Hello, Two weeks ago I tried something new, I added oak to my beer. However I think I may have made some mistakes and was wondering what people thought. First I put the chips right into the primary, as opposed to in the secondary. Second when I sanitized them i soaked them in Vodka, but only for a few minutes. I was under the impression that to kill bacteria it only took a few minutes. I now am seeing that some people soak chips in spirits for days, I was wondering if people soak this long for flavouring or because its actually needed to fully sanitize. Lastly when i went to transfer the beer today into secondary I noticed that the chips we basically disintegrated. Is this normal? Thanks everyone in advance.
It's mostly recommended that you steam the chips to kill bacteria. However, many people have claimed to have no ill-effects by simply throwing the oak in there...straight from the package. I prefer to take all precautions, myself. As for the disintegration...chips are known to create some particulate matter...but I've not had them dissolve away.
I have only used oak cubes or oak "beans;" a barleywine, and now a few beers in secondary that are still developing. For the barleywine it was American medium toast, 2 oz, 5 gallons, 2 months. VERY oak-forward, but I love it. Do not recall presanitizing, but if anything I just boiled them in water briefly. Wood is basically impossible to make sanitary given the inner surfaces. Get the outside clean and call it a day.
Chips have too high a surface area and impart their flavor too quickly. I'd stay away. Otherwise, fresh oak (cubes, staves, honeycomb) can be boiled for 10 mins or so to decrease microbes and to knock down some of the tannins and raw-er oak flavor.
