I have chardonnay oak cubes for a recipe

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SteveHeff

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I bought 1# of oak cubes from a winery in Southern NH. They are chardonnay blocks, about 1 inch cube and heavy for their size (but they are dry). They were also fairly inexpensive at 10 bucks for the bag.

I'm always looking for input from other home brewers. I'm wanting to brew something that the chardonnay flavors will work with. Since it is more of a lighter flavor, maybe an oaked mild? I briefly thought about doing an IPA but I think the hops will overpower any oaky-ness that the cubes may impart. Suggestions?
 
What about something along the lines of an Arrogant Bastard clone with Nelson Sauvin, including a couple ounces of dry hop in the last week or oaking? Whatever you do, Nelson would be a good complement to Chardonnay cubes.

You can probably use those cubes for several brews as well, not just limiting the amount of cubes per batch, but reusing cubes for more than one batch. Maybe try some oaked IPAs, a series of oaked sours where some of the bugs reside in the cubes and travel from batch to batch, and whatever else you can think of.
 
Yep. I was going to suggest a saison.

Planning to brew one on Sunday with Hallertau Blanc hops at 10 minutes and at flameout.
 
So then a sweetish (but not too sweet) apricot saison is what may happen. To keep things simple, and to allow the apricot and chardonnay to stand through, I was thinking doing 100% pilsner malt with and oz of EKG at 60 minutes. I think that will do it.
 
Final recipe:

5# Pilsner
4 oz C60 (for color)
.75 oz Cascade at 60
.25 Cascade at flameout

Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison yeast

Instead of using extract for the apricot flavor, I think I'll attempt to reduce my own apricots into a syrup and add that to primary 2-3 days in to fermentation. I'll allow the yeast to consume the complex sugars before tossing in the fructose syrup. After 2 weeks, I'll move it to secondary where I'll rack it to the cubes. I'll check it every day...hopefully it won't need more than 3 days on the oak. I'll follow up with photos in a few weeks. Stay tuned!
 
How much actual oak character is left in the cubes (do you know)? In other words, how many times and for how long were the cubes used? If they're zapped of oakiness then a saison may just be the ticket, but if there's plenty of oak character left then try something a bit more bold. If they're completely zapped then they'd be perfect for a sour.

You might be able to determine how much oakiness is left in them if you steep 1-2 oz of vodka with 1-2 cubes for several days (5-20 days). See how much the color of the vodka changes over time and how prominent the oak comes through.
 
The barrel was used for 3 vintages. I don't know exactly how much oakiness is left but I'm not aging on the oak for the distinct oak flavor. I want more of that chardonnay that's in there. Even if it ends up with more oak than I wanted, I'll be ok with it. It's beer. It will be had at my home.
 
Here's a pic of the oak cubes. I'd post a pic of the fermenting wort but it's in a bucket and looks like most other saisons out there. When it's done fermenting, carbed and kegged, I'll post another round of photos. Also, I ended up doing a BIAB, 2.5 gallon batch which turned out to be a 3.75 gallon batch. My boil off rate is not as good on the pot I used vs. the pot I normally use for larger batches. Anyhow, I got 84% efficiency when doing BIAB when I get 70% out of my normal mash tun. So even though I ended up with more volume, I was only .04 points off of my target SG.

photo-11.JPG
 
I just pulled at hydro sample 6 days in. It's gone from 1.053 down to 1.019 in 6 days. Still maintaining 74-76 degrees F. I was incredibly surprised at how tart the yeast makes the beer taste. I've brewed quite a few different beers but this one is the most interesting so far. I've never had a yeast affect the beer so blatantly. I like it. I'm giving it another week in the primary before I transfer it to secondary with the oak cubes.
 
7 more days have passed. I checked the gravity. 1.017. I wasn't convinced it was done so I warmed up the bucket to 90 degrees F. About 20 minutes later, I had airlock activity. I popped the top on the bucket and saw the yeast churning around the beer. I think that fermenting it at 74 degrees is too cold for the yeast to finish.
 
Yeah everytime i've used that strain I push it into the 90s and add some more simple sugar along the way to get the yeast going more
 
Took a hydro sample today and it hit 1.009. I decided that this is low enough for me. Definitely not a sweet now as it was a few days ago but I'm very happy with it. I soaked some oak cubes in star san for 24 hours prior to throwing them into the beer. A couple cubes bobbed a bit but all the others stayed on the surface. I'm looking forward to the final results.
 
I know I'm beating my own drum, with all of my solo posts, but patience is proving to be a great asset for this yeast and beer combo. I did a taste test 24 hours after I first place the oak cubes in secondary, and I am pretty happy. Definitely not as tart as before with minor, if any, detectable oak traces. I'll keep tasting it every day until I reach an acceptable level of goodness.
 
Not sure about anyone else, but I've been following all of your updates with interest. Too many threads reach brewday and then cut off entirely, leaving everyone asking "how was it?" (except that nobody asks because everybody forgets about the thread after a while). Glad to see you keeping up with this.
 
I transferred to my keg, last night. Here's a pic of the residual "stuff" in the bottom of the secondary fermentor. I used 8 oz of the oak blocks. The blocks in this picture were the blocks that sunk to the bottom after 3 days. I fished the other blocks out on day 3, using a slotted spoon. I honestly didn't think that any of them would absorb enough beer to sink to the bottom.

