Primary with oak? Char?

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MrFancyPlants

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I have a malt forward/ late hop pseudo solara I just started by filling a 50L sankey. And, it is about time to add back in ~4 gallons as I just took my second 2.5 gallon pull (serving keg). This will be my first pressure ferment in a corny with a floating dip tube. I am really enjoying where the first batch is at, but thinking I might throw some oak in the mix. I read through some wine literature and it mentioned that fermenting with the oak has some mellowing characteristics as the yeast drops out some of the tannins / acridness from the char.

Anyone try primary with oak? I collect my own firewood so I have a bunch of red / white oak splits and some cherry that I enjoy slow cooking salmon with. I was tempted to really char up a hunk in the woodstove, but maybe an oven char at 375f for an hour or so, would be less likely to ruin the batch? I could taste before I mix in of course.
 
How do you like my new brewing stick? It may be a bit much for a 5G batch, but it will be blended. I’m baking in at 224f for a while to dry it out. Then I’ll soak is some Cachaça and then discard. Then bake at 375f for an hour or so on each side. Then chuck it in the fermenter.
 

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Didn’t have time for the liquor soak, but I baked at 224f for a while, then bumped up to 375 for several hours, and finishe off with 45 min at 400. I was surprised that it didn’t look very toasted, but the smell did evolve as it got hotter. The kitchen still smells like the white oak split. I chucked it in the fermenter and still waiting for the temperature to come down before I pitch the kveik. I’m wondering if next batch I can rinse out the fermenter and brewing stick, and then pitch on top.. maybe I’ll wait for the wart to chill next time and see if the brewing stick will let the kveik ride.
 
Didn’t have time for the liquor soak, but I baked at 224f for a while, then bumped up to 375 for several hours, and finishe off with 45 min at 400. I was surprised that it didn’t look very toasted, but the smell did evolve as it got hotter. The kitchen still smells like the white oak split. I chucked it in the fermenter and still waiting for the temperature to come down before I pitch the kveik. I’m wondering if next batch I can rinse out the fermenter and brewing stick, and then pitch on top.. maybe I’ll wait for the wart to chill next time and see if the brewing stick will let the kveik ride.

This batch is smash with pale DME and northern brewer hop. A few for the boil and about half a pound for the hop stand as the temps came down. I thought about adding coffee/cocoa to match the ESB in color, but I don’t want to hide the oak before I mix it in. Next batch will probably be pale plus coffee/cocoa.
 
Pressure ferment next to the wood stove to keep the kveik rolling at 1 bar. Hopefully not so much oak that I’ll have to dump. I am starting to wish I had a couple more ball lock kegs to manage the blend.
 

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The oak flavor is pretty strong, however if I mix in some coffee, cocoa in the glass the roastyness really balances or covers up the strong oak character. I have 3gal left, in it’s own keg after some prodigious sampling. I’m not sure if I’ll make a smaller batch to coffee it up or what. I wonder how many batches it will take for the source of the flavor to become more muted. I may cut it in half too and or toast it up some more.
 
An oak ‘n coffee Black and Tan.
 

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I’ll pretend it is a Norwegian Farmhouse on stainless. Even though I am doing pressure ferment, I think I’m might toss this batch on the dregs from last. To speed it up. I didn’t dry the stave but tossed it in the last batch for the yeast inoculationz, and it took a while even stacked right next to the fire, for the batch to fermentz.
 

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I’ll pretend it is a Norwegian Farmhouse on stainless. Even though I am doing pressure ferment, I think I’m might toss this batch on the dregs from last. To speed it up. I didn’t dry the stave but tossed it in the last batch for the yeast inoculationz, and it took a while even stacked right next to the fire, for the batch to fermentz.
“You are not my foeder!”
 
I ran a 15 gal batch with leftover ingredients and a free IPA kit off of my local listserv from 2018.
10 lbs light DME and
9.9 lbs light LME.
A small packet of crystal malts and a “sock” to tie it up in.
2lbs corn sugar.
1 pot strong coffee with cocoa powder

2oz 2018 magnum hops for the 2hr boil
3Gal boil.

9oz assortment New Zealand hops at flameout.

fermented in 15.5 torpedo keg at 10-40 psi. With floating dip tube.

1 white oak split (5 or 6 batches in)
1 white oak split (smoked and charred on a grill with cherrywood over night)

Voss kveik yeast slurry And 1 pack S-05

fermented outside with temperatures fluctuating between lows of 27f and highs of 72f.

~6.5 abv

hope the “smoked and oaked” flavor doesn’t over-power.
 
I got a lot of compliments on this batch.. serving right out of primary with a floating dip-tube.
 

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