Soaking honeycombs in liquors?

Never used honeycombs, but I've often used spirals, and I can't imagine they're that different. Best advice I can offer is

1. use a liquor that you like that isn't that expensive.
2. make sure the wood is completely covered at all times, and give it a while to soak it all in. Add more to the jar to keep it covered as the wood soaks more in.

There are folks that say soaking the wood longer leads to better results, but I've never done any sort of A-B split batch comparison, and I don't think the folks saying it have either. I will say that you should soak the wood at least a month, though.

 

Are you looking for wood character, spirit character, or both?

 

If you're looking for spirit character, just add the spirit that you want. As a homebrewer, you're well within your rights to do that. One of the advantages that we have over professional brewers. Soaking a wooden infuser in spirit will not get you any spirit character, as it won't absorb enough to allow for that character to come through in the finished beer.

 

Sure. That's a start. FWIW, I usually add at least a pint of liquor to 5 gallons of beer. Sometimes the entire fifth. Depends on how much character that you want.

 

If you go that route, you might want to try a small amount of the wood-aged liquor in a sample of the beer (at whatever ratio you are planning) to make sure isn't overly tannic. Spirits will leech compounds (the compounds will dissolve into the alcohol) at different rates. Personally, I just use cheap vodka to sanitize the wood and then toss it. Good bourbon and the wood go into the beer if that's what I'm going for. However, that is more of my gut feeling as I haven't tested it out your way. I defer to others if they've done it and say it isn't a problem.

 

Damn...a fifth? Now I feel like I've really wussed out. Not to hijack the thread, but did that thin out the beer or come across as too much? I was always afraid to go over a pint.

 

I probably will. I think my next "slot" for brewing that kind of beer will be 9 Dec since I already have a locked in brew day over Thanksgiving.

 

Wow, go Jesus, that will be rugged.