There is definitely a mild chardonnay character to the beer, which is perfect. These oak blocks were a very good idea. Now we have to wait to see how the beer carbs up and how that wine/oak character plays with the malt bill. I am incredibly pleased and I will continue to update as I go along. Anybody in the southern New Hampshire area should be encouraged to get in touch with me for some tasting notes. Cheers.

11146584_969653073053121_4753134251442160178_o.jpg
 
I transferred to my keg, last night. Here's a pic of the residual "stuff" in the bottom of the secondary fermentor. I used 8 oz of the oak blocks. The blocks in this picture were the blocks that sunk to the bottom after 3 days. I fished the other blocks out on day 3, using a slotted spoon. I honestly didn't think that any of them would absorb enough beer to sink to the bottom.

There is definitely a mild chardonnay character to the beer, which is perfect. These oak blocks were a very good idea. Now we have to wait to see how the beer carbs up and how that wine/oak character plays with the malt bill. I am incredibly pleased and I will continue to update as I go along. Anybody in the southern New Hampshire area should be encouraged to get in touch with me for some tasting notes. Cheers.

Those oak blocks can be useful for future batches too, so don't toss them. I like to put them in a freezer ziplock covered in your favorite alcoholic drink (beer, wine, spirits, etc) and into the freezer; typically wine for me but beer should work well enough.
 
Those oak blocks can be useful for future batches too, so don't toss them. I like to put them in a freezer ziplock covered in your favorite alcoholic drink (beer, wine, spirits, etc) and into the freezer; typically wine for me but beer should work well enough.

I tossed the cubes. There was some sort of pellicle forming on top of the beer. Pretty clear where it had come from. It wasn't anything major, but I got to it soon enough where it wasn't a problem. I racked from underneath it. I wish I had taken a picture but my son was playing with my phone at the time. I still have another 8 oz of those cubes left and I can buy more at a moments notice. If anybody wants some, let me know. I'll ship them as cheap as possible.
 
The fact that a pellicle formed makes me think two things.
1) the barrel was pulled out of service by the winery due to a "Brett problem".
2) You may have neglected to steam or boil the cubes to sanitize them.
Watch your keg,as you may well now have a Brett beer in your keg.
 
Not too hijack but along the same topic; I recently picked up about 10 pounds of red wine barrel chunks (1"X1" to 4"x4") from a guy that makes all sorts of furniture and knick knacks out off wine barrels. He said he gets the barrels from CA but I really don't know how old they are. He actually sells these little scraps as smoking chips. Me of course, wants to add them to a fermented beer. The pieces are dry and have a pleasant yet faint wine smell.

Any recommendations on if and how I should use these? In particular, how should I sanitize then without destroying what's left of the wine flavor? What if I soaked them in more wine for a few weeks? Open to input!
 
I would soak in water to re-hydrate.
Then steam them for 15 minutes,then soak them in wine
 
I would soak in water to re-hydrate.
Then steam them for 15 minutes,then soak them in wine

I submerged the blocks in star san for 48 hours. I didn't even think about either boiling them or steaming them. I thought that the star san would work. If/when I do this again, I will steam them. Easy enough of a process. Thanks.
 
The steaming process opens up the wood and lets the heat get further into the cube.
It is just a good idea to do it so that you can be pretty sure you get only what you want from the oak
 
I don't know if this is typical with saisons (this is the first time I brewed one) but the beer is more noticeably tart after being in the keg for over a month. I'm actually surprised that I haven't drank all of it, by now, but I've been busy with small projects and moving to a larger house 10 minutes from my current location. Is this typical with saisons? It's getting to the "very good" stage. Before it was good, but lacked that tartness that I've heard many saisons having.
 
Some yeasts do take a while to "condition" to their best.
Maybe it happens quicker in the bottle,of kegging I have no experience
 
What yeast did you use? Many saison yeasts will impart a slight tart or sourness to the finished beer, which as I've heard can take some time to develop.
 
This beer became better and better the longer it sit in the keg. At the end of 8 weeks kegged, the beer had taken on a different flavor than when it was fresh. The tartness was much more forward and made for a great beer.
 
Well,sounds like you need a rebrew to age

I have another 5 gallons ready to go. Eight 22 oz bombers and the rest will be kegged. I'm throwing 5 oz of corn sugar at it, so I'll let it naturally carb up in the keg, too, at 70 degrees F, for 3 weeks before tossing it into the fridge. Then I'll hit it with some gelatin to clear it up.
 
I got antsy. I bottled 8 bottles of this today. 10 days in the primary, 3 in secondary on the oak cubes that I steamed for 15 minutes. The rest was kegged and conditioning at 70 degrees for the next 3 weeks. I really want the yeast character to shine through, so I decided to condition in the keg instead of force carbonation.
 
I chilled a bottle and popped one open, tonight. Primed perfectly. Healthy nose of the yeast characteristics. I couldn't taste the hops, really. It was a lot sweeter than I anticipated, even though it finished at 1.009. It is a good beer right now, but with a few months of aging, I think it will get better. Definite recipe keeper. I wonder, how much or if any, sweetness the oak blocks produce? I really thought a beer that started around 1.071 would taste A LOT dryer than this. I need some outside advise. Samples can be found in southern NH.
 
Update on the beer. I bottled the beer on August 14, 2015. I opened one recently and wow. This is the kind of beer that ages incredibly well. I have one bottle left. Don't know how long that is going to last but it's there. Brewing this again, tomorrow.
 

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