Need a wood beer in 1 month

[BrewCrewKevin]

Hey guys,
My local club is doing a competition on Feb. 15th and the theme is wood.

I currently have a Scottish Ale in secondary that is ready to bottle. I want to transfer 1 gallon of it to a smaller jug and impart wood. Obviously I have maybe a week before I need to prime and bottle to make sure it's ready in 4 weeks.

1) Is there a certain kind of wood that doesn't really need to be aged, and will taste good without maturing?
2)How would you suggest I do it? Smoke the wood and add it in for a week? Soak in spirits? Maybe just prime and bottle with a small woodchip right in each bottle (could be interesting...)?

 

[solbes]

I wouldn't go right in bottle, oak usually floats for a few weeks first.

Most brewing experience is with toasted oak. Normally I would suggest oak cubes, as they are more forgiving than oak chips taking weeks instead of days. I think oak chips would be a safe bet as you have only a week.

You don't have much time to sanitize them either. I would pour some boiling water over them and keep in contact for 15-20 seconds, remove and put into just enough bourbon or scotch to cover the chips for a day. Then transfer the chips and liquor into your beer for a week. If you think you have enough time, you could skip the boil and soak in whiskey for 4-6 days to sanitize.

Do some searches here to determine how much chips people are using for a week of contact time. 0.5 oz of medium toast oak chips would be my guess for 1 gallon of beer with 1 week contact time. Taste daily so you don't overoak!

Generally the oak tannins are most noticeable in the first 3 months in bottle, and then begin to fade into more of a vanilla note.

 

[RmikeVT]

Do some research on Firestone Walker DBA (Double Barrel Ale). I have brewed a clone and it grain to glass in 3 weeks. Oak goes right into primary active fermentation about 24 hours after fermentation starts up (something to do with yeast metabolizing wood flavors). There is a good Can You Brew It podcast on the brewing network. Maybe give that a listen and see if you can apply some of the methodology.

If I were you I would add 1.5oz med toast french oak to 5-6g of beer. Let hang out for 2 weeks and then remove and bottle.

 

[BrewCrewKevin]

Okay so I've got French oak chips. I've got one week. Make a jack Daniels tea, or add them to the secondary?

I'm leaning towards just adding the chips. How much should i put in for one week?

 

[solbes]

I think you're going to want to try and sanitize the french oak chips somehow. Steam them for 15 minutes, try the boiling water trick, or JD for a few days. I would not go more than 0.5 oz to one gallon. Maybe shoot for 0.4 if you want to be conservative.

 

[skitter]

Do some research on Firestone Walker DBA (Double Barrel Ale). I have brewed a clone and it grain to glass in 3 weeks. Oak goes right into primary active fermentation about 24 hours after fermentation starts up (something to do with yeast metabolizing wood flavors). There is a good Can You Brew It podcast on the brewing network. Maybe give that a listen and see if you can apply some of the methodology.

If I were you I would add 1.5oz med toast french oak to 5-6g of beer. Let hang out for 2 weeks and then remove and bottle.

Thats my favorite commercial beer at the moment, could you pm your recipe/process?

 

[RmikeVT]

Thats my favorite commercial beer at the moment, could you pm your recipe/process?

I'll just post here for everyone's benefit. The beer isn't easy to come by here in Baltimore, so I didn't do a side by side, but whatever I brewed was damn good.

here is the CYBI link, I will send my specific recipe when I get home tonight (I think I bumped it to 1.056 instead of 1.050 because I wanted a higher ABV brew).
I also mashed at 154 for 60mins instead of doing the step mash and nailed the 1.010 FG.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=24337

 

[patthebrewer]

You could try soaking the oak chips or cubes in Jim Beam for a week while the primary ferment wraps up. That would age a bourbon barrel flavor to the oak, then pitch after primary is finished. Or if you have a spare keg drop the oak and bourbon into it and put twenty lbs of pressure on it, to force the bourbon into the wood. Oak is pretty porous too! Couple of day I would say would be good enough, under those conditions

 

[carlpb]

How did the comp go?

What technique did you end up using?


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[BrewCrewKevin]

Went good! I ended up in 2nd!

I soaked 1oz of chips in jack daniels for a day, then added the chips (not the JD) to 1 gallon for 1 week.

I don't think the oak added a ton to it, but you could taste it a bit. I think the base beer, the scottish ale, turned out really nice.

Carl, I see you're from Appleton! Are you a part of the club?