Bourbon Barrel Porter Oak.... Oak addition help?

[ElCid79]

So I have a AG Bourbon Barrel Porter that has been sitting in primary about a month. I forgot about it. I have not oaked it yet. I have 3oz (I am probably going to use 1.5oz) of oak cubes that I am going to soak in bourbon for a few days, then pour into the fermenter. It will likely be in that fermenter for 6 or more months. Should I, A - add them now to the primary, and wait a few more weeks to a month then rack to secondary. Or B - Go ahead and rack to secondary and let the oak stay in there for a long time? I have never used oak so I have no idea which option is best.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

The Jamil Show podcast on the Brewing Network has a good episode on wood-aged beers. It may be worth a listen.

 

[ElCid79]

Thanks! Checking it out now.

 

[jrgtr42]

I'd say get the oak on the bourbon, hold off on transferring (I don;t even know that you need to transfer... that's another arguement altogether).
|If you use the 3 oz, you can probably get away with a few weeks at most in there, you can probably just leave it in primary for that. Cubes are pretty quick about giving up the goods. |Test about every week to see how the taste is, and you can package from there.

 

[Alphadawg]

I do secondary when I use flavors like that. Especially on a heavy beer, I like to leave the soaked oak in the fermenter for 6-8 weeks

 

[mcmeador]

I brewed a 5-gallon bourbon barrel porter recently. I soaked 3 ounces of oak cubes in 16 ounces of Maker’s Mark for 2 weeks and dumped both the bourbon and the cubes into the fermenter once I confirmed fermentation was complete. I have a stainless steel fermenter with a bottom dump, so I dumped most of the trub beforehand just in case the oak needed a long time to sit.

I then let it sit for a week and started taking samples to determine when the oak flavor was where I wanted it, which ended up being at 10 days. Then I cold-crashed and kegged a few days later.

The flavor has definitely evolved over time. The oak was always pronounced, but oddly I could barely pick up on the bourbon early on. Now that I only have a handful of pints left in the keg, the bourbon has become more apparent and the roastiness has increased, so a beer like this definitely benefits from some aging.

As far as length of time for the oak goes, it’s just a matter of personal taste. If you think you may want to leave the oak in the beer for an extended period of time, then I would get it off the yeast cake. You can get a good amount of oak flavor from 3 ounces in a short period of time, though. You probably want to set a point in time at which to begin taking occasional small samples to see when the flavor is to your liking.

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[ElCid79]

Thanks for the advice. I am going to let this sit for now. and then add the oak when its closer to time to drink it.