Bourbon soaked french wood chips

[wehler]

I brewed a couple extract batches, a RIS and a scotch ale. The RIS is aging on coffee and the bourbon chips, the scotch on bourbon chips only. I moved both into secondary with the coffee and chips already in the carboys. My neighbor said ill have to move them off of the wood chips at one week because they will pick up a woody flavor. Any thoughts? He says I should have had the chips in a muslin bag to remove them or added them later on.

 

[Moerdertaktiken]

I've had great success with chips, and I've always left them in there for a solid 4-6 weeks, just loose. They'll sit in the bottom of the fermentor and it's easy to rack off of them. They have so much surface area that you really don't need to leave them in there for long periods of time. A reason why people will barrel age for 6 months - 1 year is because there is less surface area to impart flavor into the beer. Isn't the charred/bourbon french oak flavor the entire point of adding them in the first place? Of course it's gonna be woody!

 

[Moerdertaktiken]

Pretty sure this should go in the recipes/ingredients category...

 

[USAFSooner]

It'll be fine loose. I did a Rye Porter with Whisky soaked oak cubes. I just pitched em loose in the fermenter and racked on top of them. Rack the beer off and the cubes will be left behind and easy to dump out of the carboy.

 

[wehler]

Thanks folks. He just had me scared I would trash this batch with intense woodiness and not much else. Ill thief a bit to try at the two week mark and decide how to proceed from there.

Thanks again.

 

[Moerdertaktiken]

Thanks folks. He just had me scared I would trash this batch with intense woodiness and not much else. Ill thief a bit to try at the two week mark and decide how to proceed from there.

Thanks again.

Yeah exactly! Just thief it, and when it gets to the point where you like it, rack it off! Remember it's YOUR beer! RDWHAHB