Study On The Application Of Oak Products In Brandy Aging

Various oak products (oak chips, oak staves and oak barrels) obtained from different geographic locations (France, United States and China) and processed differently (light, moderate, heavy toast) were used to age original brandy products (No. 1 and Super No.1 ) produced by ChangYu LTD. Before and after the aging procedure, the various outputs were analyzed by using pH and chromatographic measures, and for content of polyphenols, tannins, aromas as well as sense quality.The analysis and evaluations are focus on the transformation of the original brandy during the aging procedure, and the interrelation of polyphenols, tannins and aromatic substances among others. The optimum aging time was 10 days and thus gives an optimum alcohol concentration of 50%(v/v). moderate toast oak chip is optimum to brandy aging.The quality of brandy made from oak products obtained from France was found to be better than those from oak products obtained from all the other areas.Significant differences existed in the final brandy products which were due to the different processing technologies used for the oak chips. This was despite the fact that the oak material was made from the same geographic areas.Original brandy attained the fastest extraction time of polyphenols from oak stave at the beginning of aging.When No.1 and Super No.1 original brandy were soaked in oak stave, the extraction of polyphenols in No.1 original brandy was faster than that in Super No.1, but finally they got the almost same concentration after 16 weeks.The aging effectiveness of oak barrel is best. The effectiveness of brandy aged with oak staves was better than that obtained from oak chips, and was near to that stored in oak barrels.The aging effectiveness of the French oak barrel is better than the Chinese oak barrel. New oak barrel has a better aging impact than the old one. The content of polyphenols in original brandy was directly influenced by the geographical origin of the oak barrels and how long the barrel had been in use.It also has some influence on the the aromatic substances.