Steaming oak chips

I was going to boil sterilize some oak chips for some SMaSH brews I have in secondary but after talking to some members in the chat, I was steered away from that strategy. Apparently boiling the oak extracts tannins. I was pretty grateful for the head's up because I have 20 gallons to oak.

So I got to thinking, wouldn't the extracted tannins be in the water the oak is boiled in? If I take the oak out of the boiling water and put it in my carboy, is tannin extraction still an issue?

I've made this mistake before. Steaming/ boiling creates horrible tannins. You can do 2 things: Throw your chips straight in the secondary and the alcohol content should be enough to protect you....OR, soak the chips in star-san for a while, then throw them in. Remember, a little oak goes a long way, so you may want to sample weekly and rack off the chips once you're happy with the flavors.

Or, soak them in some bourbon if you really want to. I never oaked a beer, but I oaked wine. I just threw them in, and they were fine. I did use a previously unopened package, though!

Here in Canada even a cheap bottle of spirits is $25 so it's unlikely I'll be soaking it in anything. I got the advice from ollllo and some others in the chat, so I'm hesitant to discard it, but SWMBO informs me that our steamer is now an artifact waiting for some future archeologist to find and speculate as to its bizarre primitive use. Therefore I think I'll just go ahead and plunk them in.

They'll only be in the carboy for a week before I rack them into kegs so I'm not too concerned about over-oaking. This is a recipe posted by Orfy so the time and quantity are proven.

In the latest issue of Zymurgy, they state to boil/steam them and that sanitizer should never be used.

I've always boiled and never noticed any terrible tannins. I mean, oak is going to add tannins no matter what...

Hi,
Personally I would recommend a gentle steaming in the microwave. I'm not aware of any tannins with this method.

Soaking in your favorite spirits will also work.

Cheers,
Brad

Can't you just bake them?

What is the problem with using sanitizer? If you use a no rinse sanitizer on all your equipment and bottles anyway, you are likely going to have more residual sanitizer left on the equipment than in the wood chips.

It seems baking (toasting)would be ok if you want a smokier flavor but I buy my french oak already lightly toasted so I am not interested in changing the smoky character of the chip.

Finally, every book I read says to boil for 20 minutes to sanitize, although I kind of like the idea of soaking them in a shot of a good single malt scotch also.

I am getting ready to chip an expensive batch of barleywine so if anyone has any definitive rules on the sanitization, I would appreciate the input before I drop them in.

just boil them. i did it for a ipa that we made.

You shouldn't have to steam them very long. As others have pointed out the beer has alcohol.


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http://***********/mrwizard/939.html

wood is naturaly quite antimicrobial

this is why it it a better choice then plactic for a cutting board and why true linolum (not sheet vinyl) makes for great clean floors. It's the oil. Be it linseed oil or from the oak.
wash it, give it a light toasting to kill whatever might be on the surface.