Oaking vs Smoking?
 

So I hear a lot about people "oaking" their beer and it sounds interesting. I had two beers that were smoked and they weren't for me. Then I tried a "oaked" beer and to me it tasted like the smoked ones, maybe slightly less like smoke, but very similar. Do you think it was really smoked instead of only oaked or is this the same sort of flavor?

Might have been aged in a burnt oak barrel?

My guess is they used heavily toasted oak chips/spirals.

Oaking is something that, in a beer, for my palate, it has to age quite a bit before it doesn't have an oaky bite to it.

the few smoked beers I had I didn't care for, but they didn't remind me of oak either, but I've never had a toasted/burnt oak beer :)

use the lightest oak chips you have access to, it's something nice & special and let the chips soak up to 5 days to start longer when you know it's something you like.

I use chips they have more surface area than cubes and OAK a beer quicker. bigger supply stores have multiple darkness oak. For beer I've found the lighter the better. Oaked a mead with some dark & it came out pretty smoky which is what I was looking for. Light in pale ales, IPAs, and most porters have done well.