Soaking oak chips in bourbon

When I want to mimic the flavor of bourbon barrel aging I have crammed a pint glass with oak chips that were sold as Jack Daniels BBQ smoking chips, then I filled the void in the glass with some more Jack. I let this sit for 4-6 weeks before dumping the liquid into my bottling bucket. I comes no where near the real thing, but I've tasted a couple of commercial beers that were 'bourbon & oak aged' which I'm guessing was pretty much the method that I described above instead of the beer seeing the inside of a used bourbon barrel.

The first couple of times that I did this, I'll guess that I had 7-8 ounces of liquid. But that never gave me a strong enough bourbon characteristic in my beer, so I added an extra few ounces of bourbon into the bottling bucket along with the oak-soaked bourbon the last couple of times. Also, I think I probably got a bit more oak flavor than what I really wanted, so less than 4 weeks is probably a better time period for the soaking. (Each time that I've done this it was with a Baltic Porter or a Scotch Ale. Each was good but not great. )

P.S. If you do a search of this forum you'll find pervious threads like this that may help you.

 

Word.

 

Herb, if that's a question for a key word then 'bourbon' will get a good response.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/search/30860803/?q=bourbon&o=date&c[node]=8

 

My advice when working with chips - boil them first. This is not to sterilize them but to extract the harsh tannins that will quickly ruin a beer or spirit. Remember, your surface exposure is through the roof with chips. I do 2-3 boils for 3-5 minutes each. This will help you lose some of the really harsh tannins that will make the beer taste tight, over-oaked and bitter. After your boils, then add the chips to your spirit (Bourbon, Brandy, etc) for at least 2 weeks. To speed this up, put them in the fridge for a day, then take them out and allow them to sit on the counter for a day. Do this a few times in the two weeks and the wood will "breathe," pulling the spirit into the wood and pushing it back out.

Good luck!

 

From our sister station at Urban Dictionary ...
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Word

 

I haven't seen that 'in and out of the fridge' recommendation before. Thanks for posting.

 

Tonight, I just added some bourbon soaked oak cubes to a porter in secondary. After reading the threads I soaked in cheap bourbon for 2 days, pitched the juice and then soaked for 2 weeks in 16 oz of Makers for 5 gals. Hopefully the tannins were extracted that way. Planning on leaving them for a few weeks before bottling and I'll let you know how it goes.

 

After reading th forums I decided to put 4oz. Medium toast French oak cubes in a beaker filled about 300ml with eagle rare
and buffalo trace.
After a month of sitting I took a shot and wanted to hurl. Way too much oak and tannic flavor. Liquid was about the darkest brown you can get before black. So I dumped the liquid refilled with fresh bourbon 500ml. Let sit another 3 weeks. After 3 weeks color was a nice bourbony brown with not too much color change and a lot more bourbon flavor with oak hues(my desired smell look and taste)

I just dumped the entire 500ml liquid and oak cubes on top of 5 gallons a breakfast stout clone on Sunday. Hoping to let it sit for 2 months or longer.

Seemed like without boiling the cubes the dump then second round of soaking made the taste of the liquid less tannic and a good way to go. Hate to waste my delicious bourbon though!It's all a big experiment but hope this helps a bit(and hope my stout turns out well!)

 

A "pre-soak" in Bourbon will do the same trick but as you already mentioned, why waste good Bourbon? Yes, alcohol is a great solvent and will definitely extract those nasty tannins in time but you'll completely ruin your Bourbon or spirit. Water is much cheaper and much less tasty. Either way will work though.

 

Using the cheap bourbon and discarding it in favor of a second, shorter soaking with good bourbon is probably the best way to go.

 

FWIW, that is what I do. A presoak with Jim Beam and a second soak with Makers Mark. That 'works' for me.

Cheers!

 

How much oak chips you recommend to add? For example if I´m making a personal (test) 1 gallon batch, how much oak I need to get nice flavour?

 

That's a really good idea. I've heard that's how BCS gets its intense flavor. It goes a full summer and winter in the barrels. The temperature changes and the woods contracts etc.

 

I've had great results doing a quick boil of the oak, then soaking in cheap vodka for a few days, before adding a pint or so of MM for a few months. That bourbon/oak tincture is always delicious.

 

Why separate boils? Why not boil it continuously for 6-15 minutes?

 

I'm going to guess that if you discard the water after the first boil, the harsh tannins go down the drain with the water, and a little more fresh water each time probably encourages more tannins to be leeched from the oak.