"Oaking" ...but with peach wood?

[webbbilly]

I am currently brainstorming ideas for my Christmas beer. So far my favorite choice is a Vanilla Nut Brown. Long story short, the other night I was smoking some pork with peach wood, and drinking my favorite rum (Barbancourt) and a light bulb flickered above my head. I had already pondered taking a couple gallons of the beer after primary and oaking with oak chips (soaked in Jack Daniels for a month or so) in a small 2 gallon fermentor I have.

The mixture of peach wood soaked in Barbancourt sounds pretty enticing to me to use in place of oak chips. Any thoughts from anyone with previous experience with oaking? This would be my first time doing that and I'd hate to ruin a potentially tasty Christmas beer.

BTW, this is my first post...Slainte!

 

[Magic8Ball]

I have made the mistake of using pecan wood chips in place of oak. I got a very harsh tannic taste that ruined that batch. Maybe try soaking the peachwood in rum. Then used the infused rum to flavor the finished beer (taste test first). At the very least, taste your "peached" beer regularly to avoid unwanted results. Good luck and post back if you decide to do it. Its a very interesting idea. Keep on posting!

 

[frazier]

Interesting! I have no experience to add, but I've been thinking along similar lines. I have a virtually unlimited supply of cherry wood, since they grow wild hereabouts. Where does one get peach wood?

I don't know the specs on your nut brown, but I'm thinking it ought to be a strong dark beer to avoid being overwhelmed by rum and wood flavors. I've got a robust porter in the planning stages, with an OG of 1.065 or so. I may put some of that on toasted cherry chips.

Good luck!

 

[sawbossFogg]

This sounds interesting. Very good advice from the 8-ball. I really like oak and being liberal with the booze! Only thing I'd add is start soaking now, cause unless you soak for a while you won't get the run favor, unless of course you just add rum

 

[azazel1024]

I have made the mistake of using pecan wood chips in place of oak. I got a very harsh tannic taste that ruined that batch. Maybe try soaking the peachwood in rum. Then used the infused rum to flavor the finished beer (taste test first). At the very least, taste your "peached" beer regularly to avoid unwanted results. Good luck and post back if you decide to do it. Its a very interesting idea. Keep on posting!

I would do this too.

I am very new to brewing, but I have used wood a couple of times in teas (long story, you probably don't want to know). Some woods can taste pretty nasty or just be generally very overwhelming to the taste of something like beer.

That said, there are plenty of woods that work just great. My suggestion, moderation. Or, better yet, soak the chips in some of your rum for a few days/weeks/however long, and then add it like an extract to the bottling bucket so you can get the flavor right where you want to.

Excellent resource I found by the way http://www.bear-flavored.com/2013/09/wood-aging-experiment-cherry-hard-maple.html

No peach wood on the list though, sorry.

I did just make a Caramel Oak Porter and it is AMAZING. I used 2oz of unsmoked oak chips in the secondary (1wk primary, 1wk secondary) and it is great. A little too harsh at first, but it is mellowing out. The caramel was hidden completely on bottling day, but after just a week you can taste the caramel some now and the oak doesn't have the buzzsaw edge it did.

Some interesting meaty coconut flavors from it. Depending on how this sucker ages (only been 2 weeks in bottle) the only change I might make is going with 1.5oz of oak instead of 2oz, that and maybe figuring out how to make this AG instead of extract with specialty grains.

 

[webbbilly]

Guess I should've mentioned I intended on soaking the peach wood in rum. Definitely don't want to risk contaminating. Barbancourt is a very sweet Haitian rum, so if any of that rum flavor does transfer during the "oaking" process, I would assume it could only be a good thing, at least in what I'm wanting.

I'm still conjuring up ideas for the recipe. I'm looking to brew a sweet, nutty, full-bodied Nut Brown (hence the vanilla). Also high abv, because it is for Christmas, afterall! I figure adding the rum peach chips may imitate a rum-cask aged flavor, similiar to Innis & Gunn (although I'm a long way from brewing that great of quality).

I'm still brewing with extract currently, as this will only be my 4th batch of beer I have done myself.

So far my recipe is along these lines:

3 lbs pale UME
3 lbs amber UME
3 lbs dark UME
4 oz brown malt
4 oz caramel malt
4 oz chocolate malt
4 oz special roast malt
vanilla extract (researching how much to add to wort boil)
.5 oz northern brewer hops (kettle bittering)
.5 oz santiam hops (kettle flavoring)
.5 oz kent goldings (kettle flavoring)
safale s-04

primary ferment for 14 days
secondary ferment 2 gallons with rum-soaked peach chips for 7 days
leave additional 3 gallons in primary

prime with amber DME + vanilla extract

condition until Christmas.