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

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 [email protected]
• Full Juice Magazine Spring Edition
• September 1-6, 20202 England Cider Tour

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