Aging Oak Cubes

I believe barfdiggs has a lot of experience here. He's soaked oak for years. The consensus sounds like the longer you soak oak the smoother it gets. Vanilla sounds like it gets ramped up a bit too.

Lots of us use wisk(e)y to soak oak cubes. I've read over and over that people soak their cubes for six weeks. I think I'd feel comfy using them after two or three.

Since wine isn't as strong, I'd go with a port, and I would wait for a few months before thinking about putting the cubes in a beer.

 

if you want actual wine flavor best thing to do is add the actual wine (plus oak) to the beer, the amt of wine soaked up by cubes is negligible

 

I've soaked oak staves in a chardonnay for a saison and cab sauv for flemish red. I soaked them for two weeks in the fridge, they definitely added more oak flavor than wine. If you can the wines would screw caps, I would recommend going that route.

 

I've got oak aging on wine for a few years now - mostly Chard and Pinot Noir. My tips - whatever you use - fill the vessel to the top and avoid airspace unless you want wine vinegar!

I also tend to let the wine drain away from the oak before using since I don't want the now very, very oaky wine in the beer. Age the cubes for ~2 months for optimum character and then age in the beer for 2-4 weeks.

 

I just used pretty much the exact time frames @drewbage recommended (aged cubes for ~2 months, then tossed into beer for just under two weeks); FYI this was a saison (OG 1.052) with 3711, and I also tossed 3# of rhubarb in with the oak cubes. I am thrilled with the complexity so far!

 

It's to taste. It's not going anywhere until you pull the trigger on it.

 

Yeah, always taste before you rack off - I find the 2-4 week period works best for a subtle complexity. There are a lot of folks out there who are doing their mega bourbon barrel stouts who age for much longer periods of time, but those beers to me always end up tasting like I'm eating the walls of a very nice treehouse.