Porter with Bourbon soaked Oak Chips

[DTM84]

Hey all,
I'm making a Robust Porter and adding some bourbon soaked wood chips to secondary. I've read a lot about this so far, but the time people suggest to keep the beer on the wood chips varies a lot.

I've read anything from a couple of days (being very over powering) to a couple of weeks.

I'm thinking the difference might be due to people either adding just the chips, or the bourbon the chips were soaking in as well.

Any suggestions?

 

[sweed]

I added light toasted oak chips to my RIS, after 17 days I bottled. The oak was very pronounced. I expected that, and this is going to age a long time so it will mellow out. I used 1oz. also. Cubes can be aged for months since there is less surface area. Btw, I didn't soak them in bourbon, my vanilla beans were soaking in that

 

[unionrdr]

Try 2-3oz of chips with no more than 3 jiggers of bourbon. Soak them in an air-tight container in the fridge while the beer ferments. Pour the chips & liquor through a hop sock into secondary,tie off sock & drop it in. Rack beer onto them. Give it 5-7 days,then take a shot glass size sample to see if it's to your liking.

 

[DTM84]

Try 2-3oz of chips with no more than 3 jiggers of bourbon. Soak them in an air-tight container in the fridge while the beer ferments. Pour the chips & liquor through a hop sock into secondary,tie off sock & drop it in. Rack beer onto them. Give it 5-7 days,then take a shot glass size sample to see if it's to your liking.

Awesome. How long should I soak the oak for? Just until primary is over?

 

[unionrdr]

I soak'em in an airtight container in the fridge till the beer hits Fg & has settled out clear. Then into secondary as stated.

 

[DTM84]

Thanks! I'll post how it turns out.

 

[lnashsig]

How important is the hop sock here? Is it a bad idea to just pour the wood chips into the secondary? Same with the vanilla beans?

 

[sweed]

How important is the hop sock here? Is it a bad idea to just pour the wood chips into the secondary? Same with the vanilla beans?

I just dumped it all in the secondary.

 

[unionrdr]

I pour the chips & bourbon through a hop sock,tie it off,& drop it in to rack the beer on top of it. I don't want wood slivers getting into the bottles. They didn't seem to sink into the trub either.

 

[FATC1TY]

I left wood chips and bourbon in my secondary for like a week. It tasted good then, so I pulled it. All of it settled out when I cold crashed it.