aged too long on oak, will it mellow?

[jclimacus]

Hi Folks,

As the post indicates, I'm wondering if anyone has experience with their beer mellowing after aging too long on oak or wood. I'd more or less forgotten about a barleywine (2.5 gallons) that had been on sitting on oak cubes (1.5oz) for about 10 months until deciding to taste it today. Well, I tasted it today and it was not at all pleasant. More of an acrid, tannin-ish bite than I have experienced before. I realize beer doesn't always taste pleasant when it's been aging, but the harshness of the wood was striking to me. Does anyone know if this will mellow out? I'm debating whether it's worth bottling.

Thanks.

 

[Calder]

Not sure if it will mellow much. Have you thought about brewing another stout, and blending this with some of it. Fresh with the aged; you obviously have to figure out how they would play together.

 

[thenugsmoustache]

To my knowledge oak doesn't mellow much at all. If it is way over oaked to your taste it will probably always be that way. If it is just a little bit too oakey go ahead and bottle it. Could always turn it into vinegar, I bet that would be some good vinegar.

 

[Grod1]

one time i boiled oak and hops for 5 mins in about 500 ml's of water and added it to a sour before bottling . The resulting beer tasted way to hoppy and tanic/pure oak then i could enjoy, i put it away for a year and in that case the brett over powered everything.
Are you sure the acrid taste is from the oak and not the recipe(what was it)?Did you taste the wort before racking?

 

[jclimacus]

Darn. I had already heard others say that tannins don't fade very much--was hoping others had different experiences. I don't think the problem is grain. It is dark for a barleywine, but the chocolate malt is only 1.5%. I remember it tasting fine enough after fermentation. But I hadn't even thought of putting it onto brett. That's not a bad idea at all. Any brett preferences? I've used brett clausenii for old ales before.

 

[Kent88]

Brew another barleywine and blend! Siphon it off the oak, first. You have 2.5 gallons, you can brew another 2.5 gallons, ferment it out, go and get a 5-gallon carboy, and combine them. Give them another year and see how it tastes.

I have oaked a bock and it did mellow slightly over about a year. Not much, but age did help it, and barleywines are meant to be aged anyway.