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Brewing with Spanish Cedar

I’ve been using Spanish cedar as an ingredient in homebrews for some time now. I first got the idea to age beer along with Spanish cedar wood staves after judging the “Smoked and Wood Aged” beer category during the first round of the 2010 National Homebrew Competition. I really enjoy judging these styles, because homebrewers can be quite inventive in this category. There was an IPA that was aged on Spanish cedar wood in our judging flight, and not knowing much about Spanish cedar, I thought, “Well, this should be interesting.” Being a fan of Hitachino Nest Japanese Classic Ale that ages their beer in cedar casks, I got this beer right away, and was hooked. The beer ended up winning the category — it was a perfect balance of beer along with very unique wood and spicy flavors.

After thoroughly enjoying this beer, I thought it would be fun to make one and have it on tap at home. I started by thinking through the base IPA, something that would help support and complement the wood flavor in the end beer. A beer that has the hops in check, where they are there, but don’t scream DANK at you. Once I had the recipe envisioned, the next hurdle was the wood aspect. At that time, no one was producing retail Spanish cedar staves/spirals/cubes/chips, so my DIY side kicked it and I decide to make my own staves. I eventually found out that the homebrewer of the beer I judged in the first round of nationals got the Spanish cedar from Cigar City Brewing. I knew this wouldn’t be an adequate source for me. So I was left contemplating where to get the wood from, how to process it, and then how to use it?

What is Spanish cedar wood?

Spanish cedar is not a true cedar. It is actually closer to a mahogany. Its color can range from light brown to a pinkish/red brown. Allergies are uncommon, but some people have reported respiratory problems. Spanish cedar is quite easy to work with when you have sharp tools, though some sanding may still be necessary. Spanish cedar is also known as cigar-box cedar, as this is one of its traditional uses.

At that time, I had heard Cigar City had made a commercial Spanish cedar version with their Humidor Series beers — a beer idea inspired by a homebrewer from the Tampa Bay, Florida B.E.E.R.S. homebrew club. I never got to try the Cigar City example back then because their distribution didn’t include my part of the country. Eventually I did get my hands on some at the Great American Beer Festival a few years later after I had brewed my own. There are also some other brewers doing beers with Spanish cedar; Jester King Brewing’s El Cedro is another well-known example.

What does Spanish cedar impart in the beer?

Spanish cedar is a very aromatic wood, adding a warm aroma of a cedar closet or dresser drawer, or the smell of a good cigar box. The flavor imparts citrus with woody, spicy white pepper and sandalwood notes. The combination of the wood aroma and the spicy cedar flavor creates a comfort feel in the beer. I like to call it my comfort beer.

In comparison, oak can produce some of the following aromas and flavors based on oak type and toast levels: Coconut, vanilla, clove, cinnamon, floral, and fruitiness. American oak has a stronger oak flavor, while French oak is more subtle, and Hungarian oak is a middle ground of the other two. The astringent tannins that oak produces can conflict with hop bitterness, where Spanish cedar complements the bitterness. Astringency is sometimes described as tannic, and it’s these tannins that give your palate a dry and mouth puckering feeling.   

Barrels vs. alternative forms

The idea that a good tasting wood-aged beer has to be aged in a wooden barrel is not true. You can make some really great beers with a variety of different wood formats such as staves, spirals, cubes, and chips. You actually have more control over the amount of wood contact and length of time for how little or how much wood flavor you want to impart in your beer with these formats. With a barrel you can’t control the level of wood character that will be imparted in your beer, other than limiting the contact time with the barrel. In fact, Cigar City uses spirals in their Spanish cedar wood-aged beers.

Wood sourcing

There are many different types of cedar woods out there — make sure you use Spanish cedar wood. It can be sourced either locally or online. I’ve done both, with similar results. For sourcing locally, find a specialty wood shop in your area. They would usually have it in planks that are couple feet (60 cm) long. I’ve found it’s best to get the 1⁄2-inch (1.25-cm) thick boards. Have these planks cut into 6 inches (15 cm) long pieces.

Searching online, a Google search for “Spanish cedar wood” turns up Spanish cedar hardwood samples in various sizes. I’ve found some sample sizes of 1⁄2-inch x 3-inch x 6-inch (1.2 x 7.6 x 15 cm) — these work best for cutting to size with no scrap left over. Some sites will even give free shipping on the samples.

There are now Spanish cedar spirals you can buy as well. I’ve never used these, since I’ve always been happy with my own homemade staves, but if you want to save time that is an option.  Some of the pre-made spirals do come with a toast on them, usually a light toast. One benefit of Spanish cedar is that it can be used in its raw untreated form, with no toast needed, however a toast will add a different taste. I use the wood with no toast on them.

