Wood in Beer (not Oak)

So I used to build and modify guitars and amplifiers when I was unemployed to suplement my income and now have bulk excess woods just chilling in my garage.

I have Snakewood, Purple Heart, Walnut, Cherry, Maple (both spalted and birdseye), ebony, rosewood, and several other.

I LOVE the smell of walnut going through a table saw, the smell of it charring reminds me of teasted marshmallows.

So what about adding these to my beer? I know oak is a very common wood to use for aging beer and I already have a 5 gallon whiskey barrel for my oak additions but what I want is something new and not commonly done.

Any ideas on how this will come out or anyone who has tried it already that can tell me what I can expect?

You have to be careful with wood. I'm not an expert, but I know I've read that certain woods impart undesirable, if not harmful, elements into the beer. But, to answer from my own experience, I've used oak and spanish cedar. Spanish cedar is kind of cool. It adds citrus and clove type flavors.

I actually have no idea how it will come out, but it sounds like exactly the perfect candidate for pulling out a gallon or half-gallon from a batch you like and adding some wood for a short secondary. You could even do a basic recipe you know oaks well, and then compare a bunch of different woods. That would be awesome.

Very similar guidelines to smoking meat.

Generally, hardwoods are good, softwoods are bad (too resiny). If it bears something edible (fruit, nut) it's usually good (and often tasty).

From the top of my head, cherry and maple are for sure fine, and walnut probably. Not sure about the others, but a google search or meat smoking reference would help.

Budweiser uses wood (I forget which kind) to increase the surface area to which the yeast can attach.

They use beechwood which kind of gave me the idea last night. I was comparing my oak aged beer to a bud and was reading the can and thought "what about..." and I looked in my garage and saw endless possibilities

Budweiser uses beechwood.

As a guitar player/amatuer tech, some of those woods are pricey, and I'd rather seem them go to a more lifelong purpose! You can get enough oak for a 5 gallon batch for a couple bucks at a LHBS. If you dont want the walnut or ebony, I know of a good home for them

It is lagered with beechwood chips in the ageing vessel which, according to Anheuser-Busch, creates a smoother taste. While beechwood chips are used in the maturation tank, there is little to no flavor contribution from the wood, mainly because they are boiled in sodium bicarbonate [baking soda] for seven hours for the very purpose of removing any flavor from the wood. -wiki

RainyDay said:

Budweiser uses beechwood.

As a guitar player/amatuer tech, some of those woods are pricey, and I'd rather seem them go to a more lifelong purpose! You can get enough oak for a 5 gallon batch for a couple bucks at a LHBS. If you dont want the walnut or ebony, I know of a good home for them

Click to expand...

I have alot of chips and chunks that are only good for highly detailed veneer work if I wanted to get fancy so I can drop them into some brews. I have bigger chunks I was going to cube up

I do however have some completeded hand made guitar bodies and necks for sale still. I sold a few of my put together guitars between 2-3k at my local music store so they are good quality things. Do you like strat or or tele bodies/necks? I have a nice ash burl veener tele body and a custum hendrix strat (painted with hendrix in a purple hazish setting, custom neck plate, and lefty headstock guitar but its a right handed guitar)

However back on track here it should be okay to add the wood I can assume

I thought others had said walnut was dangerous to use. Might be wrong...

I'm a winemaker, as well. In "the" winemaking forum, a similar question was asked. I don't remember all the details, but the bottom line was yes, some other woods were historically used, based upon what was available. I think Redwood was once used in the US.

However, if I recall correctly, nothing tastes as good as toasted oak. Virtually all oak for brewing, winemaking, and whiskey (AFAIK) is toasted to some degree or another, whether in barrels, chips, spirals, or cubes. New oak imparts flavor VERY fast, which is probably why old whiskey barrels are good for brewing and aging. With wine, we put in new oak for as little as a couple weeks for that reason.

To get back to your original question, yeah, trying some other woods may be fun. However, how much beer are you willing to risk? Also, reading through your list of woods - although I would agree that toasted walnut smells the best of the woods you have, I seem to recall something about why nothing grows close to walnut trees. Something worth researching - you don't want to poison yourself!

Oh- wanted to amend my previous post- remember that most woodworking/lumber grade woods have been treated with various chemicals, typically preservatives. You need to make absolutely sure from your sources the wood is untreated or "food grade." Alcohol and water are two excellent solvents- they'll pull anything nasty out of the wood that they can.

My walnut, cherry, and maple were hand selected by me from family friends who have property in Michigan and were only kiln dried so I know they are safe. I will look into the walnut issue, my LHBS sells all grains for $1.50 a pound so I am okay with wasting a lot of test batches. I have a partner and am working with a couple investors on a Nanobrewery anyways and need something that will make us unique enough to get funding. They like te beers I've made so far but want something that sets us apart. That's why I have explored Gruit beers and now want to try this

I recently did an experiment with a five gallon wheat beer batch. Half had beechwood chips (2-3 oz.) and half did not. While I couldn't pin down a specific taste, I thought the brew with the chips tasted better.

I may be a month late but the new issue of Zymurgy has a nice article on Wood Aging. Specific to this is the passage about not raking the beer too soon due to the perceived woody flavor after a few weeks. After that harsher flavor comes sweetness from the wood near the 4 week mark. Patience comes in handy when wood aging! I've got a huge very old cherry tree I may use a branch for an experiment as well as a wealth of exotic woods I've been itching to do something with. Black Walnut, Sapele, Brazilian Cherry, White Oak, Ash, Tiger Wood... whatever the local high end stair company want the give me!

Second on the walnut being dangerous. I know you can't throw walnut sawdust away, you have to burn it or something....something about toxins in the wood...?

Juglone, it is a toxin to many plants and the saw dust can affect horses. Juglone is produced by Black Walnut and Butternut trees and is poorly soluble in water and only the roots carry high conentrations. Since Butternut was used in the experiment in the Sept/Oct 2012 Zymurgy article I'd say it's safe. There are plenty of other types I can try too, www.eztread.com