Experiment - Adding Oak to a Cube...

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evildrakey

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Okay, trying something a bit different... I did an ale last night in the Braumeister.

Old Ale Maris Otter & Medium Crystal, some Gladfields Shepard's promise with Progress Hops.

Added 200g grams of Toasted French Oak chips to the cube, then poured the beer into the cube at 100degC, doing the standard tricks - removing air, making sure hot liquid touches all sides.

I figured the oak would be sterilized by that action and the beer will now over the next 4 weeks will develop a decent oak character that I'm looking for.

Opinions? Promising or have I done something dumb?
 
​Sounds interesting. Will be curious to see if the heat has any impact on the flavours extracted from the oak. Hopefully you won't extract too much tannin from the chips. Maybe oak dominoes would be a good thing to try too?
 
GalBrew said:
​Sounds interesting. Will be curious to see if the heat has any impact on the flavours extracted from the oak. Hopefully you won't extract too much tannin from the chips. Maybe oak dominoes would be a good thing to try too?
I wouldn't be too unhappy it it was, I'm looking for a decent oak flavour which is why I paired it with an old ale. I figured both are strong flavours that would complement...
 
Like the idea, waiting to hear the results as I'll use this method on a oak porter.
 
evildrakey said:
Okay, trying something a bit different... I did an ale last night in the Braumeister.

Old Ale Maris Otter & Medium Crystal, some Gladfields Shepard's promise with Progress Hops.

Added 200g grams of Toasted French Oak chips to the cube, then poured the beer into the cube at 100degC, doing the standard tricks - removing air, making sure hot liquid touches all sides.

I figured the oak would be sterilized by that action and the beer will now over the next 4 weeks will develop a decent oak character that I'm looking for.

Opinions? Promising or have I done something dumb?
200g is a sh&^ tonne of oak in a cube !
 
Agreed, I usually use 20-30g of staves in a fermentor for 2 weeks...
 
I recently used 50g of oak chips stored in about 300mls of Jim Beam for 3 weeks. Added it back to taste, that way I could balance the oak, turns out about 1-2ml/L is enough to taste but not overpower. A little goes a long way.
 

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