over carbed with oak?

[Supergrump]

I did an oaked Scottish 80/- (or closer to 90/-) over the winter and I find its been slowly priming itself in the bottle over time, so that it is now much more carbonated than I intended. I don't have my notes handy, but off the top of my head I conditioned in the secondary for 3-4 months and about 6 weeks of that was with oak cubes. OG was about 1.062, I think. I aimed for about 1.5 units of carbonation, using dextrose, and I bottled it at room temperature because I've read bottling cold beer will overshoot the carbonation (I've experienced this). The bottles are stored at just below room temp, 19 celsius.

I can only think of two possible reasons for the bottles over-carbonating, with no sign of stopping: either the oak has leached out some complex sugars that are still fermenting over time, or else the caramels in the Scottish ale ( I kettle caramelized) are still fermenting over time. Does oak need to be conditioned longer before bottling? What about Scottish ales with kettle caramelization? I did a much bigger Scotch ale a year ago and conditioned for about the same time but with no oak and didn't experience this at all.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Or maybe an infection? Have you checked the gravity of one your overcarbed bottles? Did you treat the oak at all to make it sanitary? Steam or liquor or something?

 

[xxR4fterm4nxx]

I'd love to hear any update to this. I just put a 1.071 Scottish ale on oak chips last weekend. How did it turn out and did you find anything to suggest the problem? 6 months in a secondary sounds like a long time, I'm only going to leave mine for a couple weeks and then bottle.


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[Supergrump]

I can't detect any off flavors that would indicate an infection. I boiled the cubes for a few min prior to racking onto them in an attempt to sanitize. I've noticed that the oak flavor was quite strong when I removed the cubes from the secondary, but the oak flavor has dissipated a lot since then. Now, I would say the oak is present and blends very well with the malty beer. Can't figure out the carbonation though.

 

[xxR4fterm4nxx]

I just cracked open the first one of my Oaked Scottish ale. It's a couple weeks early, but I have to say I like the oak with it. I only Oaked a couple weeks in the beer, so I hope I can still taste it a couple weeks from now. It's a very young beer, not even fully carved yet. Anyway, I used peat smoked malt too and it is nicely balanced right now. We'll see what happens in a couple more weeks. It's good, I'll definitely brew this style again.