Went through the forums looking for a little info on this but didnt find a whole lot... Ive heard horror stories when using bourbon soaked oak cubes/chips with beers coming out way too woody and/or over the top. Has anyone tried using less chips and left them in the beer for extended periords of time vs less wood and shorter periods? If so, how long? I have some oak chips that have been sitting on 3 vanilla beans and bourbon for 2 years now and was thinking that If I use less, but keep them in the beer longer, it will produce a more integrated flavor as opposed to being a super woody/bourbony mess. Thanks!
My understanding is that less oak and longer contact times is better. You can achieve the desired level of oak by adding more oak for less time, but it will eventually drop off with aging. If you do less oak for longer the flavor and aroma become integrated for longer. I have a 2 year old Imperial Milk Stout that I aged for 4 months on oak before bottling and it still has a nice oakiness.
From what I've read, there are so many factors affecting extraction that the only way you can really do it is to take samples every so often.
I use cubes regularly, they work well and take 3 months to extract. Chips are fully extracted in a week (i think) its quick. More than this time, and cubs/chips won't do anything. Less, longer, tastes better. Meaning 3oz of cubes for a week vs 1 oz for 3 months. Chips give a harsh one dimensional flavor. Cubes give more complexity. The amount of wood taste/ other flavors depends on the toast level. My personal preference is to do a blend of American/ french oak cubes medium+ toast, the American gives some oak flavor, the french gives a vanilla flavor (sort of like wood does to Chardonnay). I typically use 1oz of each for a 5 gallon batch for Imperial stout/ Barleywine.
Super informative. I have these chips that i have been sitting on Bourbon and vanilla beans for about 2 years now and id hat for them to not go to use. I have some heavy toast oak cubes that are sitting on congac now that id like to use as well at some point. So around 2oz then? Since it has been soaking in bourbon for so long, any idea if ill need to add some of the Bourbon as well or will the Bourbon soaked into the chips be sufficient?
I only soak cubes for 24hrs. Maybe 48 if I forget. Then I typically don't add the bourbon, just the cubes. I have found that the bourbon that was used to soak in if added gives a harsh taste. but I will reuse the bourbon for more cubes, or add it to a glass of beer to fake a bourbon aged If you want more bourbon taste in your beer, than add new bourbon, it will taste cleaner. In your case you probably extracted all the wood flavors into the bourbon already, and I would probably add everything. -I only use enough bourbon to cover the cubes...
Great info! I am just about to start experimenting with oak chips/cubes and I really wasn't too sure where to start. Lately, I've been brewing several 1-gallon batches of a same general recipe and making minor tweaks to each one to see how they compare. I'm going to try some of the suggestions you gave to see if I can get a better idea of what changes what. Maybe: Batch #1: less bourbon soaked chips, longer sitting time Batch #2: more bourbon soaked chips, less sitting time Batch #3: less unsoaked chips, longer sitting time, add bourbon Batch #4: more unsoaked chips, less sitting time, add bourbon
Agreed with dgthrasher. chips for short contact time and cubes for extended aging with a combination to cover the spectrum. I don't have any experience with spirals but my understanding is the contact time is similar to chips but ultimately somewhere between chips and cubes. I know they are pretty $$ in comparison for whatever reason.
