Oak aging question

[jafo28]

Planned on brewing oak aged stout back in September, but life got in the way. I soaked some oak in bourbon prior to brewing, thinking that would be enough time for the oak to soak up some of the bourbon. I just got around to brewing the beer, and still have the oak soaking. My question is, should I start over with new oak and bourbon, or just use what's been soaking for a month and a half? Any thoughts?

 

[bigdawg86]

You could probably just add the oaked bourbon to taste, chips are probably not needed at this point.

 

[Calder]

Use it, it will be fine. The bourbon will have aken all the oak flavor. Should be great to use.

 

[jafo28]

Thanks guys.

 

[anteater8]

I think the oak is probably fine to use but I would not use the bourbon. The bourbon will have extracted the harsher tannins from the oak, making the oak better but the bourbon worse. Add fresh bourbon after the beer is oak aged.

I have experimented with oaking strong ales over 7-8 batches now and I'm pretty happy with the process I've landed on. I have only used this on 10-14% stouts and barleywines.

1) Use 0.25 oz medium toast American oak cubes per gallon of beer
2) Boil the oak cubes in water for 3 minutes before adding to beer (to remove the tannins)
3) Let your beer sit on oak in secondary for a minimum of 6 months, longer is better. You may be able to get oak flavor using more oak over less time, but it won't taste taste as complex. This will get you those vanilla & coconut flavors that you're going for.
4) Add bourbon or whatever spirit to taste at bottling/kegging. You have more control over each variable this way, I don't see any benefit to soaking oak in spirits. I recently used 2oz/gal in an 11% barleywine and 2.7oz/gal in a 13.8% stout, so it depends on the strength and intensity of the beer to get the right balance.