Oak aging

I brewed a 4 gallon batch of 1.101 OG barley wine yesterday. I plan on oaking it. I picked up some cut up chunks from used bourbon and whiskey barrels at my local homebrew store. I'll soak the chunks in Makers Mark bourbon before throwing into secondary. Should I toast them in the oven beforehand? Also, I have no idea how much to use. I plan on aging for quite some time. Any help would be appreciated. On a side note, I also plan on wax dipping my bottles. Any idea where I can get some coloured wax?

I did a 5 gallon batch 1.110 OG bourbon stout last winter and put it over bourbon soaked oak chips in secondary. We used four or five handfuls of chips probably enough to completely cover the bottom of a Carboy if they were spread out. Honestly I could taste a little oak but more of the bourbon. With such a high alcohol content we needed that much oak. If it is a lower gravity beer I'd eyeball it but no more than what we used


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

bdknuc2 said:

I did a 5 gallon batch 1.110 OG bourbon stout last winter and put it over bourbon soaked oak chips in secondary. We used four or five handfuls of chips probably enough to completely cover the bottom of a Carboy if they were spread out. Honestly I could taste a little oak but more of the bourbon. With such a high alcohol content we needed that much oak. If it is a lower gravity beer I'd eyeball it but no more than what we used


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Click to expand...

Any idea on the weight of those chips used and how much bourbon did you use?