Racking experiment - Oak.

[bellebouche]

I'm having a little experimentation with Oaking a recent brew. I've used a Brewferm 'Ambiorix' kit as the base, made it up with Belgian Candi syrup and last night racked off onto an assortment of dry hops, oak cubes and toasted oak chips. One Carbouy even got a shot of Orval dregs - hoping that I get some Brett characteristics.


I've also bottled off 7x650ml bottles which I've primed at 6g/l (slightly less than the kit recommendation) as a neutral control.

Here's a snap!

[Parp]

Looks interesting

Although, I had an Innes & Gunn last night and remembered why I never bought it again after the first time yonks ago.

[kfm]

Recently used a Brewferm kit for an oaking experiment too; Gallia and I used 30g sachet of Young's French oak chips in secondary for 5 days. Taste on keggin to corny was all oak, sickly really. Just after tasting it at 3 months and the oak is still way prominent, beer is cloudy too (usually the Gallia kit clears well in less than a month). Corny consigned to back of garage now as one for Xmas - basically, I over did it so hopefully will get a steer from yours if it turns out well.

[bellebouche]

Ahh.. I'm surprised that 30g of Oak for just 5 days had such a stark impact. I'm away from home right now (Drinking Beartown beers from Congleton, Cheshire) but will have a sample this evening when I return, flavour update tomorrow.

Can I ask if you used the chips 'raw' or if they were toasted at all and what volume you added them to? I guess it's possible that the oaking may have introduced a contaminant of some form that's causing the cloudiness - not always an undesired characteristic I'd think (I'm thinking of Rodenbach for example)

I've blogged a little about the process of making my chips and cubes and how they turned out. The thought did strike me that I'll save the cubes and poach them in a little Bourbon beofre I reuse them.

[bellebouche]

Ahhh.
Little sample of the cubed version. No perceptible oak flavour.
Similar sip of the roasty toasty chipped version... some very mild oak flavour, more astringent, not as sweet as the cubed (this was dry hopped, had the Brett and was showing a little 'head in the carbouy).

It's only been racked on for 72 hrs now... so I'll let it run on for another 2/3 days for the pair and sample again.

Managed to scoop some Orval that was bottled at the end of March so that is as fresh as I can get. Depending on my next tasting I might double-dose the toasty oak one with more of their bottling culture.

[bellebouche]

Bottled off the 'big cube' version of this last night as I'd noticed that half of the cubes had sunk to the bottom of the carboy.

Oak flavour was quite subtle. The Beer still needs a couple of months to finish in the bottle yet and I hope the Oak lasts the distance. I split one cube with a cleaver and the oak smell was very strong inside the cube but it was just beery on the outside if you catch my drift. Have re-purposed the cubes now and stored them in a Jam-Jar under some Bourbon. They'll end up in my xmas porter!

[bellebouche]

Briefest of brief updates.


The "big cube" version was a distinct hit. Far superior to the un-oaked variant (my negative control). I've got one 650ml bottle left to taste next week and then it'll be all gone.

Have two 5 litre secondaries *still* glugging away, albeit just once a week or so now. They've had a mixture of extreme dry hopping with 2yr old hop flowers and toasted oak shavings and some brett harvested from Orval. It'll be bottled in about ten days and will be good to go sometime after bonfire night I suspect.

I will definitely repeat the oaking exercise. I was very uncertain at first but, nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you've never done it I'd encourage a little experimentation.

[kfm]

Can I ask if you used the chips 'raw' or if they were toasted at all and what volume you added them to? I guess it's possible that the oaking may have introduced a contaminant of some form that's causing the cloudiness - not always an undesired characteristic I'd think (I'm thinking of Rodenbach for example)

bellebouche sorry I missed your question above. The oak chips I used were almost granular size not really chips more of a powder. IIRC they were toasted, yes. My kit improved in taste, the oak mellowed has down a fair bit, but clarity is still an issue. I like your big cube idea though and I would definitely do it again with a stout perhaps.

[GARYSMIFF]

just got some American white Oak and this site has some good advice:



http://homedistiller.org/aging.htm

[delboy]

I did an oak beer (innis and gunn clone) it seemed to take on a permanent haze but despite not looking all that great i thought it tasted pretty damn good. It went especially well with some burgers that i had smoked using the spent oak chips