Oak Aged Brown Ale

My longest time is about four weeks. Unless you want a lot of oak taste and character I would taste once a month , at least. Personally I taste w
Every 2 weeks, others do differently.

 

"I want to transfer it and forget it for months (5-6). Let the oak do its magic."

I have only aged using 2 ounces of oak cubes that were soaked in bourbon; a total of 2 weeks of aging.

For long term aging do not use oak chips since they impart oak flavor very quickly. Maybe a 1/2 ounce of oak cubes would be the right thing for several months of aging?

The other consideration is that a Brown Ale is not a very 'robust' beer so a little bit of oak will likely go a long way for this beer style.

Hopefully somebody who has conducted long term oak aging will chime into this thread.

Cheers!

 

That would be prudent.

Cheers!

 

Stavin, the maker of various oak products for beer and wine suggests no less than 2 months for cubes. This how long it takes to extract from the center of the cube which tastes different from the outer layer. The center is where the good stuff is like vanilla, coconut and toasted almond. The outer layer is where the harsher burnt components are. They get extracted first.

I've done 1, 2 and 3 months with cubes using 1-2oz. I don't soak them in booze most of the time. If you are determined to age the beer for 6 months on oak before packaging, 1oz is probably what you want.

Sampling flat, oak cubed beer can be very misleading. For example, you dump some oak in there. Three weeks later you taste it and it's a harsh oak bomb, so you panic and bottle it. Eventually, it smooths out to the point where it's drinkable, but it's missing the most desirable notes associated with oaked beers. That's because you didn't give the oak enough time to spill its goodness.

Following a reasonable dose and contact time produced better results for me. Post oak conditioning time is also important.

 

@Brew_Betty very interesting, so, going on your post, is it possible to split the oak when one wishes to put it on beer and thus, extract the center sooner due to less time spent waiting for the beer to soak thru?

 

Based on this, you would say a smaller amount of cubes for a longer time is better/recommended? It makes sense, but I don't think I have ever seen anyone state it.

Also want to know about @GormBrewhouse's question about splitting the cubes to expose the center. Never heard that either.

 

I've had similar results (beer tastes significantly more bitter than as calculated), but I attributed it to two factors:

1. it usually occurs when I make a double batch (10 gallons instead of 5). Thus I assume that the larger the batch size, the proportionately less amount of hops that are needed to achieve the same amount of bitterness;
2. because of the larger volume, it takes much longer to chill - thus the hops stay at a high temperature for longer, adding to the length of time they are contributing hop bitterness.

 

I suppose you could do that. If the center is exposed it should extract sooner than a whole cube.

 

Thanks

 

It's only my best guess. The longest I've used cubes is 1.5oz for 3 months. An extra 3 months for the same batch would have extracted way more oak than I wanted. So, 1oz for 6 months sounds reasonable to me.

 

Sorry - I posted this to the wrong thread - please ignore.

 

I recently did a coffee/oak/bourbon breakfast brown ale. I added a pot of coffee during chilling and suspended an oak honeycomb soaked in makers mark for 2 weeks during primary. I also added the half cup of makers I had soaked the oak in. It came out pretty damn good for doing it on a whim

 

I tend to go the use less/age longer route. I like spirals, and tend to use 1/2 spiral per 5gal (1 spiral per 5gal is recommended, but I like a more subdued oak flavor and always put off bottling anything that goes into secondary). Last week I bottled an Imperial Porter that I had aged on 1/2 bourbon-soaked oak spiral for 9 months. Basically, I just kept putting bottling it off until I needed the carboy again. Between the bit of diacetyl from the 1084 and the oak-aging, it reminded me of a "butter-bomb" California Chardonnay. Not unpleasant, just different, and it worked well with the richness and roast level of the beer.

 

I find that 4 weeks is the sweet spot on oak with brown ales. If you really want to step it up a notch add a pound or two of smoked malt when you brew!