I have a wood problem

[jcrimeni]

So I am brewing my second batch and I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions towards a type of wood to age with a trappist ale? I was thinking french oak. I want to know if you suggest the wood chips or the wood cylinders. I am a new brewer, yes, but I like to experiment. My first stout came out pretty good when I messed with the ingredients a little bit, so I want to continue to make my beer my own way. Thank you for any help.

Also...would I need to sanitize the wood prior to adding it into the secondary fermentation process? I don't know if that is a stupid question but I just know that whatever comes in contact needs to be sanitized.

Thanks again!

 

[jessup]

I would go with a light to medium toasted French oak for a trappist ale. Definitely don't go heavy toast unless you want heavy oakiness. Same goes for American oak - it can give some big oaky flavors you may not want in a trappist. For sterilizing/sanitizing I would use some form of 80proof liquor - whiskey will give off a flavor so maybe some vodka would work since it's pretty neutral. If you don't take some precautions the oak will likely infect your beer since critters are likely to be present; this could be a good thing if you like some slight funk in your beers (ie: orval). Have fun and remember beer is very forgiving

 

[turvis]

I have heard of people steaming or baking the oak chips to Sanitize the wood.

 

[jcrimeni]

awesome! I am enjoying some beer from my primary stage right now and it is doing great so far but I think I lost some of the sweetness. Which is interesting because I added about 24oz of raw honey during primary fermentation. Would you suggest adding a little more honey to sweeten it up a tiny bit. The alcohol content is at 8% right now. I don't think adding more honey will increase it during secondary??? Any thoughts? I mean there is definitely some sweetness...I don't know. I just love Belgians and want to make a really nice one for my girlfriend and myself so I am worrying way too much.

Also any preference on wood chips vs. this wood cylinders???

Thanks!

 

[jcrimeni]

P.S. I know that the honey during primary would ferment but I was wondering why there wasn't much flavor left.

 

[brewguyver]

Even in secondary I'm guessing you won't get much sweetness from the honey unless the yeast get overloaded. Think corn sugar at bottling time - leads to carbonation rather than sweetness. Maybe someone can recommend another sugar that the yeast don't break down as well. You could get a bunch more alcohol though depending on the yeast strain you used!

 

[jessup]

Honey will do the opposite & dry out the beer. You want honey malt to mash or steep since that will give a definite sweetness enev though its fermentable. Crystal/cara malts do the same although not fermentable. Oak chips are kinda homogeneously toasted so not much complexity or variation from chip to chip. Use cubes, staves or whatever it all works albeit all a lil different.

 

[beertroll]

If you want to get sweetness from honey, you need to add so much that the alcohol will kill the yeast before they've finished fermenting it. In addition to what jessup suggested, there are unfermentable sugars, like lactose, that you can add for a little extra sweetness. Increasing your mash temperature a couple of degrees will also leave more unfermentable sugars in your wort.

 

[GTG]

So I am brewing my second batch and I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions towards a type of wood to age with a trappist ale? I was thinking french oak. I want to know if you suggest the wood chips or the wood cylinders. I am a new brewer, yes, but I like to experiment. My first stout came out pretty good when I messed with the ingredients a little bit, so I want to continue to make my beer my own way. Thank you for any help.

Also...would I need to sanitize the wood prior to adding it into the secondary fermentation process? I don't know if that is a stupid question but I just know that whatever comes in contact needs to be sanitized.

Thanks again!

I've had good luck with oaking using used barrel staves -
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=barrel+staves&_sacat=0

Cut yourself off chunks in 1 - 2 oz sized, soak in high proof alcohol of your choice for a week or so and oak away. I've been using them in primary with very good results so far.

GTG