Oak Aged Irish Red

I'm getting ready to make an AG Oak Aged Irish Red Ale. I'm basically pulling from a few different recipes and experimenting, but I've never heard of oak aged irish red before. I just thought it would be interesting. I'm going to toast the oak chips and soak them in bourbon for a week prior to adding them to the secondary. I'm thinking that I'll let it sit on the oak for 2 weeks. My estimated OG is fairly high for the Irish Red style, so I'll make a big starter and let it mellow on the oak. I'm hoping it'll be great. I love oaked beers and I love Irish reds. So, my question is has anyone here ever had an oak aged irish red? Because I haven't seen any.

I'm sure 100 years ago, they were all oak aged.

I would split the batch in two when you transfer it, have one on oak with bourbon, and one just on oak. Bourbon can be a bit overwhelming, and you'll get a lot of nice vanilla notes just from the toasted oak.

If this is your first time you may want to consider buying some oak cubes. How do you intend to get all your oak toasted to the same level?

I was going to simply hand pick similar sized cubes and toast them all together at the same time until fragrant - it might not have exactly even toasting, place them in a cheese cloth with sanitized marbles to sink them and dental floss attached to the bag (to easily pull out after aging). I'm open to any suggestions. I might stay away from the bourbon.

Historically barrels in that area of the world were made with local oak, English and I expect Irish oak just doesn't have the same character as the normal oaks from France, Hungary or the US. Also barrels were lined with brewer's pitch which effectively reduced almost to elimination any oak character in the beer.

I'd say go for it, give it a five days to a week on the chips in the secondary. Though you might want to consider something other than bourbon, maybe just an irish whiskey, the spice character might compete with the mild maltiness.

If it is a first go around with oak, I would stick with just the oak, or split the batch between oak and bourbon(or other liquor)oak. Bourbon can quickly quickly overpower a beer and make it into something you don't want.

Also, unless I am missing something, aren't the oak cubes and whatnot that you get at the lhbs already toasted, thus the american/french/hungary ? Or are you wanting to char even more than what they are?

It's easy to overwhelm subtle flavors with oak, so I'd recommend starting with 1/2 ounce for this batch. That's enough that you'll definitely taste it- take a sample and add more oak if it's not oaky enough for you. My first oaked beer got 2 ounces of cubes, and while oak tastes good, the beer itself didn't really come through.

From what I've read, while a lot of beer used to be shipped/stored in oak barrels, those barrels were often coated with pitch on the inside to *prevent* the oak from changing the flavors of the beer. Oaky flavors were often considered "off" flavors to be avoided.

I love reading all of these suggestions and ideas. Thank you everyone. I think that I'll go with one ounce of oak chips and add more if necessary after letting it sit for a few days. I'll probably shy away from toasting them because I want it to be a subtle flavor. Also, I'm probably going to simply soak it in vodka, a neutral spirit, to simply sanitize and dump the vodka and chips straight into secondary.