Brewer's Best Whiskey Barrel Stout - goofed on adding the Whiskey Barrel Chips

This is my 2nd brew, and I didn't read the instructions carefully enough. I added the Whiskey Barrel Chips before pitching the yeast, missed the part about waiting until after primary was done.

How bad will this screw up the beer? I can live with it not adding the flavor as I have some other chips I can use, I just hope it doesn't add some nasty off-flavors.

Thanks!!

I put in primary last night about 5:00PM and it was already putting out a few bubbles this morning, so the yeast is active, but my concern is that the yeast is going to eat the wood chips instead of the sugars. Am I off base on that?

Get the beer off the wood chips as soon as you can -- it only takes a few days for the beer to be fully "oaked" by the chips. Stretch a piece of nylon stocking over your racking cane, secure it with a rubber band and sanitize everything. This will allow you to rack the beer to another bucket/carboy and leave the chips behind. After fermentation is complete you can always add more oak, but overoaked beer is disgusting. Good luck.

The instructions in the kit said to leave the chips in contact with the beer for 3-4 weeks. Is the fermentation process speeding up the oaking process?

I'd agree with bigbeergeek. Get it off the oak ASAP. I made the Oaked Imperial Whiskey Stout from AHS in march and left it on the chips is secondary for not quite 2 weeks. It has been VERY oakey until just the past week.

Would a more coarse filter work? The wood chips are probably 1/4" x 1/4" and I wouldn't want to block any of the yeast or other stuff from making it back into fermentation.

I wouldn't rack off the primary yeast yet. You need to let the yeast do their thing or you risk stalling out high. I'd monitor the fermentation (best with a hydrometer). Once it has stopped dropping gravity for 2-3 days, rack to a secondary vessel and leave the oak chips behind. Hopefully its done fermenting in 1.5 weeks or less. If you have the fermenter space, I'd leave it in secondary for a couple of months.

BTW, how much oak was in the kit? I suppose if this was over an ounce or two of chips, you would be better off risking a stalled ferment and rack it just 4 or 5 days into the fermentation.

It's 2.5oz of whiskey barrel chips.

Link to full recipe: http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/yhst-69536781200715/1025.pdf


9. PITCH YEAST
Sprinkle the contents of the yeast sachet over top of the entire wort surface and stir well with
sanitized spoon or paddle. Firmly secure the lid onto the fermenter. Fill your airlock halfway
with water and gently twist the airlock into the grommeted lid. Move fermenter to a dark,
warm, temperature-stable area (approx. 64º - 72ºF).
FERMENTATION
10. MONITOR & RECORD
The wort will begin to ferment within 24 hours and you will notice CO2 releasing (bubbling) out
of the airlock. Within 4 - 6 days the bubbling will slow down until you see no more CO2 being
released. When fermentation is complete (no bubbles for 48 hours) take a FG reading with a
sanitized hydrometer and record it in your ABV% CALCULATOR9.
Whisky Barrel Chips Aging
11. Add Whisky Barrel Chips
Whisky Barrel Chips must be sanitized by boiling in 1 cup of water for 5 minutes. After your
chips have been sanitized, add to the fermenter, then rack your beer on to them. Firmly secure
your airlock on to your fermenter. Leave your beer in contact with these chips for 3 to 4 weeks.
11 On bottling day carefully siphon your beer away from the chips and into your bottling
bucket. If you do not use a secondary fermenter, then add the chips to your primary after fermentation
has completed and leave for the recommended contact time.

BigDaveZJ said:

...my concern is that the yeast is going to eat the wood chips instead of the sugars. Am I off base on that?

Click to expand...

Yes, you are off base about that.

I would recommend letting it ride out in the primary for the 3-4 weeks. I think having the oak chips in the primary will, if anything, mellow out the "oakiness" due to a combination of fermentation activity and the settling of the yeast on top of the oak chips. It will be FINE --------> RDWHAHB

buttcord said:

Yes, you are off base about that.

I would recommend letting it ride out in the primary for the 3-4 weeks. I think having the oak chips in the primary will, if anything, mellow out the "oakiness" due to a combination of fermentation activity and the settling of the yeast on top of the oak chips. It will be FINE --------> RDWHAHB

Click to expand...

Good to know I was off base on that. Understanding how the process works will definitely help be a better brewer. It sounds like its more of a bacteria issue than anything. I'm gonna take a good look at it tonight, and if I can get some of the chips out without disturbing too much of it I'll give it a shot.

Hold on.

You said oak chips, but what you have are oak CUBES. The instructions are correct in that the cubes will require some weeks of contact time to impart their flavors and aromas to the beer. Oak chips are much smaller and (due to their increased surface area) impart their contribution in a matter of a few days. You're fine fermenting the beer with the cubes in there. If I were you I would start sampling the beer for the desired level of "oakiness" at 3 weeks, drawing a sample every 5ish days after that until you're happy with the product. Then siphon the beer off the cubes and age further (if desired) or package the brew in bottles or kegs.

If the pic worked you can see some of the cubes at the top. Like I said they're about 1/4" x 1/4", but they are pretty thin. Everything visually seems to be okay so far, and I'm getting a good bubble every 2 seconds in the blow off.

A buddy of mine that's been brewing for a while said I should absolutely get the chips out of there asap to prevent bacteria.

I'd let it ride for 2 weeks, then check gravity and taste. If not oaky enough, leave another week or two. I don't think getting the beer off the oak now is going to prevent bacteria from setting in, it's most likely too late for that. If there was enough bacteria to cause an infection, they have already gotten to it. It's possible that the beer will pick up too much oakiness, but it should mellow with age.

And I assure you my beer is not in some weird anti-gravity device, lol. Not sure why the pic came out upside down, I posted it directly through the HBT app.

I've never used oak, but I don't understand why there would be any major concern... The yeast isn't going to do anything to the oak, as others have said, the rapid offgassing of co2 will actually mellow out the oak if anything. If the oak was supposed to be in therefor 3-4 weeks anyways, then I don't think you had anything to worry about other than a possibly more mild oak flavor... In which case you can just leave it in longer to taste.

If bacteria is going to do harm, then it is already too late, it would already have spread to the wort, and it wouldn't be saved by removing the cubes. If your yeast took off quickly, and you have a normal looking krausen, then I don't think infection is a big concern.

Well oak cubes definitely gives you more lee way than oak chips which have much more surface area. I wouldn't worry about any bacteria at this point, whats done is done. I would start sampling for oak taste at 2 weeks and then every few days thereafter. Rack after its oaked to taste. I bet this turns out great for you.

I've only oaked one beer, a very large russian imperial. I added about 1.5 oz and oaked for 7 weeks in secondary. I've only had one beer and I can say the oak was a tad strong. But I plan on aging this thing anyway with most of them consumed next winter or possibly even the next which should blend well. The thing with oak is it can add a lot of tannins. I soaked my chips in whiskey for a few weeks and did a 2 soak & dump to reduce the tannins. The third soak (about 3 oz) went in with the chips to secondary. Another benefit of soaking in hard liquor is that the bacteria should essentially be taken out if you give enough time for the entire cube to be wetted.