Oak Chips

[JabbA]

The missus brought these home from the supermarket a while ago as they were heavily reduced



I'm currently looking into brewing a RIS on my birthday in a couple of weeks and lay it down for a year until a milestone birthday next year

I thought I'd bung a few grams in the secondary for a week or so. How does one go about sanitising them, would saoking them in JD (I wouldn't waste a proper whisky ) for a couple of days do the trick? Then I could palm off the rest of the bottle of the horrible stuff to my brother-in-law at Christmas

Cheers,
Jamie

[NickK]

Anything over 40% would do. It also helps remove some of the tannins before you get to your precious brew.

I've got a load of American Oak cubes imported from the US. The way I've done this is in the past is to presoak in Jim Beam. Be warned, you'll not need much oak.

The next variable is how long do you leave them in. I would plumb for a much smaller amount than required in the secondary and go for a full extraction of those few cubes to give a hint and a lovely darker deeper colour.

If you get either the amount or length wrong you will have oak beer tasting of purest oak (to misquote Percy)

Lastly - check there's no chemical preservatives in it.

[Whorst]

I add them directly to the fermenter. To sterilize, I steam 'em in a vegetable steamer.
Below is a pic of the fermentation with 28g medium toast American Oak.

[NickK]

I add them directly to the fermenter. To sterilize, I steam 'em in a vegetable steamer.
Below is a pic of the fermentation with 28g medium toast American Oak.

Are those chips or cubes?

28g of chips for a week is going to give one hell of an oaking! When I tried 28g of medium roasted cubes in the FV, the beer was basically oak beer rather than oaked beer. I'd suggest 7-14g of cubes for the secondary, for a six week secondary I'd run 7g but this all depends on the type of beer being oaked (style, ABV etc).

Also there's a difference between chips and cubes - chips extract faster but have a flatter taste whereas cubes require longer to extract and have a more subtle and complex taste. Cubes can take up to 6 months for full extraction. Hence my comment about cubes and length of extraction. The time in the secondary will allow the complex flavours to appear.

[Whorst]

They're chips. The steaming removes a great deal of the strong oak flavor. The water at the bottom of my pot looked liked brown ale.
I've tasted a sample from the fermenter and it's very subtle, not strong at all.

[NickK]

Interesting, I'll have to look at steaming next time. Soaking them for a couple of days in spirits doesn't remove as much, it still turns the spirits murky brown.

[JabbA]

Cheers for the info guys

Think I'll plump for 15g soaked in bourbon for a couple of days and then add them to the secondary FV for 7 days before bottling. As you Intimate Nick, too little won't ruin a brew- too much just might! As it'll be maturing for quite a while hopefully the flavour will round out nicely.

Cheers,
Jamie

[JabbA]

Lastly - check there's no chemical preservatives in it.

I've just dived into the shed and had a look at the packet and it doesn't mention the presence, or indeed non-presence of any chemicals. As they are intended for smoking BBQ food I'd assume they'd be safe for use in me beer

Cheers,
Jamie

[pantsmachine]

I'd boil them for 10 minutes in minimal volume of water and then pitch the lot into the fv. Nice bit of lateral thinking by your SWMBO. I've used oak chips before and very apparent in the first few months of the brew but they do fade nicely and are worth having in a RIS IMHO. I did 100grms for a week in 23 ltrs 1st time and i was aware of the oak for a few months. This time 50grms for 2 days. Nothing to do with strong flavour making me reduce vol/time i just wanted to get it bottled!

[Whorst]

I just tasted mine again and it's nice. Sherry like aromas with nice, subtle, woody flavors. Gravity down to 1.016. Should get down to 1.014 in two more days.

[CJBrew]

I used 30g of French oak chips from H&G in a smoked/oaked porter. The oak isn't very prominent -- it may have been in a lighter beer.
I just boiled them in a little water and threw it into the fermenter after racking

[JabbA]

Well boiling would negate the need to get a bottle of pretend whisky as peddled across the pond Sounds like a better plan

Cheers,
Jamie

[CJBrew]

I forgot to say the oaky flavour faded after a while, it was kindof there when I racked it the second time...