IPA with wood chips in secondary.

I got an IPA kit from Midwest supplies. The Octane IPA kit.

Octane IPA

The kit comes with oak chips to steep in the beer. Well I added the wood chips and some hops for dry hopping and everything seemed fine.

I am tasting the beer for the first time tonight and it seems off. It almost has too much of a wood taste. I can taste the hops but it is being drown out by the wood chips. It almost has a whiskey taste to it.

My question is do you think this might mellow out with age. It is a bit early to be drinking. 3.5 weeks. Could it maybe be a sanitation issue? I did not even think to sanitize the wood chips. I just threw them in there with a bunch of leaf hops.

Anyway It has a very curious taste. I am sure my buddy will drink it if I do not like it. He loves whiskey and beer.

No, your beer would greatly improve with some aging.

Oak takes quite a while to mellow.

Did you soak the chips in anything before adding them ?

I see that the instructions tell you to boil the oak.

Cheeto said:

No, your beer would greatly improve with some aging.

Oak takes quite a while to mellow.

Did you soak the chips in anything before adding them ?

I see that the instructions tell you to boil the oak.

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No this is where I screwed up. I ditched the directions after brew day. I did not boil the chips. I guess i was figuring since I put a bunch of leaf hops in with it they would be fine. The beer does not taste like it is infected or "lambic". It just taste woody.

I am hoping it will just mellow out over time.

I brewed this kit back in early Sept. and am drinking it now. I steamed the chips for about 10 minutes in a veggie steamer and then added them to the secondary. Sat there for 3 weeks before I bottled, and I can barely taste the oak.