Need help choosing oak for barleywine

[humann_brewing]

I have a barleywine that is coming up on a year old, the recipe is attached.

stats are that it was a 1.116 OG barleywine with plenty of hops and finished about 1.020

I am wanting to oak 5 gallons of it and standard keg the other 5 gallons.

I have 11 gallons bulk aging in a sankey which is crash cooling now and want to transfer soon

My question is I have some heavy toast american cubes and wondering how those would do? I have a little medium french cubes too.

What are these going to do? Or should I be making a trip to the store?

 

[Paramecium]

I would go to a site like northern brewer and read the descriptions they give for each type of oak and toasting amount. Personally for my imperial stouts I like medium toast french oak. Mostly because they do give a bit more Vanilla like flavors. The Hungarian could be interesting if it gives the leathery, peppery flavors like it claims to. It really depends on how strong you want the oak to be. Also how long you leave it in the beer.

You could also mix them since you have both American and French already.

 

[Calichusetts]

I usually use two types of oak for some added complexity. Something to consider.

 

[m3n00b]

I used light toasted french oak wine cubes for 3 months and the oak was just about perfect when I bottled yesterday.

 

[humann_brewing]

I am thinking a blend would be good too. I am thinking 1oz medium french and .5oz of heavy American would work good for 5G

 

[biertourist]

I also find that the medium toast flavors get you the most vanilla flavor; statistically speaking the American oak contains more vanillin and it's wood grain gives up the flavor faster. If you like that super vanillay Jack Daniels-like flavor go with medium toast American oak all the way.

The oak infusion spirals will REALLY crank the vanilla flavor up to 11 in a hurry and are made by a former professional cooper. (I'm a huge fan.) -They're easy to attach a sanitized string to and pull out of the fermenter when you want, too. (Make sure it's a strong string because the spirals swell when they're soaked in liquid for a while and can be a pretty tight fit.)

If you go with the spirals you get two in a package and should probably break them in half and just use half at a time. They can be used for many many batches. I would disagree with the prevalent advice to soak them in some liquid or boiling water for an extended period of time as you pull out too much of the good stuff you want. I'd repeatedly spray them with water or starsan+water solution and then just microwave the soaking wet spiral on its own so you don't lose too much oaky goodness. (Steam sanitizing.)



Adam

 

[biertourist]

ESPECIALLY with barley wine you should be aware that vanillin increases the perception of sweetness; just as that barley wine will get sweeter as it ages and the hoppiness fades and alcohols get oxygenated and form fruiter, sweeter esters the vanillin will also increase the perception of sweetness so plan for it. If your barley wine is already sweetish maybe go with less oaking and the french oak option so you get less vanillin.


Adam

 

[humann_brewing]

ESPECIALLY with barley wine you should be aware that vanillin increases the perception of sweetness; just as that barley wine will get sweeter as it ages and the hoppiness fades and alcohols get oxygenated and form fruiter, sweeter esters the vanillin will also increase the perception of sweetness so plan for it. If your barley wine is already sweetish maybe go with less oaking and the french oak option so you get less vanillin.


Adam

very good point, this beer was certainly hopped up when made but I need to sample it and make the call. I made this beer with the intention of aging it, ie: the complex malt bill to let those flavors meld..... anyways, if I do add oak, it will probably only bee a little bit and maybe even just experiment with a couple of gallons as to not ruin the whole batch.