Oaking a saison

[Tribe Fan]

I have a french saison bubbling away. I mashed Munich and some rye at a high temp, should be malty and about 6.3% AVB, 29 IBU using 3711 yeast.

I have some medium plus french oak cubes left over from some winemaking and was thinking about peeling off a gallon of this and oaking it. Plan is to soak them in some VSOP I have and throw them in the secondary.

Question is how much oak? I have about 4 oz to work with.

Thanks!

 

[specharka]

I used 0.15 oz / gal recently soaked in cognac on a Brett golden ale. The trick is to boil the cubes for 5-10 minutes, drain the water and soak them in liquor for a few days until they sink. The low oaking rate enables me to keep them there indefinitely.

I would definitely suggest pre-boiling your cubes and shoot for 0.15-0.3 oz / gallon. Saisons are quite delicate and don’t need a mouthful of tannins for oak to make a big impact.

 

[Tribe Fan]

I used 0.15 oz / gal recently soaked in cognac on a Brett golden ale. The trick is to boil the cubes for 5-10 minutes, drain the water and soak them in liquor for a few days until they sink. The low oaking rate enables me to keep them there indefinitely.

I would definitely suggest pre-boiling your cubes and shoot for 0.15-0.3 oz / gallon. Saisons are quite delicate and don’t need a mouthful of tannins for oak to make a big impact.

Excellent. Thanks a lot.