Smoking Oak chips?

Hi all, I have a quick question about oak chips. I'm planning on making a wood aged/smoked beer, and I've got 4 oz of oak chips soaking in water. On brew day, I was thinking I would take .5 oz out of the water they've been soaking in, put them on a cookie sheet and put that on a grill.

Then, I would then toss the remainder of the oak chips I have on the coals, and smoke the chips that are on the cookie sheet. Once this is done, I was going to then soak these smoked oak chips (try saying that 10 times fast!) in some bourbon until it's ready to be put into secondary. My question is will I still get an oak flavor if I do this? I'm shooting for both smokiness and a woody flavor. Any insight would be great. Also here is my recipe:

Sinbad's Double Smoaked Bourbon Ale
12# Pale Malt (2 row)
5# Vienna Malt
1# Crystal Malt 120*
1# Flaked Wheat
1# Breiss Smoked Malt

1oz Chinook
.5 @ 45
.25 @ 30
.25 @ 10

Whirlfloc Tablet added
Edinburgh Scottish Ale WLP-028

Added to secondary:
.5 Soaked smoked oak chips
2 Vanilla beans soaked in boubon (probably will not use both, I'll just add until taste is right)

I believe the oak is smoked / charred when they make the barrels. This is why they come in various levels of toast. The dark toast are smoked longer. The light toast are smoked less.

Not sure what a second smoking would do. Personally I'm not a fan of smoke beers. But if you like that flavor then go for it.

I have American Oak Chips, it also doesn't tell me if they are light or dark. If I had to guess I would say they are light with a couple of toasted ones thrown in.

Even the light ones are toasted.

That sounds like a damn good beer. I don't have any experience with this, but how about if you lightly charred the chips with a small ready torch if you have one available. I think that would preserve your wood flavor.

if it doesn't say, they are almost definitely untoasted. if you like toasted oak, you'll need to toast them

Toasting something and smoking something are totally different processes - a charred barrel for aging bourbon is not smoked. Likewise, I think there is a difference between smoked malt and toasted malt, right?

I sounds like it's definitely worth a shot trying this out - though I'm a little confused on why you are soaking the vanilla bean in bourbon - unless you are adding the bourbon as well, the high alcohol in the bourbon will act more like an extract and take away some of that pure vanilla bean character.

skibb said:

...unless you are adding the bourbon as well, the high alcohol in the bourbon will act more like an extract and take away some of that pure vanilla bean character.

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Yes, I will be adding the bourbon as well.

lumpher said:

if it doesn't say, they are almost definitely untoasted. if you like toasted oak, you'll need to toast them

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The water they are soaking in is giving off a pretty strong oak aroma. But, to be safe, I will toast the chips in the oven before smoking them. I am looking for a balance between smokiness and oakiness, so I definitely want both flavors to be noticeable.

Boiled_ice said:

I have American Oak Chips, it also doesn't tell me if they are light or dark. If I had to guess I would say they are light with a couple of toasted ones thrown in.

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if u got these in a bag at a store (ie Homedepot) then they as just oak chips. You soak them and add them to the fire to create smoke. If you want them "charred" I would suggest taking some kind of torch wether it be a propain weed burner or a pipe torch and burn one side of the chips. simply smoking them wont add much if anything to them.

When they take a oak barrel and burn it they take a big flame and char the inside of the barrel before they put the ends and fill them. You can find JD burbon barrels that have been cut up to use on your smoker online.

Also i'm thinking of doing this, but you can find smaller barrels online that you can use to age your beer in at help add that wood/char flavor

your making me thirsty.

autoferret said:

if u got these in a bag at a store (ie Homedepot) then they as just oak chips....

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I bought my oak chips at a home brew shop that specializes in wine making