Hickory Amber - priming sugar addition

[KDogg]

In the priming sugar mix I added hickory wood briefly after the boil, letting them soak for a few minutes until light boil. Not sure this was a good idea but like the idea of Hickory Amber. Maybe next time I'll secondary and soak them but for now I'm just hoping it didn't introduce something nasty to the beer from pathogens or taste aspect. Thoughts? Don't ask why

 

[brewdude88]

In the future, you might consider making a tincture. Just soak your flavoring in vodka for a week or more. You can then add small amounts of the resulting liquid to a sample of beer and taste until you know how much to add to the full batch for your taste.

Wood can harbor some spoilage microbes, which is why most people either soak in neutral spirit, boil or toast them in the oven before adding to secondary. If you didn't put the wood in with the beer, I'd imagine the liquid was hot enough to disable anything that came from the wood. Then again, only time will tell!