I recently purchased a couple pounds of bourbon aged oak chunks from the charcoal store website, and I've been itching to try it in something, but my recent brews aren't really conducive to oak aging. I have, however, been consuming mass quantities of Guinness Extra Stout mainly for the bottles (super easily cleanable), but also because it's a fine brew. Today I decided to do an experiment to simulate the beer as if it were aged on bourbon oak.
I baked a piece of bourbon (about 1" X 2" X 3") oak at 225 for about 20 minutes or so to get rid of anything that might've been hanging out on the outside. I'm not too concerned about any microorganisms since I'm drinking the beer right now.
Here I have a large pils glass, a guinness glass, and a small juice glass for control.
I put the (now somewhat cooled) oak chunk into the large glass and pour most of the guinness over it, and refrigerate for 10 min while the oak does it's thang. The chunk made the beer pour very frothy into the big glass. The rest of the guinness goes into the small glass to compare.
By the end of the pour you can see small bits of the oak chunk floating through the head
Results in the next post w/ more pics.
I baked a piece of bourbon (about 1" X 2" X 3") oak at 225 for about 20 minutes or so to get rid of anything that might've been hanging out on the outside. I'm not too concerned about any microorganisms since I'm drinking the beer right now.
Here I have a large pils glass, a guinness glass, and a small juice glass for control.
I put the (now somewhat cooled) oak chunk into the large glass and pour most of the guinness over it, and refrigerate for 10 min while the oak does it's thang. The chunk made the beer pour very frothy into the big glass. The rest of the guinness goes into the small glass to compare.
By the end of the pour you can see small bits of the oak chunk floating through the head
Results in the next post w/ more pics.