Wood aging a RIS

[PoorBoy]

Was thinking about wood aging a RIS I am going to brew for my brothers wedding. If I were to use old cigar boxes, how much should I use in a 5g batch, and for how long? Will any of the tobacco aroma transfer over? Does it require any prep work, like boiling or soaking in booze?

 

[PoorBoy]

Bump for the workday crowd.

 

[cluckk]

Though I love a good cigar, I'm not that familiar with the wood used in the boxes. I'm pretty sure it is not charred in any way (though I could be wrong) and, though I've never tried raw wood, I've always read that you should avoid putting your beer in contact with raw wood. I've used oak chips soaked in bourbon and an oak infusing spiral. I prefer the spiral because it is easier to use and easier to remove from a carboy.

I assume you want to infuse tobacco flavors in your beer I wonder if steps to sanitize the wood might extract these flavors and leave you with little benefit beyond what you would get from regular oak.

Though I am not a chemist--and don't play one one the internet--I would also wonder, if the cigars were stored unwrapped in the box (as I've seen with a few), how much nicotine might have soaked into the wood. Not sure it would be a good idea to have this leach out into the beer. These are just some thoughts, but things to consider. I'm sure you'll find someone who has done something similar. You can just about name anything in your house and you'll find someone who has tried putting it in their beer.

 

[PoorBoy]

I am looking for some of the cigar flavor from the wood, and am concerned that boiling it / soaking it will remove those flavors. And I'm definitely not looking to get any of the nicotine leeching into the beer.

 

[Herky21]

Cigar City has a commericial line of beers based on this: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/cigar-city-humidor-series-marshal-zhukovs-imperial-stout/95106/

It sounds like you'll be working with Cedar and it sounds like the flavor will be more subtle. If I were doing it, I would wrap the box in foil and stick it in a fire to char it, or just bake it in the oven. The idea is to kill the germs and open up the wood. As I understand it, soaking in liquor will add a different dimension to the wood flavor that while good, is different. Just depends what flavor you're looking for.

 

[winvarin]

How about cutting up a box and boiling some of the pieces of wood in a small amount of water? Then take this "tea" and a sample of the aging beer. You could dose the beer with the tea until you achieved the desired proportion.

At that point, you could just make another tea, stepped up to the volume you'd need to dose a full batch. Then blend, bottle and condition

 

[PoorBoy]

Last time I boiled wood to sanitize, I got some serious tannins out of it. I'm not sure if cedar would behave similarly, but I can't see why not. I can give it a shot, at any rate.

I don't know why I didn't think to bake the box to sanitize it...

A guy from the home brew club is recommending 2-3oz, so I'm thinking I'll start there.

I'm going to be making a ton of this stuff over the next several months, so can try a couple different methods. The humidor series is the inspiration behind the brew. Just seems like mixing the coffee/chocolate of a stout with the aroma of tobacco and some spiciness from cedar would be a great mix.

 

[winvarin]

It sounds like it will taste/smell outstanding. You could use a small amount of grain alcohol or another neutral spirit. Not enough to really change the ABV of the beer, but enough to sanitize an leach some of the good stuff out of the boxes.

And I don't know how you are with funky beers, but it might be worthwhile to pull half or full gallon and just do the box wood as is. You might ruin it .... Or you just might pick up a nice wild inoculation

 

[PoorBoy]

I'm only about a year into my first foray with funk (alliteration. yeeeeeah), a wheat I just wasn't happy with, so I dumped a Brett blend, some extra LME, a mess of raspberries, a giant pixie stick...i think that's it...anyway, that's the extent of my funk experience. With the timeline on this stout (need it by September), and the time to brew / fermenters I have, I'm not sure bugs are a good idea.

I was toying with the idea of using some black spiced rum (a shot @10m in the boil, and to soak some wood in) to get some of the vanilla and spices out of it.

Edit: If this recipe works out, when I finally bottle that sour, I might try to roselare one, like Tart of Darkness.