How long can you soak oak in bourbon before using?

[Matteo57]

I have had some oak cubes soaking in bourbon for about 5 months now, how long is too long to let it soak before using?

 

[BrewPharm]

Store it in the freezer. You can save indefinitely.

 

[blakelyc]

So long as it is submerged, should be fine. I think. I had the same situation with rum and oak, although I think the rum was oakier than the oak

 

[Matteo57]

Well when I put it into the beer, I plan on just dumping the bourbon and throwing the oak in with fresh bourbon. So, it doesn't matter?
Brewpharm, I should just put it in the freezer??? Never seen that before. How does it change in or out of the freezer since liquor shouldn't freeze...?

 

[pdxal]

I've left oak chips soaking in a jar of bourbon for more than 12 months with no issues when added to beer. I do the bourbon+oak addition method.

 

[unionrdr]

Well when I put it into the beer, I plan on just dumping the bourbon and throwing the oak in with fresh bourbon. So, it doesn't matter?
Brewpharm, I should just put it in the freezer??? Never seen that before. How does it change in or out of the freezer since liquor shouldn't freeze...?

Don't dump the bourbon they've been soaking in. As long as the container was airtight,it'll be fine. But the main reason as I've found is that while the chips are soaking up bourbon,they're soaking out the resins in the wood. This is you're oak flavors. I pour it chips & all through a hop sock into secondary,tie off the sock,& drop it in. Then rack the beer onto that. Don't wanna loose all that oaky goodness.
But soaking say,2oz of chips in about 3 jiggers of bourbon in an airtight container in the fridge durring primary fermentation is plenty of time.

 

[helibrewer]

Oak cubes become neutral after about 5 months. All of the oak character is leaching into the bourbon during this soaking.

 

[unionrdr]

Yup,that's very true. It leaches the resins out of the wood even during the couple of weeks the beer is fermenting. That is to say,I start soaking the chips in an air-tight plastic container in the fridge after I pitch the yeast on the beer. Doesn't take long to leach the wood resins out.

 

[BrewPharm]

Well when I put it into the beer, I plan on just dumping the bourbon and throwing the oak in with fresh bourbon. So, it doesn't matter?
Brewpharm, I should just put it in the freezer??? Never seen that before. How does it change in or out of the freezer since liquor shouldn't freeze...?

Well the point of air tight containers and refrigeration is to limit the likelihood of any contaminate. Lowering the temp further in the freezer given the fact that it won't freeze would be an additional step to keep your beer clean in the end. I've had good results using this with few batches of a bourbon amber I make. The time the oak soaked in the bourbon varied with all 3 batches, no issues.