Oak chips/cubes

[Dave Warner]

I'm venturing into wood-aged beer so I thought I'd plumb the well of experience here.

Some people seem to prefer cubes to chips. Is this simply for uniformity and eliminating risk of wood flakes?

I plan to soak the chips in bourbon. Most people all the whole slosh to the secondary. I'd prefer to just grab the essence as if put in a barrel and avoid adulterating beer with liquor so I was going to drain the chips before adding. Would I lose a lot of wood/char character to the drained alcohol? Will there be enough character with 2 oz oak to flavor a Russian Imperial Stout this way?

How do you do it?

I'm not going to add liquor directly at bottleing for this batch.

I might split the secondary and do one bourbon and one scotch.

What are your experiences?

[donniestyle]

Using liquor will flavor the beer, whether you drain the oak or not. It then becomes a "specialty beer" and not a "wood aged beer".

There's been recent debate about wood. I've read in HBD that oak chips/cubes that have been steamed/boiled should be drained, and the liquid should not be added to the beer. I don't recall the details, but it didn't sound good (unhealthy). You could search the archive for information at HBD.

I steamed my chips for 30 minutes, then removed the steamer basket from the pot, and put the chips into a 6x8 nylon bag with drawstring and steam it again. Then I remove the steamer basket, cover it, and let it drain again. Then I hang it in the corney keg by the drawstring. I've got one hanging in a Flanders Red now. It's near time to bottle it.

I use the same bags for dry hopping. A boiled bag is used. Add the hops to the bag and tie the drawstring around the top of the bag. The string is pulled up through the gas-in side of the keg and wrapped around the poppet. It then hangs down to about half the keg height. Since I ferment in kegs, this method works well for me.

[Dave Warner]

Consider me corrected. Specialty beer.

I'm going for the flavor because I had a fantastic bourbon barrel stout in Astoria, OR (Ft George brewery) and thought I'd try my hand at it. Since I'm soaking in alcohol to sanitize the wood, I wonder if there is the same concern about the steam/boil liquid issue. I mean, if whiskeys and wine use virgin wood, I doubt beer could draw something out that they couldn't right?

That's a great idea to use the keg for oak-in-bag addition.

I might brew 5.5 gallons to absorb the wood waste.

[Jimmy Orkin]

The difference between chips and cubes is the surface area of the wood. Chips will impart more wood flavor than cubes is the same period of time, assuming the chips give you more surface area.

Use your own taste to determine when to remove the wood.

I have used chips in the past. I steamed them in a colander over a pot of water.

[NanoBrew]

I have done this several times with my Imperial Stout. I use chips and stuff them in a ziploc bag with enough burboun to just cover the chips. Then let them soak for a week. I then toss the chips and buroboun directly into the secondary or in some cases I use a stainless spice ball and throw it in the Keg when kegging.

[Brewboy]

I will add that cubes have a fixed surface area that delivers consistant repeatable results. I've steamed them and also soaked in brandy before. The soaked cubes definately inparted a flavor other than oak to the beer. The steamed cubes just oak flavor.

I've used medium toast French Oak (steamed) in an Imperial Stout and it came out really well and smooth.

I've used medium toast Hungarian Oak (soaked) in an English IPA and it came out really well too.

The problem I have with the chips is variable surface area per weight used. 2 oz one time will not yeild the same flavor as 2 oz the second time.

[Dave Warner]

Ok, thanks all.

I lost at least 1 gal to blow off the first 2 days with Safale s-04, that is seriously active yeast. Ouch. I'm glad I formulated 5.5 gallons.

I'm going to use 3 oz American oak med. toast cubes in the secondary...hoping for more vanilla. If not, I've got a bean for backup.

[Bill Lawrence]

Ok, now for a stupid question and disclaimer. First the disclaimer, I have never used oak of any sort in beer (but may try it at some point). Now for the dumb question: Why do you need to sterilize the oak if you are going to first soak it in bourbon or scotch? Will not the alcholol in the spirits kill anything which could spoil the beer anyway, perhaps even better than steaming?

Ok, I thought of another stupid question. Has anybody tried those spirals of oak? Would those not be as consistent as the cubes while at the same time getting a much bigger surface area of oak thereby cutting down on the immersion time required to get the desired flavor (plus they would fit into a bourbon bottle much easier)?

I do however have experience using vanilla in beer (remember, I was the creator of the famed "Apple Pie" beer and that's how I did it, along with cinnimon). My advice about that is be careful. Vanilla is a very strong flavor and can easily overwhelm whatever else you have going on in the beer. I would be pissed if I spent alot of time trying to get an oak flavor in beer only to have it covered up by the spice. Just my two cents worth.

[Dave Warner]

Thanks, Bill! That helps. I think people were talking about two different ways of adding oak to beer. I personally just soaked them in alcohol.

The bourbon I soaked the American oak cubes in has a very distinct vanilla aroma now, and a very mild vanilla contribution to the Bourbon flavor from the vanillin in the wood. That's the vanilla contribution I'm going for in the finished beer so here is my plan:
1)Add soaked and drained oak to secondary and check every week for flavor contribution.
2)Siphon to tertiary when done and add bourbon used to soak the oak if not enough bourbon/vanilla flavor/aroma present.
3)Add vanilla bean to tertiary if still not enough vanilla. I'll go with 1/2 a bean at a time based on your recommendations.

Obviously I'll skip 2 and 3 if it's good after #1. If I keep it in the secondary/tertiary over a month and a half I'll keg carbonate, otherwise I'll bottle.

Update: 2 weeks with 3 oz med toast american oak cubes soaked in bourbon 1 week drained and added to secondary provided significant vanilla, oak, and bourbon flavor as well as oak and bourbon aroma to the RIS. No vanilla bean necessary.