# oak cubes



## IsonAd (22/11/14)

Where do you get em? I'm after medium toast French or American oak


----------



## sp0rk (22/11/14)

Check your LHBS, they usually stock some for distilling purposes


----------



## Dae Tripper (22/11/14)

Would oak chips do you? Your LHBS should have heaps for the sprit makers. You can even get chipped ex-jim beam barrels too.


----------



## Dae Tripper (22/11/14)

Beat me to it sp0rk, lol.


----------



## Hippy (22/11/14)

Try stilldragon online. They do a medium charred oak domino which are good.


----------



## IsonAd (22/11/14)

Tried LHBS. Only have chips but am keen to get cubes. Will give stilldragon a go cheers hippy


----------



## Guysmiley54 (22/11/14)

+1 for Still Dragon


----------



## Dae Tripper (22/11/14)

What is the advantage of cubes over chips?


----------



## sp0rk (23/11/14)

Less end grain, you'll extract less tannins and harsh flavours
Chips also tend to be completely spent old barrels
Mini staves are the best thing that are easily accessible to us, I've used them with great success


----------



## mje1980 (24/11/14)

I've only used chips, so can't compare, but have had good luck with them. I soaked mine in rum for a week, then strained before using in a brett porter. Love to try oak cubes if they add more flavour though.


----------



## mje1980 (24/11/14)

Just ordered some . Don't know if I needed a kilo but hey, I'll find something to put them into.


----------



## IsonAd (25/11/14)

I just ordered some of the American oak dominos for a barleywine. Anyone got recommendations on quantity / duration for these bad boys


----------



## sp0rk (25/11/14)

I used a 15g heavily toasted mini stave in 2L of baltic porter for a month and it came out quite nice


----------



## Truman42 (25/11/14)

I purchased some medium toasted American Oak staves from Enoltech in Hallam. They are about 1 metre long and I got 4 of them for about $12.00.

Perfect for cutting up to the required size to suit my oaking profile or my ageing vessel size so I have as little end grain as possible.

And as they are already medium toasted I can use them as is for ageing one product, or char them to age a different type of product that requires toasted staves.

They have French as well.

http://www.enoltech.com.au/products/pronektar-quality-oak-aditives/pronektar-staves.html

You can also get a box of oak staves from roll out the barrel which is around 5-6 kgs for about $30=-$40 inc postage. (Not sure exactly but it works out really cheap)


----------



## mje1980 (27/11/14)

Ok so a few questions about them. 

1.) Sanitising them first, how do you do it ? For my brett porter I soaked my oak chips in rum for a week, then added them in. How would I sanitise the dominoes?? I guess I could soak in vodka, which would stop any flavour addition. The chips contributed some slight rum flavours to the porter, which was great, but for say, an oud bruin I'd like to keep the flavour all about the oak.

2.) How much per litre?. I think I used 15g total in my brett porter. I ended up straining them out, rinsing off and adding straight into an oud bruin ( I plan on adding a domino to one half of this beer ).

3.) How long? I guess longer = stronger.


----------



## IsonAd (27/11/14)

I am now the proud owner of 1kg of American oak dominoes. They smell smell smokier than I expected. Now all I need to do is brew up a barleywine.


----------



## mje1980 (27/11/14)

Haha mine arrived today as well, hence the above questions.


----------



## mje1980 (28/11/14)

What other beers will you do with them?. A kilo seems to be a lot. I've got a 1.071 wee heavy that I'll definately hit with them ( probably soaked in scotch first  ), I've brewed a porter for them as well, and will undoubtedly do another brett porter. Might even be game enough to do a small batch of lambic and add them the whole way through. May even do one small one in a mild for something different.


----------



## IsonAd (28/11/14)

Not really sure yet. Definitely a barleywine and probably a RIS. I plan on doing annual barlwywines, but even so 1kg is a fair bit. I might look to do a swap with someone for some other ingredients.


----------



## motch02 (2/12/14)

With the dominoes what would people recommend, mine are roughly around 70 grams and I placed 1 in a brew 3 weeks ago.. contemplating putting another in


----------



## Yob (2/12/14)

what do folks do with used oak chips and such? can you just let them dry, store and use again when needed?

For example, I used some for a Drambuie Stout which I'd like to do again, are they a single use item? I shouldnt think so but thought I should ask before committing a batch to them again.


----------



## mje1980 (2/12/14)

I re used my funky oak chips. I just rinsed them off, then out in some boiled water for a bit then added to another funky beer. 

I plan on re using the dominoes I have for sure, put them in the oven at 100c at least for 15 mins should do it.


----------



## mje1980 (2/12/14)

motch02 said:


> With the dominoes what would people recommend, mine are roughly around 70 grams and I placed 1 in a brew 3 weeks ago.. contemplating putting another in


Only from reading around the internets, I've seen from 5g - 70g per batch. Seems 4-6 weeks seems to be recommended as the general time. Taste it around then and decide if it needs more. 

Personally the beers I put these into will be beers that benefit from long ageing, so I'm looking for quite a strong flavour at bottling. The brett porter I did with chips took a while for the rum/slight oak to come through, but was worth the wait.


