Brewing with Oak Cubes

Hey,

Which type of oak cubes give off the most vanilla flavor? (American or French) Also, which roast? I believe I read medium was the best.

Thanks

You surprise me with that question as I never knew that vanilla notes can come from toasted oak cubes. I used them in a porter and they have a super charred character which is why I took them out of the bourbon mix before secondary. I used that mix and added two vanilla beans and the vanilla is not strong at all.

The medium that is.

From what I have read american are supposed to have the most vanilla like flavor. I agree with dj though, I have used oak cubes and chips (mostly american, some hungarian) and I don't ever think wow this tastes like vanilla. I get more of a dry tannin like flavor from adding oak to the beer.

Good brief article on the topic below. All oak contains the compound vanillin which gives you that vanilla character. When oak is toasted it's stronger compounds come out more. Based on the article I would go with a medium toast Hungarian oak or American as a second choice. I have always used Hungarian in my oaked stouts but haven't looked for the vanilla character. It's often pushed aside by the bourbon I soak it in probably. If you want fairly upfront vanilla I would go the flavoring route with vanilla beans. I believe oak adds more of a vanilla subtle character, or complexity to the flavor profile but not a big vanilla punch.

http://morebeer.com/content/using_oak_in_beer

Great thanks! I just want a very slight vanilla character from the oak so that'll be perfect.

You might wanna go non-toasted cubes and soak em in a little starsan.

djbradle said:

You might wanna go non-toasted cubes and soak em in a little starsan.

Click to expand...

In the article posted above it says to steam them in the microwave and to not soak in sanitizer.

Yup, sorry missed that one part. The microwave idea is great. +1