How to Oak my Sour

[Brett3rThanU]

I'm cloning a local sour beer called Atrial Rubicite and I managed to get a recipe from the brewer, however they rack it into an oak barrel at 3 months and let it sit for 6-9 months. I've done some research and the consensus seems to be to use 1 oz of oak cubes for 5 gallons, boil it for 15 min, then add to the fermenter. However, I'm not sure if I should use toasted oak (medium, light?), and how long I should leave it in my secondary for. I don't want the beer to have much of an oak flavor at all as the final beer doesn't really, but do want to get a little bit. Thoughts?

 

[bknifefight]

If they gave you the recipe, they should also be willing to tell you about the barrel, it's char level and the kind of oak. It's probably American oak medium char though.

 

[Xpertskir]

"a local beer called atrial rubicite"...never heard of it

The approach you describe above is the madfermentationists approach and what I use for my sours that aren't going into barrels. I'd toss it in when(if) you rack and leave it there until the beer is ready. Sours do not have time frames, they are ready when they are ready. I'm slightly surprised out how quickly they are turning around AR, but for whatever reason commercial breweries do seem to have more aggressive bugs than are sold to us. I'd definitely be pitching some jester king dregs if I were you and I would not put a time frame on the project.

If it were me I'd probably go 6 months on the yeast cake, then rack on top of the oak and raspberries, wait another 6ish months before tasting and plan on it not being ready for bottling yet.

 

[Brett3rThanU]

"a local beer called atrial rubicite"...never heard of it

The approach you describe above is the madfermentationists approach and what I use for my sours that aren't going into barrels. I'd toss it in when(if) you rack and leave it there until the beer is ready. Sours do not have time frames, they are ready when they are ready. I'm slightly surprised out how quickly they are turning around AR, but for whatever reason commercial breweries do seem to have more aggressive bugs than are sold to us. I'd definitely be pitching some jester king dregs if I were you and I would not put a time frame on the project.

If it were me I'd probably go 6 months on the yeast cake, then rack on top of the oak and raspberries, wait another 6ish months before tasting and plan on it not being ready for bottling yet.

I guess I didn't realize how well known Atrial Rubicite was, but it is my favorite . That's what I did, pitched some JK dregs along with some 3724. Next time I'm going to try to build up some JK dregs alone for fermentation. I'm 3 months deep on the yeast cake now, so I think I'll go with what you said and rack @ 6 months onto raspberries & oak.

 

[jww9618]

What was the recipe?

 

[Limestone_Cowboy]

I've only used light oak, but a word of warning - add the cubes, but be ready to move the beer (or remove the cubes) at a moment's notice. This is just my experience, because oak can get really prominent in a "lumber" type of way if you get lackadaisical about it. Taste daily. More aging and bottling can soften the contribution but don't shoot from the hip here with a beer that has so much time invested in it, it's easy to overdo..

 

[bigmike99]

What's the recipe????

 

[jww9618]

I just got an e-mail back from JK and the recipe is 80% Pilsner 20% Wheat. Golding hops at 60 min for 10 IBU. Ferment with JK dregs for a few months until your happy with the flavor and acidity. Rack to secondary over fresh/frozen raspberries and let ferment to dryness. They use 3lbs/gal of raspberries.

 

[bknifefight]

I've only used light oak, but a word of warning - add the cubes, but be ready to move the beer (or remove the cubes) at a moment's notice. This is just my experience, because oak can get really prominent in a "lumber" type of way if you get lackadaisical about it. Taste daily. More aging and bottling can soften the contribution but don't shoot from the hip here with a beer that has so much time invested in it, it's easy to overdo..

Must have been the fact that you used the light oak cubes. I've used the medium char ones MANY times before and they sit well for months. Tasting daily is a good way to end up with 3 gallons of a 5 gallon batch.