The cursory google search seemed to think that the yeast would do some not so pleasant things with the oak. I'm wondering if you could simply avoid this by adding after the majority of fermentation had finished, say after a week. I'm considering oaking my next hopbursted APA, and was wondering if anyone had tried similar. Thanks.
I have spoke with this guy about that a bit. http://www.thealeapothecary.com/ I believe Jester King has done primary fermentation too, I know they re-ferment their fruit in the barrels the beer is in. http://jesterkingbrewery.com/blog/ I have been meaning to try it but didnt have a good container to do it in. I suppose spirals would be fine but I always just assumed to put those in secondary. You could also consider making a plain small batch beer to soak the oak in for a while and then adding it to your APA to preserve the hop flavor. It would be like an oak starter but already fermented with the same yeast before you add the oak.
I've done it twice with stouts. I added them after 3 weeks and only left them in there for a week. I did not notice any difference between those two and the stouts I added oak to the secondary. They actually turned out better but I contribute that to the change in recipes.
Yes, I oaked in the primary of an oaked amber biere de garde. I pulled the medium toast French oak chips after one week; the beer stayed in the primary for a couple more. I do not know what you read about oaking in primary. I found it to impart an interesting flavor and some tannin. Over time, as the tannin dropped some, I thought the beer got better.
It makes sense to me if you are using some second- or third-use oak cubes, staves/spirals, or a barrel. That would avoid some of the stronger oaky flavors associated with new oak. It might be nice in a hop-bursted APA, sort of like Cigar City Julius maybe?
I read that the vanilla compounds would be metabolized by the yeast. Otherwise, people were saying that they had tried it both ways, and preferred the flavor when doing it in secondary. I would be boiling the oak spiral prior to addition, which should create a milder flavor.
In the brewing network podcast on oak with Shea Comfort, he talks a little about oaking in primary. I think he claimed to do it more for the textural, astringent impact than for flavor. As I was using French oak, the vanillin was less of an issue. Apparently it is not so potent in French oak as in American oak.
I imagine it would be worth separating out the affects of putting oak in the primary and fermenting in a barrel where there is interaction with oak and micro oxidation. I would imagine the affects of a barrel would be largely different where primary or secondary on cubes, chips or spirals would be minimal.
