using oak chips soaked with spiced rum

Hey guys,

I am brewing a nut brown ale and I would like to add a vanilla bean extract and spiced rum soaked french oak chips to the secondary. I have never used a secondary before. I have a plastic carboy, a glass carboy, and a bucket with lid and air lock. I assume I am going to use the glass carboy for the secondary and plastic for the primary.

I've read a lot on wood chips and here's what I plan on doing any suggestions would be awesome. I havent read anything on rum or vanilla.

soak 1.5oz of French oak wood chips in 2oz of spiced rum.
using 5 vanilla beans. cut in half scrape out insides add 2 oz of vodka
placed in jar, shake and let settle of a day.
once wort has reached final gravity Ill rack into secondary and add the extract and oak chips.
taste every 3 days, once flavor is a bit too strong add corn sugar and bottle.

sounds good! are you asking for advice?

yep I have read a lot of different things about weighing down the oak chips, using a grain bag for them, that rum is unstable, racking the beer directly on top of the oak chips.

but any knowledge or info that could be helpful I'm always looking to learn! but I am brewing tomorrow I have been researching for about a month.

I'm assuming that you want the rum flavor in there and that's why you are soaking the oak chips in it. If not you can just place the chips in a bowl, add just enough water to cover them and microwave for 5 minutes to sanitize them. Dump the oak and remaining water into your secondary and rack on top of them. I just keged my Amber Ale that I oaked this way and it came out great!

thank you guys! Yes the rum is a big part of the flavor profile I am looking for. with a suttle oak finish.

Sounds like a good idea I will be doing the same thing. Ill post my results up to share.

After doing a bourbon oak porter, I think you'll find that 2oz won't be enough for soaking the oak cubes.

unionrdr said:

Here's another little point of interest I think might prove interesting. We all know to take an OG reading with the hydrometer before pitching. write that down in our notes. Then we know at some later date to take an FG reading 2-3 days apart to make sure it's all done,check. But,I'm going to take another FG reading after the oak chip/bourbon conditioning to see if there's a measurable difference.
I thought it might be good to find out just how much a measured amount of the oak/whiskey addition would make. Since I'll be using at least 3 jiggers (4.5oz),it should be measurable in beer. Since beer is low in alcohol compared to other adult consumables,it should make a difference that can be measured.

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that won't measure the additional alcohol - it's only going to measure how much additional sugar you added if you are using a hydrometer

This sounds awesome, where do u get these wood chips from?