Oak chips

[collinsDPT]

What are peoples' thoughts and experiences with adding oak chips to different brews? I recently picked up a bag of oak chips at my LHBS and was thinking of adding them to the secondary of my recently brewed Honey Porter after soaking them in bourbon or another alcohol.

Or, should I wait to use them in a Stout or other style beer?

Thoughts?

 

[elpenoso]

Look in the local bottle shop. Oak is used in many beers (including porter) besides stouts. Usually it accompanies a high abv.

 

[unionrdr]

I've had this Kentucky pale that has oak in it. doesn't have to be dark. Try soaking the oak chips in a little vodka in an airtight container in the fridge while the beer ferments. Pour it all through a hop sock into secondary,tie it off,& drop it in. Rack the beer onto that. Use a shot glass to start tasting it after 7 days to get the oak level where you like it. Then bottle it up.

 

[collinsDPT]

Great, thanks!

Did you use vodka so that no bourbon flavor goes through and only Oak? Did you pour the vodka into secondary too, or did you straing the soaked oak chips through the bag and then just put the bag in secondary?

 

[unionrdr]

Great, thanks!

Did you use vodka so that no bourbon flavor goes through and only Oak? Did you pour the vodka into secondary too, or did you straing the soaked oak chips through the bag and then just put the bag in secondary?

Yes,if you don't want any liquor flavor to get into the beer,then just use plain vodka. And def pour the vodka/liquor through the hop sock into secondary as well. The reason being that while the oak is absorbing liquor flavor,the liquor is soaking resins out of the wood chips. So you need to add both.
That's why I pour the whole mess through the hop sock into secondary. It also keeps the chips contained so you don't get prickers in your tonsils at warp2 when you drink it.

 

[DromJohn]

Using wood in various styles is trendy.
For instance, Innis & Gunn's Winter Ale is a porter. They also do a Treacle Porter.
They do a Pale Ale. The Original (currently in my primary) is a palish amber ale.
IOW, yes you can oak a porter, and any other style.

 

[OldWorld]

Is it french oak, american oak, hungarian oak? Different types of oak give different flavors. I wouldn't use it in the porter. It would be overwhelming of the malts. Let the porter be malty and roasty as it should be.

Save the oak bourbon combo for a big imperial stout or barley wine style ale.

If you want to give the porter a unique flavor from wood then try using some spruce tips or redwood tips. The redwood or spruce tips contain resinous terpenes much like hops, but provide a different mouthfeel.

Personally I love spruce tips. They add spice and a level of chewiness on the mouth. A couple of sprigs added to the secondary for a few weeks will do. I like to add them to the boil.

Good luck. I think overwhelming bourbon characteristics hinder everything the maltsters have done for beer. If you want to drink a bourbon then get a bottle of pappy van winkle. It's not cheap but it's the kind of bourbon you deserve to enjoy once in awhile.

It's just so overwhelming stupid that mainstream publications are promoting bourbon oaked beers as high end esoteric products when they are unbalanced hoppy messes.

If you want to try the pinnacle of beer made with wood from a spirits barrel try the JW Lee's Harvest ale aged in Calvado's barrels. Such a malty hoppy heavenly treat.

 

[unionrdr]

That's why I told him to use vodka if he didn't want the bourbon' stronger flavor & coloring. Just because someone's using oak doesn't automaticaly suggest bourbon is being used. there are other liquors to use with no to little flavors added. Depends on what you want as to how much is used,& the level desired. It's part of the brewers art.