4 oz oak cubes for a 1 yr sour? Probably too much?

[stevehollx]

So I just threw a 1.090 dark beer that's going to be aged for a year on fruit and 4 oz of medium toast oak cubes yesterday. I'm now thinking that I went overboard on the quantity, and that I should have done 1-2 oz, but the oak is already in the secondary.

The beer has brett in it. Do you think the Brett will eat up the oak flavor enough that I shouldn't fret this amount of quantity? Or should I try to rack the beer out, remove 2/3 of the oak, and add then rack back onto the fruit and oak? I'm worried about waiting a year for a beer that is going to end up being an oak bomb, but I'm not sure two extra rackings would be a great idea, either.

The cubes soaked in wine for 12h then was discarded, if that makes a difference.

Any thoughts?

 

[dcHokie]

did you boil/steam the cubes first? if not, 4 oz might be a heavy dose for 1 year+ even with the OG.

could you just scoop out some of the floating cubes?

 

[dummkauf]

For what it's worth, I oaked a Belgian Ale for 120 days, 5 gallons, with 6oz of french oak, medium toast, that was soaked in port first. This was over a year ago, and the beer has just gotten to the point where the oak is "tolerable", I'm hoping that another year(or 2) will finally mellow it out, but I'll have to wait and see.

 

[stevehollx]

I kept worrying about how much it would suck to wait a year for it to be an oak bomb, so I ended up pulling the beer out and removed about 2/3 of the cubes. I was worried about the oxygenation, but the fruit still had enough sugar to have the beer chugging away only 1 hr after re-racking with bubbles every minute.

So I'm hoping the extra rack didn't oxidize the beer. I'm assuming all of the CO2 production from the fruit will push that out. If I get some oxygen, though, I guess some acetic acid wouldn't be the worst thing in a beer of this style. I'll know in a year.

And now I know to keep my oak between 1-2 oz. ;-)

 

[TEWNCfarms]

so 1-2oz at most per 5-6 gallons? reading the bam bier clone and it says .3 ounces... didn't know if that was a typo?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Per 5 gallons you can consider between 0.25-2oz.

Because of all the different products and methods, there's not a one-size-fits-all approach.

Cubes, spheres, sticks, or spirals are generally considered better than chips or powder.
Some people soak or boil the cubes first to remove the fresh wood/lumber flavor.

I suggest to add oak (cubes) after the beer reaches the flavor profile you want, then you can package when it reached the oak level you want over a period of months.

Lots of info out there
https://www.themadfermentationist.com/2007/03/treatise-on-oaking-homebrew.html
http://beersmith.com/blog/2012/02/20/oak-in-your-beer-oak-chips-and-barrel-aging/

 

[TEWNCfarms]

Per 5 gallons you can consider between 0.25-2oz.

Because of all the different products and methods, there's not a one-size-fits-all approach.

Cubes, spheres, sticks, or spirals are generally considered better than chips or power.
Some people soak or boil the cubes first to remove the fresh wood/lumber flavor.

I suggest to add oak (cubes) after the beer reaches the flavor profile you want, then you can package when it reached the oak level you want over a period of months.

Lots of info out there
https://www.themadfermentationist.com/2007/03/treatise-on-oaking-homebrew.html
http://beersmith.com/blog/2012/02/20/oak-in-your-beer-oak-chips-and-barrel-aging/

Awesome thanks so much! Yeah I was about to do a big order with NB for their 20% off $100+ and was going to get the ingredients for my first sours, I spent like 2 hours figuring everything up, then get to the end to only find out it does Not include Grain!!! I have to be at work in 5 hours too! What a waste of my time. But at least I learned something, thanks for mentioning adding them After I get the flavor I want so it’s not too overpowering

 

[RPh_Guy]

FYI, Northern Brewer and Midwest are owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.
I don't think huge corporations are good for the beer industry so I don't buy from them.

Anyway I have 3 batches on oak, ranging from 0.25-1oz per 5 gal. The wait for these funky sours is killer.
Thinking about brewing another wild ale and a lichtenhainer next month.

