Newest Threads

**smokinghole** · 01-08-2012, 12:27 PM

Oak cubes have an extraction time frame of like 9-12 months I think. I tend to go for about six months or more on the oak. With this beer it will likely be in the fermentor with the oak for the entire duration until I bottle it out of tertiary. The port was more for flavor than sanitation. I dumped the port into the fermentor that I soaked the oak in as well. I left it to soak for about two weeks I think.

sudndeth · 01-08-2012, 01:34 PM

Cool, sounds like something I'd like to do. How does boiling the oak then soaking them before the secondary? Or would you even bother?

**smokinghole** · 01-08-2012, 02:02 PM

I didn't bother. It's a stout it's not like I'm trying to avoid intense flavors. Everything about this beer is big. Big malt, big roast, high bitterness, high alcohol, and big brett likely. I would boil oak cubes for lighter flavored beers with my plan of this being in the fermentor for a year or so, the rough edges will likely smooth out over time anyway.

sudndeth · 01-09-2012, 02:45 PM

Well, I'm soaking 2.25 oz of oak in port. I was going to add the bottle to the Carnot, but it smelled so good I was afraid of ruining it. The bottle us 1.5L. Is that too much to add? I'm af fraud of ruining this thing. How big was your bottle of wine?

**smokinghole** · 01-09-2012, 04:45 PM

I only added the mason jar worth of port I soaked the cubs in, not a bottle worth.

sudndeth · 01-21-2012, 03:13 PM

Alright, the oak cubes have soaked for 2 weeks in port, so I transferred to the secondary. I took a gravity reading and it showed 1.024. It smelled slightly roasty, a little winey/sour and had a pretty strong smell of alcohol. There was no noticeable sourness taste yet, it's not very bitter but tasted good, but dry and hot. I hope it ages well and develops some sourness. in about 8-10 months I'm debating dry hopping with Willamette. I have an ounce of leaf hops, but I'm worried about absorption. I have very little beer after the blow off. Do you think that'll be a problem?

**smokinghole** · 01-21-2012, 03:25 PM

It shouldn't be a problem. I did have a lot of loss to trub so I topped it up with an other big stout that I have bottled that never carbed up. I haven't checked since I transferred. After I transfer my dark strong that's going right now I'll check it again.

sudndeth · 01-21-2012, 03:31 PM

That's not a bad idea, I look into blending this if I can get time to brew again. Keep us updated, I want to hear how yours is going.

**smokinghole** · 01-22-2012, 03:46 AM

Okay. So I'm drinking my gravity sample right now. Mine is coming along nicely. There is little to no brett presence but the beer is down to 1.032 and it still have fairly active fermentation. Currently it tastes strongly of oak and pure hop bitterness. This is sort of what I wanted at this point. So I'm thinking around the 1 year mark it'll be perfect for bottling.

sudndeth · 03-02-2012, 12:10 PM

This beer is going nicely. It's developed a thin white layer with big white bubbles on the top. I take it the brett is working fine. I'm going to wait a while before I take a sample, but I'm still debating a blend with another RIS. Is there a point of no return when it would be too late to blend? Would I have to add more oak? I've never even thought of blending and was wondering if you have any advice?