Hey guys/girls, So I am currently soaking about 16 oz of Bourbon on oak chips. I plan on having them soak for about a month before I add them to secondary. My question is, I did not boil the chips before I added them to the mason jar and poured in my Bourbon. Should I restart the process and just dump what I have? I am afraid the tannins will make the stout bitter. What are your thoughts? Also, is aging them for a month before adding to secondary too long?
From my understanding there's a good chance the bourbon the chips are soaking in will have extracted a lot of the tannins out of the wood but the wood chips should be fine. So I'd for sure avoid dumping the actual bourbon in your beer and if you're really worried think about dumping the current bourbon and putting fresh in there to soak some more. Then you should be able to include the bourbon if that's what you planned. Current batch I'm using wood chips for I boiled, added a cheap bourbon for a week or two, dumped and filled with Woodford Reserve that has been soaking for 6 weeks. So to answer your 2nd question you can age them as long as you like. I've heard some people soak for over 3 months. This might be overkill but I've heard of others doing this so I figure I'd try it out.
Dump out your bourbon, and add new. I made the mistake of pitching my whole jar and I ruined my damned beer.
Hi Ben, My 2 cents, I don't boil the wood, bourbon should sanitize no problem. I also add a little bourbon from the chips. Never any issues. Oak flavor doesn't take long so I would taste if you can and then decide after that when it's to your liking. Good luck. Smitty
I have only used oak once: I used oak cubes to brew a Bourbon Barrel Porter. I performed a two stage soak process: I soaked the oak cubes using cheap bourbon (Jim Beam - 4 year) to sanitize and extract tannins. I dumped the Jim Beam. I then soaked the oak cubes in 20 ounces of Makers Mark (a total of 2 weeks soak time) and I used both the oak cubes and the Makers Mark in the secondary for aging. This process 'worked' well for me. Cheers!
Where do you think the tannins in Bourbon come from? Most of the problems here can be solved by not soaking the chips so long and using fewer chips to begin with, imho.
For my RIS last year, soaked 2-4oz oak (can't remember exact quantity) in bourbon and added to primary directly once hit FG, cubes and bourbon. Let sit a few days before racking the beer to secondary to bulk age. However, they were oak cubes that I charred, then boiled, and then soaked for two weeks or so. I just had beautiful bourbon/oak flavor, no issues with tannins at all. Worked very well, would do again for a future batch with the same method.
