exerted by lactones, volatile phenols and phenolic aldehydes.
Four wine samples were used in the experiment:
1) Varietal Cabernet Sauvignon
2) Varietal Bluefrankish
3) Red blend
4) White blend
and eight samples of oak chips:
1) American oak
- Medium roast
- Deep roast
2) German oak
- No roasting
- Medium roast
- Deep roast
3) French oak
- Medium roast
- Medium roast +
- Deep roast
Each wine was bottled in nine liter bottles and sealed with a crown cap. One sample was a control, the other eight contained 1g/l of each type of oak chips. The samples were kept for 30 days in a dark room at a temperature of 4ºC. The bottles were shaken twice a week for better extraction.
The composition of volatile components was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
results
Furfurals:
- The most significant change in concentration among other substances
- The concentration of furfural and 5-methylfural increased in all samples
- The greatest increase in concentration is on deep-roasted French oak chips.
- The greatest increase in 5-methylfural concentration was found in medium-toasted American oak and high-toasted French oak chips.
- Lowest concentration change on unroasted German oak chips
Lactones
- Growth in all samples
- Largest increase in concentration on medium roasted American oak chips
- The smallest increase is on medium+ and deep fried chips
Eugenols
- Growth in all samples except Cabernet Sauvignon.
- In Cabernet Sauvignon treated with German oak chips without roasting and deep roasting, a decrease in the concentration of eugenols was noted.
- Increasing concentration in wines made from medium-roasted American oak chips
- Concentrations of trans-isoeugenols were found in medium- and high-roast French and American oak chips
Guaiacol
- The content level depended on the degree of roasting and did not depend on the origin of the chips
- Absent in samples infused with chips without frying
Ethylphenol
- Oak chips had no effect on the content of 4-ethylphenol in the samples
What does this mean?
The degree of roasting had the most significant effect on the composition of volatile substances. The content of furfural, guaiacol and whiskey lactones increased with the degree of roasting. However, geographic origin had a significantly smaller effect, which is inconsistent with the results of some other studies. However, the author admits that the experiment cannot fully reflect real production conditions, when oak chips are added at a strictly defined period during the aging process. Also, shaking the bottles is unlikely to simulate the process of micro-oxygenation in stainless steel containers, which can also significantly influence the results.
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