Beer Styles that Benefit the Most from Oak

JohnAdam · Dec 17, 2016

I love oak in my wine, and I've read a bit about oak in beer but I've never really seen a list or any suggestions as to what type of beer would benefit the most from it. In wine, both Cabernet and Chardonnay are excellent with some oaky flavor, but I just don't know with beers.

Also, in some old posts, I see people sanitizing the chips with liquor. I've read that you can cook them at 300 in the oven for 30 minutes and that does the trick. Thoughts?

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GFHomebrew · Dec 17, 2016

Sounds like the go John Adams the oven will do the trick. Only time I've used oak was French oak chips in a cider I made I think I boiled the chips to sanitize . I recon some of your darker malt beers would benefit from a bit of oak but I've no first hand experience cheers.

jmcnamara · Dec 17, 2016

Id agree, darker and higher alcohol are probably your best bets.
However I did have a barrel aged lager recently. Only had a small sample, but it was pretty interesting

Yooper · Dec 18, 2016

I made an Imperial Amber Ale (sort of an Arrogant Bastard clone) and oaked that and it turned out fantastic. I was a winemaker many years before starting on beer and was very comfortable with oaking. I never boiled my chips or anything like that.

oliver · Dec 18, 2016

I think it depends on the level of ABV if you're willing to risk just tossing the oak in, especially when you know who sorts that oak into bags at the LHBS.

I recently put oak cubes into a stock pot with just enough water to cover them, and brought it to a boil for 1 second maximum. make sure you strain the water off as much as you can though if you use that method.

GFHomebrew · Dec 18, 2016

Throwing them in the oven for a while sounds like a darn good idea to sterilise

Joshua Peterson · Dec 19, 2016

I soaked mine straight out of the bag into some cheap chardonnay for a bit, then threw them into my carboy (secondary fermentation) which is holding my sour brew.... nothing unexpected has happened so far and the beer seems to be doing just fine.

I'm actually getting sick of waiting, and i want to see how well i did on the souring process. I should be bottling this week sometime when i get a chance.