Oak cubes: Amount/soaking time of bourbon matter?

This is the third batch where I've added oak cubes soaked in bourbon to the secondary. For the first 2 batches (5 gal. American Amber, 7 gal. IPA), I only added enough bourbon to cover the oak cubes in a mason jar. I let them soak for about 3 weeks. When I added them along with the bourbon, I noticed that they sunk to the bottom which I didn't expect. I was surprised how slowly the oak flavor became apparent. After a week, I couldn't really detect any oak (although my palate isn't too refined or sensitive). It really took an entire month by the time I really could taste the oak.

For my third batch, an Oatmeal Stout, I wanted more bourbon flavor, so I added much more bourbon than I needed to sterilize the oak. There was probably a couple inches of bourbon more than I needed to cover the oak. I only soaked them for a week before adding them along with the bourbon. This time, the oak cubes floated. After a week, I could detect the oak.

By the way, for every batch, I added 1 oz. oak cubes.

Why did the 3rd batch taste oaky more quickly?

My theories are:

1) I soaked the cubes so long in the first 2 batches that they became very dense with liquid which prevented their flavor from being leeched out. Kind of like a fresh mushroom won't provide as much flavor to a soup broth as a dried one (not a perfect analogy, but I'll go with it.

OR

2) The mason jar for the 3rd batch had so much alcohol that it was able to leech far more oak flavor more quickly so when I poured the bourbon into the secondary, it instantly had more oak flavor to begin with.

Thoughts?

Bourbon isn't really strong enough to sterilize, not even sanitize, oak cubes. You would need to use 160 proof liquor to actually kill anything. That said, oak is "clean enough" if handled reasonably.

I would recommend adding oak and bourbon separately, to more carefully control the flavors.

Sanitation and sterilization aside....

Let's talk oak flavor and factors that influence how quickly flavor is introduced into our beer.

gannawdm said:

Sanitation and sterilization aside....

Let's talk oak flavor and factors that influence how quickly flavor is introduced into our beer.

Click to expand...

Well, part of it is the base beer as well. Oaky flavors are tannic, and won't be as readily apparent in some beers with roasty flavors or heavy tannins as in a "lighter" beer.

There are different kinds of oaks and toasts, too. An American "light" toast will be more vanilla flavored, while a Hungarian dark toast will be more tannic.

When you soak the cubes/chips, much of the oak flavor will disperse to the liquid. If you want more forward oak flavor, don't soak them in anything, just toss gently into the beer.

Cubes take longer to give flavor than chips.

I use an ounce of chips in 3 gallons of beer, usually. But then, I taste weekly to make sure it's not overdone. Last time, I oaked for about two weeks. The beer was very oaky- it was an "imperial amber". It took about 5-6 months to age out but when it did it was awesome.

In short, so much is in play with oak. The base style of the beer, whether it's chips or cubes or spirals, the amount of oak added, the toast and country of origin, etc. No one can ever tell you exactly how much/what kind/etc because the base beer matters

I'd start with 2 ounces per 5 gallons. You can simply taste weekly. When it gets a bit overoaked, then it can be racked off of the oak.

I used 8 oz. of Jack Daniels Oak Barrel Chips in a 5 gal batch of Barley Wine. To sanitise it I boiled them in some cheap whiskey for ~15 min. I "dry hopped" them for about a month. The beer came out excellent, but it needed some extra resting time in bottles before all the flavors have settled. The tastes of whiskey and oak were noticeable, but not overwhelming.