Over-Oakage

Question on aging out oak: I used oak chips, and as I was warned could happen, I overdid it a bit. I've heard that aging will mellow out the oak, so I am fine with that. My question is if the oak will age out if I have the keg in the keezer, or if I need to bring it back up to room temp?

This is a big, 9.0% ABV imperial red. The hops are gonna end up mellowing as well, but I am OK with that as long as the oak stops being so overpowering.

It's going to take time. I have an over-oaked barleywine that's about six months out from first taste and it's just starting to calm down and let some other flavors through.

Thanks! Right now it isn't undrinkable, but needs to calm down. As to my question though, am I ok leaving in the keezer at 40 degrees F, or should I take it out and leave at room temp? Will it matter?

jonathanchapman1 said:

Thanks! Right now it isn't undrinkable, but needs to calm down. As to my question though, am I ok leaving in the keezer at 40 degrees F, or should I take it out and leave at room temp? Will it matter?

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Cold temperatures slow down aging remarkably- if you want the oak to age out a bit room temperature is preferable. After it ages out a bit, cellaring would be fine. Once you keep it cold, you're more preserving the state of the beer.

Out of curiosity, what was your oaking method? I've never done it but plan to very soon. Just wondering how much it took to be overdone..

Thanks Yooper, out of the keezer it goes!

Demus, I used 2 oz of oak chips (medium toast french oak) for 4 days, at room temperature (5 gallon batch). I knew it would be quick and was checking every day, but it went from subtle to distracting in between day 3 and 4.

Thanks. We're they soaked in bourbon or anything or just dry?

I steamed them for about 10 minutes to sterilize them, but I didn't soak them in anything.

Thanks. Thinking of a RIS with bourbon soaked oak...

jonathanchapman1 said:

Thanks Yooper, out of the keezer it goes!

Demus, I used 2 oz of oak chips (medium toast french oak) for 4 days, at room temperature (5 gallon batch). I knew it would be quick and was checking every day, but it went from subtle to distracting in between day 3 and 4.

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4 days did that with oak chips? I would have thought that would be fine.
Maybe the chips are much more prone to this than cubes.

I used 2 ounces of oak cubes in 12 ounces of Borbon for 45 days and over oaked my beer. Its now a year later and time to try it again. It was still too oakey 3 months ago. (though some really liked it)

Sounds like it's easy to over do it. I figure a RIS should stand up to it pretty well, but I'll take it easy. I'd rather barely taste the oak than have it be assertive. Thanks for the input!

Oak chips actually have a lot more surface area than say, cubes or spirals. They will very quickly over-oak a beer and should be used in small amounts (an ounce or less) in a grain bag for small batch brewing. By small batch, anything under 15 gallons. My scotch wee heavy only gets a treatment of one ounce of scotch soaked light toast oak chips for 3-4 days prior to bottling. This works very well in such a high gravity beer but easily overwhelms smaller beers.

I had the same problem with my first and only batch that I used bourbon soaked oak chips in. The flavor was way too harsh and tannic. Since then, I've only aged in a 5 gallon whiskey barrel and have yet to have one that is over-oaked. I'm also going to attempt using cubes at some point that have been soaked to see how the French oak does in comparison to American.

So just to finish up this thread: I aged it for 20 days at room temp. Cooled it again this weekend and tasted, everything is right where it should be! Thanks for the suggestions and help. I lost some of my dry hopping, but this is still an awesome beer. Next time I will only do 1 ounce, for 2 days max.