You should NEVER use cigar boxes as a wood substitute, this could impart undesired off-tobacco characteristics. Also, avoid using any wood that has been treated with paint, oil, or sealers.

Making Wood Staves

To make your own staves, you will need a wood saw of some type. In the past I’ve used a handsaw, jigsaw, and table saw. All worked great, you just need something that will cut fairly straight. A 6-inch (15-cm) or longer tape measure or ruler for measuring out the dimensions, a drill with a
1⁄4-inch drill bit for drilling the holes in the stave, and some clean, fine sandpaper for sanding off any splinters and cleaning the surface are the only other tools required.

When using glass carboys, most have an opening of 1-1⁄8 inches (2.9 cm). The boards should be sawed into strips of 1-inch (2.5-cm) width by 5 or 6 inches (12 or 15 cm) length. Test to make sure they can fit into your carboy easily, because they will slightly expand once they get wet from the beer, which could make it harder to remove them. If you can, cut the strip lengths with the grain of the wood, this makes them stronger, so they won’t break when drilling the holes.

Drill 6 or 7 holes with a 1⁄4-inch sanitized drill bit in each strip. The holes can be in a line or zigzag pattern; it doesn’t need to be fancy. Having these holes will add for more surface area for the beer to extract the wood flavors.

After all holes have been drilled, give a light sanding with some fine sand paper on all sides of the newly created stave. Knock off the dust before adding to the secondary fermenter. No need to rinse the wood, and do not sanitize the stave, this would just add a sanitizer flavor to your beer.

I’m a very thorough brewer when it comes to cleanliness and sanitation and my approach has not caused any problems. But if you don’t think sanding all sides of the wood is adequate enough, here are a couple of other approaches to sanitizing the staves before using them. Bake the wood in an oven at 175–180 °F (79–82 °C) for 15 minutes, or steep them in boiling water for 15 minutes. Baking the wood over an extended period of time at high temperatures could possibly toast the wood, and also change the compounds in the wood, so watch your time and temperatures. Cool to room temperature (70 °F/21 °C) before adding to the secondary.

Using Wood Staves

I’ve found that using 5 staves in a 5-gallon (19-L) batch has the best balance for my taste between the beer and the wood character, of course this is subjective and you may prefer more or less. Once the fermentation has completed, rack the beer to the secondary fermenter and add the staves for about 10 to 12 days, right before kegging or bottling the beer. Secondary condition temperature should be (65–70 °F/18–21 °C). This should provide sufficient time for the wood to extract the aroma and flavors. When adding the staves into the fermenter, slowly insert them and try not to make a big splash. You could also add the staves to an empty fermenter and rack the beer onto them, if you are worried about splashing when adding them. Make sure all staves have full contact with the beer. If desired level of aroma or flavor isn’t met after kegging, more staves can also be added to the keg or secondary for an indefinite amount of time.

You can reuse the staves and still get the wood characteristic, but the intensity is lower than using them the first time. If you prefer to reuse the staves, it might be best to think about using them in a subtle flavor beer, such as a German or American wheat or light lager. For reuse, it’s best to clean the staves after using them in a beer. Give them a thorough hot water bath and brush scrubbing. Drill the holes a little bigger, and give another good sanding on all sides before adding to the next secondary.

Homebrew Recipe

The recipe at the end of this story is one of my regular “house beers.” The recipe has had a fair amount of competition successes. Within one year, the beer was selected to be brewed by three different professional breweries in the Pacific Northwest: Laurelwood Brew Pub (Willamette Week ProAm Competition), Widmer Brothers Brewery (Oregon Brew Crew Collaborator), and Elliot Bay Brewing Company (Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am). It’s named, “Madera de Cedro,” which is Spanish and translates to “cedar wood.”

This is a beer I brew every year, and is a permanent fixture among my 17 beers I have on tap at home. I love sharing this beer when people come over to visit and watching the expression of amazement after tasting it. I know right then and there, that they get it. Hopefully you will too when brewing it.

The wood is mostly used in the secondary fermenter, for about 10 to 12 days while it’s dry hopping. I felt that the main hop choice in the recipe for flavoring and aroma (dry hopping) additions should be Centennial. Centennial hops have a pleasant spicy, citrus aroma and clean bitterness, and the cedar plays nice on this. In the past, I used Centennial as a bittering addition, but now use Chinook — you could also Northern Brewer as a substitute — just to save on hops and utilize their higher alpha acids. The malt bill leans towards a pale-colored beer with a low amount of crystal malt and slight toastiness from the Vienna malt. I personally enjoy beers that are drier and with less crystal malt flavor, and for this beer in particular I have found that a drier beer helps the wood character shine through. For IPAs, I prefer to keep the fruity esters from the yeast down, so I tend to use the Chico yeast strain and ferment in the 65–68 °F (18–20 °C) range for a clean fermentation.

