How much Oak to use

[DisturbdChemist]

I have my first sour attempt going on. I got some wild bugs, lacto and others i think but not 100% sure. I just too 1 gal of my saison after fermentation was done and added the wild bugs too it. I want to age it on some oak too. My question is how long should i let them work and how much oak to use/

Thank you,
DP

 

[cervezarara]

It depends on how much oak character you wish to impart. For one gallon of beer, however, I would recommend about .5- 1 oz of oak cubes since they have less surface area than chips. Use medium toast oak. Boil them to remove the new oak character. 15 minutes or so. Alcohol will leach more of the oak tannins than boiling water, so go easy as they will not be fully denatured.

Oak gives a place for Brett to lurk, and Brett will consume some of the cullubiose in the toasted wood. I would leave them in for 6 months, and see if the oak becomes too dominant.

 

[BryanThompson]

I always soak my oak chips in a cheap beer for three our four days after boiling them. It gives a very light oak character.

 

[DisturbdChemist]

I was thinking of soaking them into Tequila for a few days. I dont want to get massive oak flavors just enough you can tell its there.

 

[spenghali]

0.5-1 ounce seems like a lot. Most people don't go past 2 ounces for 5 gallons....

 

[BryanThompson]

I think that the tequila would lend too much of a flavor into the beer.

 

[DisturbdChemist]

You think the tequila will over power the sour/flavor of this beer? I'm experiementing with this just to see what will happen.

 

[jtakacs]

i used a half "stave" (about 6" long, 1" wide and .25" thick) for 1.5 g of belgian tripel i did and left it in for a month. for me it tasted like "i think there's oak in here" which is all i wanted.