Adding Oak to Beer

[DanC]

I am in the process of making a strong ale that is supposed to replicate an oak barrel aged ale. I bought some oak chips from the LHBS. The package was 4 oz. I asked the store owner about how much of the oak I should soak in bourbon and how long to keep the infused oak in the secondary. His advise was to use it all and after soaking in the bourbon add it all to secondary and keep for at least 1-2 months before bottling. This seems extreme. I put 2 oz of the chips in bourbon to soak for the next week.

Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks

Dan

 

[Nosybear]

Shortcut: Just add the bourbon and stir. Bourbon starts out as neutral alcohol, essentially vodka made from a corn/barley beer. It acquires its flavor from the barrel meaning that bourbon flavor is barrel flavor and the barrel is now wood with the flavor steeped out of it, replaced by bourbon. You're just steeping the residual bourbon out of the wood. By the way, just adding bourbon is a great way of telling if you really want your beer aged in a bourbon barrel, or sherry for a sherry barrel, and so forth.

 

[bilhelm96]

I put bourbon soaked oak chips in my barleywine and plain oak in my Oktoberfest (Oaktoberfest) style ale.

For the barleywine I soak the oak chips for about a week before putting them in the keg. In my last batch I started serving about three weeks after kegging and the oak flavor was already there. The keg kicked about three months later and the oak had mellowed some, and it was still awesome.

For the Oktoberfest I put in an oak spiral or stave and age it about two months before serving. I don't know how well it ages since the keg always kicks at my annual Oktoberfest party.

 

[DanC]

Thanks guys,
My decision, based on both of your comments, is to add only the infused bourbon first to my secondary. Then, after tasting this make a determination whether to add the chips back in.

Dan

 

[Nosybear]

That sounds like an excellent idea to me. Good luck with it and let us know how it comes out.