Cider Chat
Lees are more than sediment at the bottom of a tank. Recorded at CiderCon 2026 in Providence, Rhode Island, cidermaker and fermentation consultant Ryan Monkman explores how cidermakers can put lees to work throughout fermentation, élevage, and bottling.
Ryan digs into fine and gross lees, cracking lees, bâtonnage, autolysis, oxygen management, fault correction, bottle conditioning, and practical ways to decide which lees to keep and which to let go.
00:00 Cider Is Sensory
02:25 News From Ciderville
04:29 Back To CiderCon
05:29 Fine, Gross And Cracked Lees
07:58 Passive To Active Uses
09:29 Harvesting And Storing Lees
13:16 Cracking Lees
18:53 Why Crack Fresh Lees
21:46 Using Lees In Fermentation
26:15 Bâtonnage And Élevage
28:30 Using Lees To Correct Faults
31:10 Bottling, Canning And Kegging
35:22 Dosing Lees For Ancestral Cider
36:41 Traditional Method And Sur Lie
38:07 What To Watch For With Lees
39:55 Bâtonnage Timing And Technique
41:55 Bâtonnage And Oxygen
43:25 Cracked Lees And Autolysis
44:26 Building Three Cider Styles
47:03 Élevage Strategies
48:17 Bottling The Three Ciders
49:35 Lees, Yeast And Terroir
50:54 Ryan Monkman Wrap Up
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🌐 Episode show notes: https://ciderchat.com/podcast/514-doing-more-with-lees/
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