----------



## IsonAd (9/12/14)

motch02 said:


> With the dominoes what would people recommend, mine are roughly around 70 grams and I placed 1 in a brew 3 weeks ago.. contemplating putting another in


How does the beer taste so far? Trying to gauge how much in a barleywine I'm about to brew. Which dominoes did you get?


----------



## motch02 (9/12/14)

I received mine off ebay it's toasted American Oak, I couldn't really taste it after 3 weeks though I boiled it before I put it in.. Not sure if that would effect the speed in which the flavour comes through

Will have another taste later this week as it's a month in now and let you know


----------



## mje1980 (18/12/14)

I just added 80g of rum soaked dominoes to a wee heavy. Going to taste at 6 weeks and then bottle if ok. I'm aiming high for the amount of dominoes but I plan on leaving this in the bottle for a good 6 months before sampling. If it's too strong a flavour just let it sit longer.


----------



## IsonAd (3/1/15)

I just put a 25g American oak domino in a 11l barleywine. Boiled it for a minute in about 100g of water first. Will wait for a couple of weeks but just seeing the amounts you blokes put in I'm thinking I may need to add more.


----------



## mje1980 (27/1/15)

I thought I had some mould growing on top of my dominoes i have in my wee heavy. Though I'm not so sure now. There was a little white stuff where the oak is exposed to the surface, but after a few weeks it looks alright. I'm going to transfer it this week and bottle, and I think I'll do the whole batch and see what happens. 

I soaked them in rum for a few weeks and added straight from the rum to the beer, so not sure if much could survive it. Though I do know brett can get right down into wood. I thought it may be brett, but there's certainly no pellicle. I'll taste when I transfer and see. I like brett but I'm hoping this will be brett free.


----------



## contrarian (27/1/15)

I have 3 oak dominos sitting in a 10L RIS at the moment that have been there for a couple of weeks. They are starting to add a nice flavour. I probably could have used a smaller amount for longer but was running out of time before I will have to bottle this one. To sterilise I put them in a microwave safe bowl and nuked for 2 minutes as suggested by cortez the killer, seems to have done the job, either that or nothing could survive in the ~9% ABV.

I am certainly keen to try this in some other beers, proably also high gravity beers that will benefit from some bottle age. I suspect in a lighter flavoured beer that it would be easy to overpower the more delicate flavours with the oak.


----------



## mje1980 (27/1/15)

I checked my records and noticed it was around 6 weeks in there, so I bottled about 10 bottles. I looked at the dominoes and they looked ok, so I cleaned them up and put them in the oven for an hour to sanitise.

Next time I'm not going to soak them in rum. My wee heavy tastes very rummy, and I'd like to use some un soaked. 


I'm bringing a bottle to ginos to sample. Probably a bit early to try but I'm keen to see how it turns out. So far the samples taste nice, just rummy.


----------



## Markbeer (27/1/15)

Boys i used some dominoes a few weeks ago in an RIS.

Was weird. The beer had completely finished. Added the dominoes after steaming them for five minutes. They seemed to get some whitestuff around them. I pulled one out and it looked like CO2 was collecting on them. i bottled and will drink one tomorrow. I used 4 in 20 litres. I couldnt taste oak after 2 weeks. Will report back.


----------



## IsonAd (28/1/15)

I've put about 40g of dominoes in a 10l 12% barleywine for about 3-4 weeks. Can't taste any effect yet. Next time I'm going to split or snap the cubes somehow to expose more of the wood.


----------



## mje1980 (28/1/15)

Markbeer said:


> Boys i used some dominoes a few weeks ago in an RIS.
> Was weird. The beer had completely finished. Added the dominoes after steaming them for five minutes. They seemed to get some whitestuff around them. I pulled one out and it looked like CO2 was collecting on them. i bottled and will drink one tomorrow. I used 4 in 20 litres. I couldnt taste oak after 2 weeks. Will report back.


This is pretty much what I noticed mark, white stuff. I thought it was mould for a while but not sure now. 


I think the oak flavours take a long time to meld in. That brett porter i took to les place took a good 6 months plus for the rum to calm down and let some oak through. With the brett and other flavours though it's hard to pick it up by itself. 

Put one away for drinking at the 12 month mark.


----------



## mje1980 (28/1/15)

Maybe next time I'll do an old ale, but just Maris otter, no spec malts. Then add 100g or something silly for a few months while it ages. Then see if it adds anything.


----------



## contrarian (28/1/15)

I've had a commercial example of a pale ale that was oaked and the wood was quite prominent.

The RIS I have a few dominoes in at the moment has definitely been developing a different character but it is more along the lines of vanilla from my tasting. I've also tried the Moa RIS that was aged in used pinot casks and that had a distinctive woody taste.

What I am aiming for in the RIS is a characteristic that will round the prominent malt bitterness and high alcohol content rather than being a dominant flavour. Am also planning on aging a few bottles to see how they develop over time.


----------



## Markbeer (28/1/15)

Next time I use them I think I will go with my favourite Old Ale recipe, stolen from Tony, and use a little treacle.

And add 8 dominoes with holes drilled out for a month.


----------

