oak aging

[sean6120]

if i wanted to oak age a stout can i simply drop the oak cubes into the carboy at the end of secondary fermantation, or do i have to place the cubes in an empty carboy and rack the beer onto them?

 

[duboman]

First off the oak chips/cubes should be soaked in some sort of alcohol like bourbon to sanitize. If you want more bourbon flavor soak them for at least a week or two, otherwise less time. If you do not want any flavor other than the oak you can boil them for 15-30 minutes to sanitize.

Once done you place them into the secondary and rack the beer onto them. IDeally you want to taste your beer at least once per week to get it where you want as sometimes if left for too long it can over power the beer.

 

[peterj]

I think you can just drop them into the secondary. I just racked a beer into 2 smaller carboys because I'm planning on adding Scotch soaked oak cubes to one of them. I still have to buy the oak cubes and soak them for a couple weeks. Then I'm planning on just dropping them in the carboy and aging for about 3 months.

This is a good thread about oaking: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/tips-wood-aging-119445/
And this is a pretty good article: http://morebeer.com/content/using_oak_in_beer

And if you can listen to the podcast they're talking about in the first link I would recommend it as well.

Good luck!

 

[oceans11_gt]

Just drop them in. After soaking of course. If you don't want the bourbon taste then soak them in a little water and then microwave them a few times in 30-45sec intervals to sanitize. Put them in towards the end of the secondary aging, otherwise you will have to put them in a muslin bag to get them out after the desired taste is achieved. It is a pain in the A** to get them out though so I recommend putting them in last. Don't ask how I know.........

 

[sean6120]

awesome, thanks for the info