Help adding Oak Chips to Imperial Stout

I am working on a custom imperial oak aged stout kit I bought. I am planning on adding oak chips to the second fermenting bucket but am a little confused on the specifics of how to do so. Any help would be appreciated.

I currently have the beer in the primary fermenting bucket. Once the yeast is done, I plan to switch to a secondary fermenting bucket and add champagne yeast. I am looking to add oak chips at some point, but am mainly confused on when to add it, how to steam the chips, and how to put the chips into the wert?

The beer is slated to sit in the secondary bucket 21-28 days, but most guides I read say to only leave the chips in for a week. Should I put the chips in during the final week to follow this rule and also not to mess with the champagne yeast?

Also how should I go about steaming and putting them in while being sanitary and not contaminating my work?

I have also read you should use a system to keep the chips submerged, but I am not sure how you would go about this while still avoiding contamination?

I know this is a lot of questions, but thanks for any help..

I would use cubes instead of chips. Add them in the secondary right away. Use 1 oz of cubes, medium toast or medium plus. There really isn't a need to steam them but you only need about 10 minutes if you do. Let them cool and drop them in. They will float for a week or so. You don't need to hold the oak down. You should give the beer a couple months on the oak.

Why are you adding Champagne yeast to the secondary (and what brand/strain)? What is the projected OG?

Cube snobbery.

Chips work great, especially in huge black beers like imperial stouts where the oak is layered beneath and between so many other (stronger) flavors. If you're going to be aging the beer for months in secondary anyway, by all means use cubes -- that's what they're made for. Chips gave my RIS perfect toasty oak notes -- nothing "harsh" or "one-dimensional" about it.

As far as using chips: put the chips in for the final week of secondary. Around day four or five, pull a tiny sample to taste. Don't brew by your calendar, brew by what your senses tell you tastes good. Around 7 days of contact time is average, but I kegged my RIS after 5 days of contact with my medium toast french oak chips. Pour 2 cups of boiling water over the chips in a sanitized canning jar (or any other vessel that can take the heat). Let them sit for 5-10 minutes. Pour the chips (and hot water) straight into your secondary fermentor.

Good luck and have fun with the "big" beer.

Edit: you don't need to weigh them down with anything. The chips are small (lots of surface area) and they get all the contact they need floating on top of the beer.

If you are going to play with oak or wine yeast in brewing this Podcast is well worth it:
The Brewing Network.com - :

Shea Comfort (Welcome to the home of the Yeast Whisperer!) has been doing yeast trials for Lallemand for many years. He is an accomplished brewer and mead guy currently consulting in the wine making area. He started the MoreWine portion of MoreFlavor, the MoreBeer people. I have spent a couple consulting sessions with him and he really knows his stuff.

i usually nuke my oak in enough water to cover them for about a min, let it sit a few mins, the nuke for another 30secs or so. i tend to dump this water to get rid of some of the more harsh notes from the oak

unless you're OG was over 1.12, i wouldnt bother with the champagne yeast, its not necessary. the secondary isn't needed either, but if you want to use it, give the beer at least 2 weeks in the primary before transferring.

Thanks for answers. Helped a lot.

helibrewer said:

If you are going to play with oak or wine yeast in brewing this Podcast is well worth it:
The Brewing Network.com - :

Shea Comfort (Welcome to the home of the Yeast Whisperer!) has been doing yeast trials for Lallemand for many years. He is an accomplished brewer and mead guy currently consulting in the wine making area. He started the MoreWine portion of MoreFlavor, the MoreBeer people. I have spent a couple consulting sessions with him and he really knows his stuff.

Click to expand...

+1 This episode is one of the best podcasts in terms of quality, practical information. Between the oak info and the yeast info you'll learn a ton.

My long brew process is almost ready for bottling. I was wondering if I need to filter out the wood chips before I do so or if they will come out when I switch to the bottling bucket? Thanks again to all.

Beer finished about a week ago. All the help helped things turned out fine. Beer taste surprisingly decent. Thanks for all the input.

i soak my oak chis in bourbon that way they are sanitized and pack a little extra punch that works well in stouts/porters