aging

[dodizzy]

i was wondering if anyone has aged in oak barrels, and if so where did you get them and when do you do it? i have been pondering the thought of aging my next batch in an oak barrel to see what the difference would be like in the quality of the beer, but i have no idea when to do it. would you do it after secondary, so that not many fermentables are left in the beer, and then bottle condition the beer after that? any ideas, look forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I read that Buttwiper only ages them in oak for 21 hours, so I wouldn't invest too much into it.

You'd be better off just adding oak chips to your beer. Don't hurry outside to chop down your tree though. Your local HBS should sell them just for this purpose.

 

[NUCC98]

I read that Buttwiper only ages them in oak for 21 hours, so I wouldn't invest too much into it.

You'd be better off just adding oak chips to your beer. Don't hurry outside to chop down your tree though. Your local HBS should sell them just for this purpose.

I was thinking fo throwing some medium toast chips into my IPA when I brew it. From what I can firgure, I steam-sanitize then, and dump about .5 oz. into my primary fermenter....sound right?

 

[Janx]

A barrel is going to be a sanitation nightmare. That is to say, you'll never get it sanitized.

I'm going to be getting one really soon for my upcoming lambic project. Some of the bacteria that are in lambic thrive in wood, so I'm going to try to get a barrel infested with the desirable wild yeasts and bacteria. Also, I'll be letting it sit in the barrel for a year or more and I don't want to tie up my main fermenters.

An oak barrel flavor is supposedly integral to "real" IPA because the beer was shipped in barrels.

I live in wine country, so barrels are easy to come by. I'm going to use one that has already been used for wine many times. You probably don't want a new barrel, especially if it's American oak, because you'll get a heck of a lot of tannins and oaky flavor out of a new barrel.

All in all, it's certainly easier and more easily controlled to use oak chips, but a barrel is a project I'm going to be starting for some specialty wild yeast beers. Cheers!

 

[uglygoat]

the oak barrell giving the ipa flavor is a contestable point among some 'historians homebrewers' from what little i've read. i've got no opinion on it personally, but i understand the other side of the argument, is that the oak barels were lined with pitch (tar) so that the oak didn't impart any considerable flavor during the long ocean journey.. wunder what tar makes your beer taste like?

are you going to leave your barrell of lambic open for the air janx? i'd be intersted to see how that works for you... i'm kinda fascinated by the lambic just laying about being fermented by whatever floats down from the dust and must...

 

[homebrewer_99]

I was thinking fo throwing some medium toast chips into my IPA when I brew it. From what I can firgure, I steam-sanitize then, and dump about .5 oz. into my primary fermenter....sound right?

I can't say for certain. I am sure there are plenty of recipes on the net.