Oak in Flanders Red

Hello,

Thanks for the assist.

I am working a flanders red and modifying an existing recipe.

Recipe calls for 1 oz of oak cubes added to primary fermentation. I have oak chips. given that this will be sitting in the fermenter for vic. a year, I plan on cutting the quantity in half, so 1/2 oz of oak chips given different surface area of chips vs cubes. Does this sound right?

Thanks!!

I dont know man, I would go the way you are going. When In doubt, oak it less. Too little oak is a stylistic variation, too much is a flaw.

While you're generally right about the quantity of oak (use 1/2 the quantity of cubes if you're using chips) there are some issues there. Usually people only use chips in the fermenter and only cubes in the keg. There are also big issues with leaving a beer on the chips that long, or cubes for that matter. The acidity of the beer can actually dissolve the wood. It takes a long time for oak flavor to come out of a beer but it can decrease over time, much like hop character.

Thanks, that makes sense. I figured the amount of time would decrease the amount of oak flavor, thus when it is sitting for a year or so it mellow out. The one ounce came from a Jamil recipe, so I figured it would be a good starting point. I had not heard about the cubes disolving previously, interesting.

Thanks!!

Use cubes use cubes use cubes. You get most of what you want out of chips in a week. Cubes take their time, they meld with the beer.

The chips are the guys that go right for the main event. The cubes are the guys that really please the ladies and do some foreplay first. Guess which one will make the beer happier?

Orangevango said:

I dont know man, I would go the way you are going. When In doubt, oak it less. Too little oak is a stylistic variation, too much is a flaw.

Click to expand...

+1 If you're going to err, err on the conservative side.