how to oak a bastard

double bastard, that is.

i ordered a double bastard clone off of austin home brew, and have a question about how to oak it.

i have a mixture of maker's mark, and french house roast oak chips sitting next to me, and undoubtedly that will go into the mix during the secondary, but how MUCH of that do i want to put in?

the oak/mmark slurry consists of 4oz oak chips, and about 500ml of maker's mark. just enough to submerge all of the chips.

anyone with answers will be considered gods amongst men.

When i made wine, i used an ounce of chips for five gallons. Put the chips/mark in the secondary for about four weeks. You can always add more chips if it isn't oaky enough.

One note, my wine was not quite oaky enough. But with 40% alcohol of the mark, you should have much more extraction potential than my 14% wine.

I'd say throw it all in. They're already soaking, so why not? I would just be careful not to let it sit with the oak for too long. Tasting is very important when adding oak. I've used 4 ounces in a beer before and it turned out fine, so I wouldn't worry about it too much at all.

ok, so im going to do a 4oz cascade dry hop, when i put the double bastard into the secondary, should i hold out on the oak chips, or maybe even put those in before i do the dry hop?

thanks for the replies

Oh, yeah. i didn't see that you already had them mixed. I would throw them in at the same time as the dry hop, no harm there. The only question is what you are using for secondary, and how to get the chips back out. taste it every couple days.

Put your oak in a grain bag and boil the whole thing. Failure to do this could result in an infection. Pour in the booze... around 4-8oz will be good for a 5 gallon batch. IDK maybe you want more... you can always taste and add more laster. Toss the oak in the keg. I actually pulled out one thread and stuck it through the keg top so I don't have to fish out the oak later. When I made my regular oaked arrogant bastard clone I used 2.5oz american medium oak cubes in for 18 days, and it was real nice. First use oak will give you more flavor, and with 4oz you can expect A LOT of oak flavor. Some people like using less oak for longer as it tends to give a smoother flavor.

"how to oak a bastard"

Beat him over the head! lol got one I'd like to "oak" he's a double bastard too!

Seriously, I've steamed my oak chips in a vegetable steamer (the folding metal kind available at wal-mart) for 15 min. and ad to secondary like dryhopping, in a bag weighted with marbles. 2oz for 1 week gave a nice subtle oaky character in a highly hopped IPA. wished I had used more or a longer soak, though. 4 oz should be good

the makers mark sterilizes the chips, from what i've heard. thanks for all the replies.

sounds like ill be doing 2-2.75oz of oak chips that will have been soaked in MM give or take 2 weeks, and i can put them in a mesh bag or a muslin bag so they airnt too hard to remove from the batch.

believe what you wish... I did my first oak attempt without boiling and I got a funky layer of something on top of the beer. It tasted fine, but it certainly has some bug in there.

I have never boiled the chips/cubes and haven't had any bad results. I usually soak my chips in either bourbon or brandy for 3-4 weeks before adding it to the secondary. This should be enough to kill everything in and on them.

It terms of aging I'm currently in the process of watching a porter I've had on oak for going on 3 months now. You'll hear that 2-3 weeks is enough with 4 oz. per 5 gal. batch but after checking the gravity last night at 87 days in the fermenter I do not detect an overly oaky flavor other than what I wanted in the first place. It is not overpowering and I am really pleased with the way it is turning out. I plan to sit on it until early January then bottle.

B3's Fire in The Hole came with a vacuum packed bag of French oak chips. I just dumped them in secondary for eight days. I wish I had used half as much and soaked them in Bourbon. I had no contamination. It is very drinkable but the oak is the most prominent part of the overall flavor (even with a load of hops.)

well lets see you ask the Bastered out back and when he is not looking oak him over the head with a log lol

j/k

:rockin: