Bottom of the barrel Brew!

About a month ago I had the pleasure of tasting one of the best beers i've ever had the pleasure of tasting. It was a scottish beer that smelled and tasted just like what a good whiskey or scotch smells like! A group of people in a homebrew club got their hands on a big oak barrel, made their batches of beer all the same recepie, and poured them into the barrel. They then aged it then split it up and bottled. It was FANTASTIC! I still can taste it! I want to make a beer like this. I don't, however, want to get an oak barrel. What would be a good recepie for this beer? How would I prepare some oak chips. What kind of chips should I get? SOMEONE HELP!!!

i am kind of new here.... but a friend of mine has wood chunks for smoking food and she just throws the oak chunks in... she doesnt prepare them any special way, has been doing it for years this way

i think oak chips may do, but you gotta make sure its well strained i believe... someone with more knowledge could probably help a little better