ThatGuyMike
Member
I am always interested in the science behind brewing but am a novice when it comes to that field. Recently, my friend was talking to the owner of our LHBS about aging beer in oak barrels. The owner said that you can never age beer in these vessels without some kind of coating on the inside. He was saying as a homebrewer, you need to use oak chips/cubes to emulate this flavor. His reasoning was that the alcohol content of beer was not high enough to do this safely (unlike Bourbon/Scotch/Whiskey).
I know the insides of bourbon/whiskey barrels are often charred, so I'm not sure if that is the protective coating he was talking about or not. I suppose I'm just interested if anyone out there knows the science behind what he was talking about.
I know the insides of bourbon/whiskey barrels are often charred, so I'm not sure if that is the protective coating he was talking about or not. I suppose I'm just interested if anyone out there knows the science behind what he was talking about.