Oak Spirals in a keg.

Can anyone weigh in on how well this works? I was thinking about adding a spiral of lightly toasted American white oak to a freshly kegged saison.

The package suggests one spiral per 3 gallons...

Any thoughts?

I just ordered oak spirals myself for the first time, american medium toasted so i dont have any experience using it but from what i was reading you need some time to get the flavor/aroma in to the beer. Im planing to put it in the 2ndary with my RIS and start sampling it a month or so later till i get the flavor i like then i will rack to another carboy or bottle depends on the time

They are very strong. I used one for one week on a wee heavy and its way over the top. A year later its still overpowering. I used it again on another batch, not as bad but still too strong.

Last batch is a lambic where I cut the spiral in 4, alternated soaks in about 8 refreshed baths of boiling water. Hope it won't overpower but i will have bug inoculated spiral piece

My recommendation, cut it, boil it and check the beer after the first day and go from there

Polboy said:

I just ordered oak spirals myself for the first time, american medium toasted so i dont have any experience using it but from what i was reading you need some time to get the flavor/aroma in to the beer. Im planing to put it in the 2ndary with my RIS and start sampling it a month or so later till i get the flavor i like then i will rack to another carboy or bottle depends on the time

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Hi Polboy...

Hope you are still active on the forums.. wondering if you can give any details as to how your white oak spiral experiment turned out?

Thanks!

As davefleck said they are very strong, i think i put 1/3 or 1/4 of the spiral in to 5gal batch and i liked the subtle flavor after months of aging in RIS, i did the same for belgian dubbel and it was a little too much so i recommend putting too little than too much and taste after one week then wait longer or add more to taste. Also i would use medium plus or heavy toast