Oak Aging Questions

[garebear22]

Hello all,
I'm brewing an oatmeal stout in a few weeks, and I was thinking about siphoning off a gallon and letting it age on some oak for a little while, as I'm a huge fan of the oak flavor, and wanted to see how it would impact a beer of that style.

I already know you need to sanitize the oak beforehand, but that leads me to my first question. I don't really want to sanitize in another sort of alcohol (e.g. bourbon), as I'm worried that will impact the flavor. I'm not really interested in having bourbon flavors in this specific beer (though I am a fan of bourbon barrel beers.) Basically I want to know how I can sanitize the oak chips in order to just get the straight up oak flavor.

So I have three questions essentially.
Question one: How can I sanitize the oak chips in a way that doesn't involve other sorts of alcohol?
Question two: Is toasting necessary for the oak chips, and if so how much/and how?
Question three: How much oak should I put in one gallon of brew?

Thank you!

 

[Natdavis777]

Question 1: you can throw the oak cubes in a pan and boil them for a few minutes to sanitize without the use of alcohol. Boiling the cubes will take some of the oak flavor away, but if you only boil for a few minutes, you should still retain some good flavor.

Question 2: i know the LHBS by me had different levels of toasted cubes , for example light toasted, medium toasted, etc. I've only used oak cubes twice, once in a bourbon barrel where they soaked in some Woodford Reserve for 6 months, and in my Flanders. I never toasted them and the stout turned out great. The Flanders is still aging.

Question 3: The 2x I've used oak, it was 3oz cubes in 5 gal. So for 1 gal, maybe a little over 1/2 oz. If you want to get oak flavor fast, you can use heavy toasted cubes to get a bold flavor in a shorter amount of time (I would speculate)... If you plan on aging the beer for awhile, maybe use something toasted a bit lighter.

Hope this helps, and maybe someone who has oaked more than myself can chime in


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[orangehero]

You can sanitize if you really want, but I don't think it's necessary. You can just add the oak once primary fermentation is finished. The toasting process does a good job of sanitizing anyway.

With oaks chips the flavor gets extracted rapidly, so after a week I would start tasting every couple of days until you get the intensity of flavor your want.

You generally want to get oak that is toasted, to whichever level you prefer, as the toasting process produces most of the desirable flavors (like vanilla).

 

[garebear22]

@natdavis777 Thank you for the response. I was hoping to get the oak flavor reasonably fast, but I might let it go for a long time too. Haven't really decided yet.

@orangehero In your experience, what's the best toasting level? And what specifically have you aged on oak?

 

[orangehero]

Here's a good resource:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/tips-wood-aging-119445/

Also listen to this interview with Shea Comfort:
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Sunday-Session/The-Sunday-Session-11-23-08-Shea-Comfort

Best toasting level is subjective and there are also differences in the type of oak you use. Personally I enjoy medium toast french oak, and I like to use cubes as they extract more slowly and provide a more complex and sophisticated flavor contribution.

Stouts work really well with oak. Light styles can get spoiled by the tannins, but I've had good success oaking Saisons.

 

[unionrdr]

I've used medium toast French oak, but prefer the American white oak. more woodiness in my experience. Toasted a little would be a hair better, in my opinion. If you boil the wood in a small amount of water, have an air-tight sanitized container ready. Put the chips/cubes, liquid & all in the container & pop in the fridge if you do this at the beginning of primary. But at this point, just pour all through a sanitized hop sock, tie it off & drop it in the beer, liquid & all. Why? Because the water or alcohol soaks the resins out of the wood while the wood soaks up flavors from the booze in that case. In the case of boiling, the wood resin flavors go into the hot water. It's a form of symbiosis in my mind.

 

[RmikeVT]

You can also steam the wood to avoid losing the Oak flavor from boiling. Simply put an upside bowl down in a pot, then something on top of that to hold the oak, fill with enough water to steam for 10-15 minutes. Just another method. I made a Firestone Walker Union Jack clone and used med toast french cubes for 3 weeks, the recipe called for adding them when primary fermentation as almost complete (and not racking into a secondary) and then package the beer at 4 weeks. The beer was fantastic and I could definitely taste the oak flavors after 3 weeks.

My suggestion would be to just add 2oz of oak to the whole shabang give it a month and try it. You will be impressed.

 

[unionrdr]

Also keep in mind that cubes take longer than chips to infuse flavors. No more than 7-8 days with chips.