Wood chips soaked on bourbon

I would soak them for at least a few weeks, or until your beer's ready to rack to secondary. Pour that mixture (bourbon and all) into a secondary fermenter and let your beer sit on it for at least a month.

 

Below is something I posted previously. I should emphasize that I brewed using oak cubes vs. chips.

“There are a number of variables in using oak in homebrewing.

There seems to be lots of opinions and options when it comes to oaking a beer. There also seems to be a lot of variables which can greatly affect things:

· Amount of oak (how many ounces to add for a 5 gallon batch?)

· Type of oak: French oak, American oak, Hungarian oak, etc.

· Form of oak: chips, cubes, etc.

· How to sanitize the oak: steam it, soak in in alcohol (vodka, bourbon, rye, etc.)

· Do you just add the oak or should you add the booze as well?

· Charred oak vs. non-charred oak

· How long to let the oak sit in the beer

There are probably a half dozen more variables that I should add to the above list but I can’t think of them at the moment.”

My sole experience in using oak in homebrewing was a Bourbon Barrel Porter I brewed last year. My personal decisions for that beer were:

· Two ounces of Medium Toast American Oak Cubes

· Bourbon with a pre-soak of Jim Beam Bourbon for a few days to extract ‘excess’ tannins from the oak cubes and then a 1 week soak with Makers Mark Bourbon

· I added both the oak cubes and 16 ounces of Makers Mark to the secondary

· Aged in the secondary for 2 weeks

The resulting Porter had very nice and noticeable flavors from the Bourbon and the Oak.


Cheers!

 

One week is long enough.

Depends on how much oak character you want.
It's easy to over do it.
A one week rest of 2 oz chips / 5G is a good starting point.

Conventional wisdom: rack from primary onto chips in a 2ndary.
Not sure it matters b/c many folks nowadays dry hop in the primary.
Why should oak chips be treated differently?

 

I'm a big fan of the oak spirals. Once you've used them a few times, you get a good feel for how much they'll offer, and at 6 weeks, they're about done. I like half a spiral in five gallons for 6+ weeks to get a complimentary oak flavor that isn't intrusive. YMMV

 

I've also wondered if soaking 2 oz oak cubes in bourbon for a few weeks, then straining the bourbon out and into the bottling bucket before racking your beer would have the same oaky/bourbon-y effect? Then that would eliminate secondary aging on oak all together. My thought is that the oak will be infused into the bourbon, and it will mix well when I rack the beer onto it. Been thinking of doing this on an imperial stout soon.

 

I soaked 2 oz. oak cubes in bourbon for a KBS clone almost two years ago... The KBS clone was a massive failure; first time crushing my own grains... OG was 1.032 (effing rook!). So I never got around to using the cubes, but I still have them soaking in bourbon. It smells ridiculously good. I used 4Roses single barrel. I think I'll use them when I brew up my massive stout this summer.

 

Generally I will put the chips or cubes in to soak when I brew the beer.
I'll let it go for a normal fermentation schedule, then usually I'll rack to a secondary (I almost never do this otherwise)
Put the chips / cubes in, leave it for a week or 2, taste. If the oak flavor I'm looking for is there, I bottle. If the bourbon is there as well, bonus. I will save the liquid when I put the wood in, and if it needs more booze at bottling, I'll put it in then.

 

I have 1 gallon of a pumpkinator clone that I made that's aging in French oak chips that were soaked in fireball whiskey. I do not know as to how much I added but it was a decent hand full. I planned on letting it sit for at least a month. Would you say that would partake in too much oak flavor? I was planning on taking a sample at the 1 month mark and then kegging if I was happy with the results.