I was recently reading about some high-quality ciders (that sell for $$) produced using batonnage, literally stirring with a stick.
There has been a bit of traffic on the forum lately about improving flavour so I thought it might be worth throwing batonnage into the mix. It is a bit of a variation on sur lie fermenting and a quick search shows that it does get mentioned here from time to time, but not recently.
Batonnage is sometimes used when making chardonay. The wine in the barrel is stirred with a “stick” (well actually a stainless-steel paddle) in order to keep the lees suspended. This enables the fermentation to develop more flavour, texture and aroma.
The idea with cider is to rack off the primary coarse lees but take the fine lees into secondary, and keep them in suspension until nearly ready to bottle, then let the cider clear. This is supposed to be reasonably easy to do with a gallon carboy because giving it a bit of a shake will stir the lees. This avoids removing the air-lock and exposing the maturing cider to potential oxidation.
I haven’t done it myself, but plan to experiment a bit with a cider that I am happy to let mature for 6 – 12 months. Apparently, it takes that long to get a real benefit.
Anyhow, I thought batonnage worth mentioning and, of course Dr Google has plenty of information on it.
Has anyone gone down this path?
There has been a bit of traffic on the forum lately about improving flavour so I thought it might be worth throwing batonnage into the mix. It is a bit of a variation on sur lie fermenting and a quick search shows that it does get mentioned here from time to time, but not recently.
Batonnage is sometimes used when making chardonay. The wine in the barrel is stirred with a “stick” (well actually a stainless-steel paddle) in order to keep the lees suspended. This enables the fermentation to develop more flavour, texture and aroma.
The idea with cider is to rack off the primary coarse lees but take the fine lees into secondary, and keep them in suspension until nearly ready to bottle, then let the cider clear. This is supposed to be reasonably easy to do with a gallon carboy because giving it a bit of a shake will stir the lees. This avoids removing the air-lock and exposing the maturing cider to potential oxidation.
I haven’t done it myself, but plan to experiment a bit with a cider that I am happy to let mature for 6 – 12 months. Apparently, it takes that long to get a real benefit.
Anyhow, I thought batonnage worth mentioning and, of course Dr Google has plenty of information on it.
Has anyone gone down this path?