 

[TEWNCfarms]

FYI, Northern Brewer and Midwest are owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.
I don't think huge corporations are good for the beer industry so I don't buy from them.

Anyway I have 3 batches on oak, ranging from 0.25-1oz per 5 gal. The wait for these funky sours is killer.
Thinking about brewing another wild ale and a lichtenhainer next month.

Wait wait lichtenhainer!? What is that?! And I know, I haven’t even brewed my first sour yet and I’m dying! Having those sitting at my house is going to be tough, thankfully it’ll be out at the farm house so I won’t wake up to them at least.

And damn, that makes me sad but I’m glad you told me, I hate supporting Big whatever it may be, the oligopolies have you. They are the ruin of our nation, thankfully we have monopoly laws, now we need to get oligopoly laws in place. The big Ag, pharma, beer, soon bud, everything Big, runs it all and get tax subsidies and don’t have to pay taxes most of them, yet the poor don’t even have the chance to make a livibgbthemselves because of all the regulations and permits and licenses and Taxes they/I have to pay! Thanks for the heads up on that.

On buying grain, I was trying to buy the Best grain I can get, and one of my local brew stores only has the basics and Cargill (one I don’t want to buy from) the other one has decent grains. Is there a good place online that has Select grains or does it really matter spending the extra $1lbs for higher grade malt? I want my beer to be the best you know, one reason I’m done with extracts.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Lichtenhainer is basically a smoked berliner weisse.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/that-l-word.657713/

I don't really have enough experience to have an opinion about malt quality. I read reviews and get nice malt flavor so I don't worry about it too much. Price difference is minimal so I get whatever I think is best.

...Since my LHBS is too far away to be convenient, I buy almost everything from MoreBeer. They have an excellent selection of maltsters and grain varieties in my opinion -- lots of big name quality maltsters both foreign and domestic and every product that I've wanted. Their milling seemed pretty consistent and a reasonable crush size, back before I got a mill. Really I can't say enough good things about them.

Other online retailers do have different products so if there's a particular maltster you want, see which store works for you in terms of availability, price, and shipping time.

I buy 55lb bags of Great Western 2-row since I have a mill. Something to think about down the road.

Cheers

 

[TEWNCfarms]

Lictenhainer is basically a smoked berliner weisse.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/that-l-word.657713/

I don't really have enough experience to have an opinion about malt quality. I read reviews and get nice malt flavor so I don't worry about it too much. Price difference is minimal so I get whatever I think is best.

...Since my LHBS is too far away to be convenient, I buy almost everything from MoreBeer. They have an excellent selection of maltsters and grain varieties in my opinion -- lots of big name quality maltsters both foreign and domestic and every product that I've wanted. Their milling seemed pretty consistent and a reasonable crush size, back before I got a mill. Really I can't say enough good things about them.

Other online retailers do have different products so if there's a particular maltster you want, see which store works for you in terms of availability, price, and shipping time.

I buy 55lb bags of Great Western 2-row since I have a mill. Something to think about down the road.

Cheers

Cool I’ll have to check that out!

Yeah morebeer is awesome, those speidel mishaps were such a blessing! They are perfect for my primary for sours and the other two for my entire run for cleans. Will their milled grain be good for BIAB? Yeah I’m going to be buying some sacks soon, just need to get a mill first.

 

[RPh_Guy]

It'll work for BIAB. Expect efficiency in the 60-70% range, toward the higher end if you sparge.

I use this:
https://www.beveragefactory.com/homebrew/pre-fermentation-equipment/kegco-KM11GM-3R-grain-mill.html
On sale for $141.

 

[TEWNCfarms]

It'll work for BIAB. Expect efficiency in the 60-70% range, toward the higher end if you sparge.

I use this:
https://www.beveragefactory.com/homebrew/pre-fermentation-equipment/kegco-KM11GM-3R-grain-mill.html
On sale for $141.

Awesome thanks for the link! Yeah I’m definitely dunk sparging, maybe some squeezing too... doing my first all grain as we speak, mashing right now. Doing the two kettle 2.5 gallon batches to make the full 5.