Oak chips question

I'm going into secondary at the end of the week and i'll be racking onto some oak chips. I was planning on giving them a little bit extra roast in the oven. I've heard of people steaming their chips to sterilize them or soaking them in brandy, but i'm thinking the time in the oven should do the trick. Am I right?

I am about to use some cubes in a Flanders Red. The recipe calls for soaking them in a cup of near boiling water for several minutes, adding to fermenter and racking on top of them. Compared to that method, oven temps should easily get the job done. I would be interested in a small test batch of chips to see how they changed first. Pre-wetting them prior to baking would increase the sanitizing action also.

It depends on how hot the interior of the chips get. You need to get the inside of the chips above 165F to pasteurize them. As wood tends not to conduct heat very well I am unsure how quickly the wood would heat up in the inside versus burning on the outside. You might want to toast them and then soak them in a little vodka or bourbon to sanitize but prevent losing some of the toasting that you might be boiling them.

I always take the extra step to santize them after I toast them. Either with bourbon or steaming, or both. Usually I try to soak them for 2 weeks to a month in bourbon before adding, But if it's the last minute and I decide to oak something, I will toast them, steam them, and while the fibers are still open, pliable and hot, drop them into the bourbon. My thinking is that as they cool rapidly in the booze, they will absorb more of it. Then I soak them for an hour before dumping them in.

I believe you should never skimp on santization. If the question is should I sanitize this? The answer is always "yes."

Wanted to fill everybody in on what I decided to do with these guys. I reversed what Revvy suggested. I steamed them for ~15 minutes, then roasted them, then plunked them into the secondary when they cooled and put the beer on top.

Will post again in 2 months when this finally gets into a glass...

I don't sanitize any of my oak chips. By the time the beer is ready to into the secondary fermenter it's already uninhabitable by almost everything. That's the purpose of the yeast life cycle. It colonizes before anything can get a foothold. Plus the alcohol in there will inhibit bacterial growth.

DoubleD said:

That's the purpose of the yeast life cycle. It colonizes before anything can get a foothold.

Click to expand...

If given the chance Brett and other wild yeast will have a field day with the sugars left behind by Saccharomyces. That's how sour beers are made.




Wild yeast can settle and become trapped in porous objects like wood.
Not sanitizing is an unnecessary risk.
What ever method you chose is fine.

Yep. That's why you keep the lid on. You could always get brettanomyces regardless of whether of not you put "sanitized" wood chips if the lid is off, but if it's not open to the outside environment it can't get "contaminated" by wild yeast.