514: Doing More With Lees | Ryan Monkman

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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