Tasting Notes

From Jeff Rankert, a Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP)  National Rank Judge:

Aroma: Medium hop aroma, wait there is something else, a new cigar box aroma, no tobacco.

Appearance: Looks like an IPA.

Flavor: Good malt support, medium hops, and dang, that is a prominent spicy, herbal, woody thing going on.

Mouthfeel: Mouthfeel is normal for an IPA, can’t remember any astringency from the wood.

Overall: I had a second one. I need to find some Spanish cedar to make some. I have had the Humidor beers from Cigar City. Equivalent or better.

Recipe

Madera de Cedro

(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.067  FG = 1.012
IBU = 64  SRM = 6  ABV = 7.2%

Ingredients
11 lbs. (5 kg) Great Western 2-row pale malt
2 lbs. (0.9 kg) Vienna malt (3.5 °L)
0.5 lb. (0.23 g) crystal malt (20 °L)
0.5 lb. (0.23 g) Carapils®/dextrine malt (1.5°L)
12 AAU Chinook hops (first wort hops) (1.25 oz./35 g at 9.6% alpha    acids)
12.2 AAU Centennial hops (15 min.) (1.5 oz./43 g at 8.1% alpha acids)
1.5 oz. (43 g) Centennial hops (dry hop)
½ tsp. yeast nutrient (10 min.)
1 tsp. Irish moss (10 min.)
5  Spanish cedar staves (1⁄2 x 1 x 6 in. / 1.2 x 2.5 x 15 cm)
White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or Safale US-05 yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)

Step by Step

Mill the grains and dough-in targeting a mash of around 1.4 quarts of water to 1 pound of grain (2.9 L/kg) and a temperature of 152 °F (67 °C). Hold the mash at 152 °F (67 °C) until enzymatic conversion is complete. Sparge slowly with 170 °F (77 °C) water, collecting wort until the pre-boil kettle volume is 6 gallons (22.7 L).

Total boil time is 60 minutes. Add the first wort hops before the boil starts, and flavoring hops with 15 minutes left in the boil. Add Irish moss and yeast nutrient with 10 minutes left in the boil. Chill the wort to 68 °F (20 °C) and aerate thoroughly. Pitch the yeast.

For the wood-aging, after primary fermentation is finished, rack the beer to the secondary fermenter and add the five Spanish cedar wood staves. Age for 8 to 10 days, then add the dry hops and age additional 2-3 days. Keg or bottle, carbonating the beer to around 2.5 volumes of CO2. If bottle conditioning, you may consider pitching fresh yeast at bottling.

Madera de Cedro

(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.067  FG = 1.012
IBU = 64  SRM = 7  ABV = 7.2%

Ingredients

6 lbs. (2.7 kg) extra light dried malt    extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) Vienna dried malt    extract
0.5 lb. (0.23 g) crystal malt (20 °L)
0.5 lb. (0.23 g) Carapils®/dextrine malt (1.5°L)
12 AAU Chinook hops (first wort hops) (1.25 oz./35 g at 9.6% alpha    acids)
12.2 AAU Centennial hops (15 min.) (1.5 oz./43 g at 8.1% alpha acids)
1.5 oz. (43 g) Centennial hops (dry hop)
½ tsp. yeast nutrient (10 min.)
1 tsp. Irish moss (10 min.)
5  Spanish cedar staves (1⁄2 x 1 x 6 in. / 1.2 x 2.5 x 15 cm)
White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or Safale US-05 yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)

Step by step

Place the crushed grains in a mesh bag and steep in 6 gallons (22.7 L) of water as it heats up to 160 °F (71 °C). Remove the grains, allowing the liquid to drip back into the brew pot.  Remove from heat and stir in all the dried malt extract and the first wort hops. Stir until there are no clumps of malt extract remaining. Turn heat back on and bring wort to a boil.

Total boil time is 60 minutes. Add the first wort hops before the boil starts, and flavoring hops with 15 minutes left in the boil. Add Irish moss and yeast nutrient with 10 minutes left in the boil. Chill the wort to 68 °F (20 °C) and aerate thoroughly. Pitch the yeast.

For the wood-aging, after primary fermentation is finished, rack the beer to the secondary fermenter and add the five Spanish cedar wood staves. Age for 8 to 10 days, then add the dry hops and age additional 2-3 days. Keg or bottle, carbonating the beer to around 2.5 volumes of CO2. If bottle conditioning, you may consider pitching fresh yeast at bottling.

Issue: November 2018