Oak Infusion Spirals

I brewed earlier today and was planning on adding some bourbon soaked oak chips to the secondary and picked up a pack of these at the LHBS. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with them?

I bought the Medium Plus pack.

Here is a link to the manufacture's site and a link to a description from my LHBS.

I'm thinking I'll just use one stick for two weeks and see what it tastes like. I also think I'm going to have to use more bourbon that I planned to soak it since it's kind of big to submerge fully, but I'll probably just pour extra booze back into the bottle.

The only smoked beer I've actually had was Dragon's Milk and I really liked it so I guess that's kinda the smoke level I'm going for.

We use these all the time with our wine,(we make around 420 gallons) and they work pretty well. You may want to oak a little longer thank 2 weeks more like 6 weeks to get full extraction from your spiral. We usally use 2 medium toast spirals in 5 gallons of wine and it gives a nice strong oak flavor that fades with time. Oak flavor will mellow like hop bitterness does over time.
Good luck.

Sorry to bring a thread back from the dead, but I can't seem to find any more information about oak spirals.

Has anyone been using these? Is the flavor extraction fast like chips, or slow like cubes?

To the OP, how did your beer turn out, and how long did you have it on the oak?

Looking at the spiral I would guess it's more along the lines of cubes. Probably a little faster but not fast like chips. Also looking at the spec sheet http://www.infusionspiral.com/downloads/techsheet.pdf they use one spiral per 10 gallons when it's 1.5"x9". The strange thing is their spec sheet doesn't match what they're selling which is 1"x8". I'd still cut one in half for a five gallon batch though. Might give one a try on my next big RIS.

I see they also have cherry wood spirals which is interesting.

I just used the spirals for the first time for a chocolate rye stout. Previously, I used the small cubes, to do two batches of a bourbon barrel aged porter. I'll use spirals from here on out.

I found the spirals to work pretty quickly. Although the package said 1 spiral for 3 gallons, I dropped both in my corny. First, I dropped each spiral into my hydrometer test tubes and then filled them up with bourbon, to soak for at least 24 hrs. (I also use Jim Beam's Devil's Cut, as it already has a nice oaky flavor already). Using both helped speed up the infusion process. I add the spirals and the bourbon from the test cylinders. Even with the bold stout flavor, I achieved my "barreled" flavor level in only about 2 weeks.

I highly recommend doing this in secondary, in a keg under slight pressure. That way you can sample and taste the beer as it progresses. Depending on how much flavor you are looking for, you can start checking it a week or so in and then every couple days, more frequently as you near your desired taste. It's a good idea to let it go just slightly stronger, as the flavor will mellow out after you've pulled the spirals.

Once you've achieved your oak level, adjust the bourbon levels by adding a few ounces at a time, let it sit a day, then taste. Again, like the oak, go a bit higher, it'll level out perfectly.

I have used spirals twice. Both times I broke them apart to create more surface; both times placed in the primary bucket before adding the wort. The results were good.
I prefer chips, but I also prefer choosing by toast first.