Hickory Chips

[Brewbro29]

I was wondering if anyone had used hickory chips (the ones in the grill section at the home stores used for smoking meats)?

I recently read a book that suggested using them to oak Homebrew so I picked up a bag. The book noted that the chips left a sweet nutty/pecan flavor and aroma but I honestly can only smell the smokey/pork aroma in the chips and am not sure if they would be well-suited for my maple Porter.

Please let me know what your experiences were using hickory or other similar smoking chips. Thanks!

 

[microbusbrewery]

I haven't used the chips but I recently won a gold medal for a smoked imperial porter that I aged on hickory honeycomb from http://www.blackswanbarrels.com/

They describe hickory as Honey, BBQ, hickory smoked bacon, apple sauce, cocoa coconut. Not sure I was able to pick out all those flavors, but it was nice...definitely reminiscent of BBQ. Like the honeycomb, the chips have a lot of surface area, so it'll extract flavor quickly. I'd recommend tasting frequently to avoid overdoing it. Mine only took a couple weeks.