using oak

[Jimsal]

Hello gang-

I just brewed an english barleywine. 1100 og. I have two oak spirals 5.6 oz (medium heavy toast)oak soaking in a bourbon. i also have 1b oak chips. not sure if I a going to use the chips. My question to the group- i have never used oak before how much should I use and for how long. Should I just go with the spirals?

 

[philjohnwilliams]

I have only used oak a few times, but from my limited experience I would be inclined to use the spirals, and to taste the beer periodically to determine when it has had enough oak.

 

[Mark Farrall]

I've overdone it by adding in an amount from a recommendation and wished I'd just added the bournbon/oak liquid to a small sample at packaging to work out how much I needed. It also lets you bottle two versions of the beer. One with bourbon/oak, the other straight.

Six months later and it's still got too much bourbon. Though I did put half the batch away to age in bulk and that's had the bourbon problem fixed by adding an airlock from a brett batch that I could have sworn was properly cleaned/sanitised. Tasting pretty nice at the moment with just a hint of bourbon/oak.