selophayne
New Member
Hey all. Long time reader, first time poster.
I've been doing extract brewing from kits/recipes for a few months now, and I've got my 5th batch fermenting as I type. So far I've been able to answer all my questions by searching old posts. This forum is a gold mine of information, so thanks for that!
Anyway, for my fourth batch, I brewed an DIPA via this kit. I decided to add an oaky flavor, so I picked up a 1oz bag of oak chips from my LHBS and added them (steamed) to my secondary along with the dry hops and let that sit for 2 weeks before bottling. It was in bottles for about 1 week when I went back to my LHBS and was looking at the oak chips again a realized the bag I had purchased was in fact a 4oz bag of chips. Oops! So I cracked my first bottle yesterday (after 2.5 weeks in the bottle) and the initial taste is great, but it quickly fades to an aftertaste that makes me feel like I just chewed on a chunk of oak.
It's still palatable, but the oak is clearly too strong. I'm a bit of a hop head, so I was really looking forward to this brew and getting some fresh hop flavor out of it. Not that it's ruined by any means, just not what I was hoping for. Oh darn, I might have to make it again... I plan on letting that batch sit in the closet for a month or 2 in hopes that the oakiness will fade.
I guess I'm posting this for 2 reasons:
1) To ask the following: Do I have any hope here? Will the oak fade before the hop flavor and aroma mellow out?
2) To share this advice: READ THE PACKAGING. I certainly will from now on.
I've been doing extract brewing from kits/recipes for a few months now, and I've got my 5th batch fermenting as I type. So far I've been able to answer all my questions by searching old posts. This forum is a gold mine of information, so thanks for that!
Anyway, for my fourth batch, I brewed an DIPA via this kit. I decided to add an oaky flavor, so I picked up a 1oz bag of oak chips from my LHBS and added them (steamed) to my secondary along with the dry hops and let that sit for 2 weeks before bottling. It was in bottles for about 1 week when I went back to my LHBS and was looking at the oak chips again a realized the bag I had purchased was in fact a 4oz bag of chips. Oops! So I cracked my first bottle yesterday (after 2.5 weeks in the bottle) and the initial taste is great, but it quickly fades to an aftertaste that makes me feel like I just chewed on a chunk of oak.
It's still palatable, but the oak is clearly too strong. I'm a bit of a hop head, so I was really looking forward to this brew and getting some fresh hop flavor out of it. Not that it's ruined by any means, just not what I was hoping for. Oh darn, I might have to make it again... I plan on letting that batch sit in the closet for a month or 2 in hopes that the oakiness will fade.
I guess I'm posting this for 2 reasons:
1) To ask the following: Do I have any hope here? Will the oak fade before the hop flavor and aroma mellow out?
2) To share this advice: READ THE PACKAGING. I certainly will from now on.
