Oak Blocks

[BillZ]

I wanted to pass along something I have been doing for a couple of years now. I like to put my wine on oak for a month or two but do not have room for barrels. I have tried the cork screw oak, and oak chips but have settled on oak blocks. They add a lot of flavor to the wine in a short amount of time and are easily recovered when I rack off of them.

Here is the cool part. I throw the oak blocks into a plastic bag and save them in the refrigerator. Later I use them in small amounts to smoke various different meats and they add a nice smooth wine infused smoke flavor. Why let anything go to waste.

 

[tonyt]

By blocks I assume you mean cubes, aka beans. About the size of small dice? I save dry them and use on smoker but keeping in the refrig actually sounds like a good idea too.

 

[ZeitGeist]

I wanted to pass along something I have been doing for a couple of years now. I like to put my wine on oak for a month or two but do not have room for barrels. I have tried the cork screw oak, and oak chips but have settled on oak blocks. They add a lot of flavor to the wine in a short amount of time and are easily recovered when I rack off of them.

Here is the cool part. I throw the oak blocks into a plastic bag and save them in the refrigerator. Later I use them in small amounts to smoke various different meats and they add a nice smooth wine infused smoke flavor. Why let anything go to waste.

Good move using them to smoke meats. I keep mine in the freezer and use them for my beer batches.