I’ve brewed a Flander Red and I’m going to add French oak chips, medium toast, probably about 1 oz for a 5 gallon batch. I’ll either soakthe chips in some EzraBrooks or steam sanitize them. My question is...should I add them and leave them in the secondary for months and months, or will it only take a few weeks to give the oak flavor? I’ve never used wood in beer and never made a Flanders Red, so besides what I’ve read (and there is a lot of subjectivity about how much and for how long), is it really just a question of taste? I suppose if I check the beer every few weeks I can pull the chips out of the carboy if it hits a point I think is "oaked" enough. Looking for advise from anyone who’s done this sort of brew before, and what I should expect to experience. |
I’m a fan of adding the proper amount of oak and leaving the beer on it for the duration of aging. You get more complexity that way. Use too much for a shorter time, even if you pull it before you get too much flavor, and it tastes like saw-dust. About an ounce of cubes per 5 gallons, boiled prior to adding works for my palate. Chips are tough and I avoid them but you want to use less due to higher surface area. hopefully someone else with more experience can chime in on that. |
Originally posted by sylvia40 Originally posted by sylvia40 You answered your own question. Originally posted by sylvia40 Here’s the rub, these beers, though aged in oak, aren’t supposed to have oak character. Traditionally, that is. That being said, this is your beer and you can do what you want with it. If you’re hell-bent on using oak, I would advise throwing out the chips and getting yourself an oak spiral. They are FAR more consistent than the chips, though on the pricey side of things, because, as Sam said, they have a HUGE surface area that is hugely variable. It would be useful to know what your base beer is tasting like before you put the oak in it. It would also be useful to have a recipe and a list of microbes, but that’s not really necessary if you provide a sensory analysis of the beer. It would also be useful to have an age on this beer. |
Originally posted by SamGamgee FWIW, one of the best beers that I’ve ever had (sour or clean, commercial or homebrewed) was a Flanders Red with bourbon that Mike T. (The Mad Fermentationist) sent me. I wouldn’t have thought it would have worked, but it worked out delightfully. |
I’ve never understood the rationale for soaking oak chips in bourbon, only to hope that the bourbon presence in the chips turns up in your beer. Just put a bit of bourbon in your fermenter with the oak chips; no need to soak them. I’ve done this before and enjoyed the finished product. |
I’ll steam the chips and only use 1 oz. I’m oaking because the recipe I’m following was calling for oak. Other than that, I have never used oak and would like to see what affect it has on a beer. It’s still in primary, I brewed it 8 days ago and it’s likely going to be a couple weeks before I transfer it. I’ve seen the oak spirals in my LHBS, but the recipe called for French oak, medium, and they didn’t have the spiral for that. I also missed my SG by a lot, coming in at 1.069, but so be it. Taste is more important to me. So, bottom line, I’ll leave it in the secondary for a few weeks and see how it tastes and go from there. I used WLP 655, so I hope to be able to bottle this by next summer. |
Originally posted by sylvia40 So . . . you brewed this beer about a week ago and are already considering secondary flavors? I would advise against this methodology. Let this beer go, on its own, for 6 to 9 months. Taste it then and decide if you want to oak it or not. At that point, you can also decide if you want to oak the whole batch or split it with half on oak and half unoaked. Again, do you have a link to the recipe that you used? |
Originally posted by b3shine Agreed. If you want bourbon/wine/other spirit character in your beer, just add it. We’re not held to the same constraints that commercial brewers are. |
Originally posted by HornyDevil |
Why would you want to sanitize oak chips ? |
Originally posted by sylvia40 Grainbill looks good, IMO. The hopping rate, however, is, very probably going to completely inhibit the lactobacillus in that blend. This just means that you probably won’t get any short term sourness, but that’s not a big deal because you still have pediococcus in there to sour over the long haul. Hope you mashed high. Regardless if you did or didn’t, I’d recommend feeding this beer some longer chain sugars somewhere down the line. Maltodextrin might be OK, but starch would be ideal. Reason? Normal Sacch. strains can’t ferment any sugar over 3 units long. Brett can ferment up to 9 and pedio even longer, so giving this beer some additional food somewhere down the line will help it sour. Originally posted by sylvia40 Umm . . . yeah . . . that was a dumb. Was this beer actively fermenting when you put the heat wrap on it? How about afterwards? Really, at this point all you can do is taste it and find out what you’ve got. Wouldn’t recommend doing that, though, until about 6 months from now. |
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