Sanitizing oak Chips?

Is it recommended to sanitize oak chips before adding? I was planning on sanitizing a small section of the wife's used panty hose along with a few marbles but not sure it it's necessary to pre-treat the oak in any way.

Rick

Reply to
ziggy
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I usually spread the oak chips on a cookie sheet and place in a 150 deg oven for about two hours. Works for me.

Cheers,

Ursula

Reply to
Bill and Ursula Herbert

I put the chips in the oven at 150-200 for 15-20 min. If your oak chips come from a good supplier in a sealed bag, you can throw it in the wine without any sanitizing.

Reply to
seb

Anybody who's had a fermentation go bad on them knows this to be false.

It will kill whatever they

There's some truth in all of that. Basically, you should use a product that is made for the purpose of infusing wine with oak flavor. All the reputable ones are ready to just dump in, although a water rinse isn't a bad idea to wash away the sawdust.

Tom S

Reply to
Tom S

I think what he means is that the bugs that can grow in wine won't kill you if you drink it (the acid/alcohol mix wipes out pathogenic organisms). However, as you have indirectly pointed out, a wine that has had bugs growing in it will probably taste so bloody awful that the question of it being poisonous will be moot!

Reply to
Andrew L Drumm

I usually have to sweeten my wine, and I use regular table sugar. Since table sugar(sucrose) is a polysaccaride, yeast cells enzymes are not able to fully process it, often leaving a different odor/taste in the wine if enough sugar has been used. So, in order to break down the polysaccaride to monosaccaride(which the yeast can fully process), I boil the sugar in juice or spring water with the addition of a couple teaspoons of tartaric acid for about 15 to twenty minutes. I do this every time I have to add sugar, and the point being that I also throw the oak chips in there too. I've never had a problem, and ever since I have started doing this little high school chemistry exercise, the flavor and nose of my wines have improved 100%. Oak is organic and can grow bacteria, so boiling them for at least 15 minutes will make sure they are clean.

Dave

Reply to
David Hill

juice or spring water with the

It sounds to me like an excellent way to leach all your oak flavour out! I assume that the entire mixture is added to the wine? If you boil oak chips and discard the water, you might as well not add them at all...

Reply to
Andrew L Drumm

#1 If you're using the sugar to sweeten the wine, it shouldn't be consumed by yeast!!?

#2 Yeast enzymes are able to convert all available sucrose into glucose and fructose, provided the alcohol level is not too high.

#3 Sucrose will invert to glucose and fructose at the normal pH of wine.

Back to pH, the pH of oak will not support wine pathogens. I have only played around with oak chips, but have had no problem just dumping them in fresh out of the bag.

clyde

Reply to
Clyde Gill

Is that inverting sugar? Also, what is the recommended sugar to use then if table sugar is bad. Typically on recipes all I see it say is "sugar".

juice or spring water with the

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