How much Oak Cubes and How long......

In a 5 gallon batch, I find 1/3 of a standard mason jar full of Medium toast American oak chips, topped with whiskey for a solid week, does the trick. Remove chips and rack the beer onto them, and give it 24 hours, you'll get a solid but not overpowering bourbon oak flavor.

 

*48 hours

 

Notice that he said CHIPS, not CUBES.

Others here have mentioned using ~1oz of cubes for a couple weeks for 5 gallons. Someone suggested using a small amount of cubes for a longer time provided a better flavor vs. more cubes for a shorter time. I don't remember who said that, hopefully they will notice this thread. For the future, a more descriptive thread title would be a good idea.

 

No booze method for cubes not chips-

Boil cubes for 10 minutes. 1-2oz of cubes for 1-3 months per 5 gallons. 1oz is good. 2oz can be too strong. The manufacturer of the cubes suggests a 2 month minimum. I've had good results with one month, but two is better in terms of coconut/vanilla. Then let it condition off the cubes to smooth out for a month before drinking.

Sampling early and frequently is deceptive. It gets harsh early. Then, it smooths out and develops better flavors with age. I don't even bother sampling before the cubes have been removed and the beer is carbonated for 2 weeks.

Others may get good results with a faster schedule. I prefer the results of a slower schedule.

Since your beer is already kegged and presumably cold carbonated, I have no idea what you can expect. I always oak warm, uncarbonated beer and rarely use booze. Using booze soaked oak and adding only the oaked booze minus the oak is probably the way to go in this situation. The soak time wouldn't need to be as long as described above. 2-3 weeks maybe?

 

I like 2 oz medium and 2 oz heavy toast boiled for 5 min then into the beer for 3-4 weeks. plenty of oak but am going to try the Brew_Betty method of a longer soak with the same amount and type. I also oak at cellar temp.

 

I have always used booze (Bourbon) with cubes. 1 oz cubes for a 5 gallon batch, and a minimum of 4 oz spirits to soak for a week before adding to the beer. I add all of it, cubes and spirits, and secondary for an additional week or more.

 

4oz of oak? Wow! Is that your homemade oak or commercial cubes?

 

May have been me. I'm certainly no pro but I have some thoughts on my limited experience brewing 11-13% stouts and barleywines...

• Treat oak and spirits separately, it is easier to control each one independently rather than soaking the oak in liquor
• Use cubes and boil them for 5-10 min or so to sanitize and remove the harsher notes (and to make your kitchen smell great)
  • I skipped this the first time with american oak and it tasted like a smoked beer
• Use a smaller amount of oak over a longer period of time
  • I've oaked at 0.2oz/gal for 3 weeks or so and the result was ok - kind of one dimensional
  • I'm oaked at 0.1oz/gal for 2 months, then added an additional 0.1oz/gal for another 2 months and the results are much more interesting - vanilla, more depth
  • I may continue this trend and try starting with 0.05oz/gal for 6+ months next time around. After all, its easy to add more.
• For the spirits I have found 3oz bourbon/gal to work pretty well in a 12% stout. I would use less in a lighter beer. For apple brandy, I would actually use just slightly more next time around. Add the spirits to taste once you've achieved the level of oak character you want. I don't see any reason not to add liquor straight to the bottling bucket. I have even added spirits directly to the bottle via a dropper right before capping, an easy way to get different variants.

Really curious to hear what other people think. I'm often surprised at how little consensus there is on achieving barrel character at the homebrew level.

 

There is little consensus because people have a wide range of variables in terms of what they want from an oaked beer. Your points are reasonable avenues to a quality oaked homebrew that should satisfy a broad range of palates, but a narrow range of patience. It seems like many people want a 15% bourbon barrel stout to be good to go and top notch quality in less than 2 months. It ain't happening. If it could happen, professionals would be silly to age a beer in a barrel for 9 months.

Replicating the "best" barrel aged beer with cubes is not easy and maybe not possible. However, cubes and various other forms of wood can produce really good "barrel" flavors and aromas faster than a barrel. I have no desire to use a barrel because I enjoy the results that cubes and a few months provide.

 

Yep my own oak, the last one I made needed more oak taste. I think it's because barrels,I have seen are toasted more than my heavy toast sticks, so I am soaking longer. Of course, I will monitor and rack earlier if required.

 

Another option, somewhat unique, that I'm using with my Rodenbach clone. Take 2 ounces of American medium toasted oak cubes and split each of them in half with a chisel (a lot of the inside vanilla flavor will thereby be more readily exposed). Put the cubes in a small glass jar with about 100-150 ml of Bourbon or Vodka (I used half and half to reduce the Bourbon flavor). Leave in the jar for about 2 weeks. Then drop only the cubes in the carboy, but save the juice for later. Leave the cubes in the beer for several weeks, then take out. Taste it, and if not 'oaky' enough, adjust the taste with the juice you saved by adding a little at a time.

 

Yep, my oak is pretty thin so extraction is good, no booze here, I just want the wood

 

Awesome two post series courtesy of bertusbrewery blog on this topic:
http://www.bertusbrewery.com/2015/12/barrel-aged-stouts-and-charred-oak.html
http://www.bertusbrewery.com/2016/01/mellow-midnight-imperial-stout.html