131: Cider Barrels with a Cooper, a Maker & Thierry Lemaire

Cider Barrel Maintenance

The craft of making an oak barrel is called “cooperage” and the person who applies this craft is called a “cooper”. The skills of this trade have been passed down through the centuries. The tree and the wood chosen to become a barrel has to meet specific criteria, such as having a tight grain and flavor profiles that lend the tannin qualities often sought in a cider barrel.

From the classic wide belly barrels to oval shaped vessels, the shape of wooden barrels have changed very little over time. Quality control over the wood used and the intricacies of heat, stave bending, and maintenance of cider barrels continues to evolve.

This episode 131 was recorded in Saint Catharine, Ontario during a dinner chat with Ryan Monkman of FieldBird Cider, Thierry Lemaire of Nuance Winery Supplies and Louis of Radoux, a cooperage based in Santa Rosa California and France.

All three men have extensive knowledge on barrel use with wine. As the cider market continues to grow and both the consumer’s and cidermakers interest in ciders fermented or stored in oak increases, barrel maintenance is undoubtedly a hot topic and a key market for these specialist in the art of oak barrel cooperage and fermentation.

As we enjoy a bottle of Ryan’s FieldBird cider over dinner the four of us discuss oak barrel selection and maintenance, which in short narrows down to the broader topic of Barrel Skills. Whereas the wine industry has been working with oak barrels for centuries, cidermakers particularly in the US and Canada, are only now gaining speed with cider post Prohibition.

Key topics in this chat:

• Finding the right oak barrel for your cider
• Barrel Maintenance:
• Cleaning a barrel
• Storing a barrel
  • - wet or dry storage
  • - burning a sulfur disk
• Leaky barrels - mechanical (cooperage) or maker mismanagement?
• Using Wax on a barrel to stop evaporation
• Buying a new barrel

Contact Info for the guest in this episode

Thierry Lemaire

• Website: Nuance Winery Supplies
• eMail: mailto:[email protected]
• Address: 15 Lloyd Street
• St Catharines, ON L2S 2N7 - Canada
• Telephone: +1 905-225-0114

Louis Zandvliet

• Website: Radoux
• Address:
  • 480 Aviation Blvd.
  • Santa Rosa, CA 95403
• Telephone:  (707) 284-2888

Ryan Monkman

• FieldBird Cider
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fieldbird.cider/

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