Malt Miller Oak Cubes

[subfaction]

A while back my stocks were getting low, so I threw together a Ditch's stout, adding some extra stuff and using burton yeast. It turned out pretty meehhh compared to my all-grain brews, so has sat fairly untouched in my keg.

When putting together an order from Rob, I noticed he's selling whiskey and rum barrels chopped into cubes, so I thought that's the ticket to making the stout more drinkable!

So I grabbed some of the whiskey barrel oak cubes, they come in a hop-like foil packet, which when opened was wonderfully fragant, loverly oak, whiskey earth... mmmm. After a bit of research I settled on 60g of cubes, in a hop sack, 'pasturised' in a pyrex jug in the microwave, with 1.5 pints worth of filtered water. I let the water boil then switched it off and let them sit for 10mins or so. On opening the microwave the smell was awesome, so I quickly stuffed the bag and water into the keg.

That was this morning, tonight I've just pulled a small sample off the keg, and wow the effect is already there, lovely complex and subtle at the moment, I guess from the water that became infused via microwaving. I plan to sample this regularly then once it's oaky enough, transfer to another keg and try and get the bag out.

I can't believe it's already had an impact though, I was expecting it to take a month or so...

Just wanted to highlight these, as they might be just the ticket to liven up a bland ale!

cheers

.sub

[subfaction]

The cubes pre microwaving... Quick extra note I had to chop one of the larger pieces up with a chisel as it was too big for the crusader keg hole.

[killer]

Cheers for this, been thinking about these in an RIS for a while now.

[subfaction]

Ok so it's been around 2 months in the keg and the oak is starting to become balanced with the stout, it's only gone and worked, transformed this into a damn tasty stout, from a rather meh one, if I had a free keg I might be tempted to rack off the cubes now, but I don't, so it will be interesting how this evolves over time.

[Jambo]

Would this be the way to get an Innis & Gunn type oaky lager maybe...

[hebbstar]

Hi Subfaction

After reading your post about the use of Oak chunks I recently did a cocoa and rum barrel infused brew using the ingredients from Malt Miller. The cocoa nibs and rum barrel chunks were next to each other in the listing on the site and they seemed to go together fairly well so I thought why not !

I boiled the nibs in with the wort, fermented normally and then 'dry chunked' (?!) after fermentation. It's been dry chunked in secondary for about 7 weeks now and the rum / oak flavour is quite pronounced. I tasted the brew every so often and it does seem the rum flavour gets better the longer the chunks stay in there.

This was supposed to be a try out brew for, sorry guys, Christmas but I think I may just try and not drink it until then (some hope...) to see if it gets any Rummier. I used about a third of the chunks in the pack, around 70 grams.

And yes Jumbo it is starting to resemble a I & G type beer, definitely not rum lager though...

I'll be interested to see how you get the chunks out of your keg hole !

So in essence Subfaction thanks for the inspiration as the results are well worth the additional effort.

Cheers

Paul

[subfaction]

Nice one, good to have more reports. Yes I'm hoping that the chunks dissolve and shrink rather than swell up and get stuck! Eekkk

[crookedeyeboy]

What a great thread. I bought some oak cubes form the whiskey barrels from MM not long ago for a sour project I am doing.

So pleased to hear how well these work, I ask Rob (MM) and he said about 50g for 23lts is good and the key with them is just to keep tasting it every week or so to see how the flavour develops.

My only quandary now is what other beers to chuck them into!

[Sadfield]

Yes, brilliant thread, one which I'll be bookmarking for the future. Have ambitions on doing sours, aged stouts and (probably ruining) a Saison, based on the classic Scottish dessert of Cranachan, with Raspberries, Heather honey, oatmeal and short, subtle hit of these cubes for the whiskey notes.