Oaking...Beer!

Alcoholic beverages which are not classified as spirits.

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ShineonCrazyDiamond
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Oaking...Beer!

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

So I got the oaking whiskey thing down. My question is how does oaking beer compare?

I want to enter a competition in November, and the ol' beer schedule will put me on brewing the competition beer July 1st. 1 month to ferment, 3 months to age. I am going to do a Chipolte Chocolate Stout, aged on once used wheated bourbon sticks. I got just the jar in mind. ..lol.

Anyways, is three months enough? How many sticks for 5 gallons? Do I soak them in bourbon, and add some bourbon? It just the soaked sticks? I plan on bulk adding in a sanke keg with a stopper and airlock. Do I leave the oak in the whole time?

Just like to know. First attempt will be this competition beer.

Oh, the non-flavored, base stout recepie, trial run. I think the yeast are happy! This was during the blow tube changing cycle, 24 hours into the ferment. :thumbup:
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InvertedSpin
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Re: Oaking...Beer!

Post by InvertedSpin »

Oak with as much or as little as you want, sample it regularly until it suits you, and then take it off the wood. Only you know what you're going for, and us beer judges (BJCP Certified & Certified Cicerone here) are pretty inconsistent and subjective from one judge to the next.

Personally, I don't approve of adding spirits to the beer to give it more "barrel-aged" flavor, but sneaky homebrewers do it all the time and enter the "spiked" beer into competitions.
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Re: Oaking...Beer!

Post by still_stirrin »

Another BJCP certified judge here. And I would not judge a beer favorably if it was "fortified" either. And a beer judge with experience can certainly tell if a spirit has been added to the beer.

An oaked beer should be slightly astringent due to the oaking process. It will tend to make the beer taste dry on the finish. And when oaked in a used bourbon barrel, the barrel will impart a bourbon aroma. But you should not have much, if at all any flavor from the bourbon.

And it sounds like you're already max'd out with flavor constituents.....chipotle and chocolate in a stout! Good luck with it. Personally, it already sounds almost too esoteric to be popular.
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ShineonCrazyDiamond
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Re: Oaking...Beer!

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

This is why I love you guys. Honest and helpful.

So, to be clear, this is going to be a popularity competition, not a judged competition. I don't even think these will be separate categories. Just the regulars of the brewery walking around picking their favorite beer. Creativity is a plus.

And, I'm not trying to be sneaky by adding anything, I just found conflicting advice and wanted to clear it up. My beer forum is a great source for information, but HD is the best. Some people just soak the cubes or sticks to get the same results as a barrel. Some added just the sticks, some added the bourbon it was soaking in, and some even threw an extra 12 oz of bourbon in.

Perhaps in light of this I will just take the sticks from the jar and drop those.

Also, the chipotle will be added to the boil, no seeds or viens, no dry hop. This should allow for the smokey flavor of the pepper, but no heat. Not looking for the heat.

The brewery released their own American stout this year, with Habanero, aged in barrels. Seemed to be popular, and I'm shooting to please the regular crowd.
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Re: Oaking...Beer!

Post by columbia36 »

I think the recipes that call for soaking the oak in bourbon might be doing it mainly to sanitize the wood. You'd hate to infect the batch, and if you're using barrel staves the outside of those things are nasty. If you toast and char the wood then immediately put it in the beer that's probably clean enough. Never done it but I am planning to soon.
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InvertedSpin
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Re: Oaking...Beer!

Post by InvertedSpin »

ShineonCrazyDiamond wrote:Perhaps in light of this I will just take the sticks from the jar and drop those.

Also, the chipotle will be added to the boil, no seeds or viens, no dry hop. This should allow for the smokey flavor of the pepper, but no heat. Not looking for the heat.

The brewery released their own American stout this year, with Habanero, aged in barrels. Seemed to be popular, and I'm shooting to please the regular crowd.
Sounds delicious! I'm sure you'll do great.

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Re: Oaking...Beer!

Post by mendozer »

I did a bourbon brown ale last year. Soaked oak chips in makers mark for a day then tossed it in the keg. It sat there until the keg ran dry. and OMG it was the best beer I ever made.
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ShineonCrazyDiamond
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Re: Oaking...Beer!

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

Competition came and went. I won 3rd place overall from the judge panel! Woohoo. :thumbup:

The beer was a variation of a clone of the brewery that put the competition on. My rotten luck, even though I brewed this back in July, they released a beer 3 weeks ago with the same variation! Unbelievable. So, being as the grand prize was to brew on their equipment, I am not surprised that they did nor choose mine to brew :lolno: .

But still, very good feedback. The master brewer that made the original paid me a huge complement. He said that he wishes he had gotten as much flavor in it that I did. We bs'd about the different yeast, and the process. It was a good night.
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Re: Oaking...Beer!

Post by yakattack »

Good on ya mate. Sounds like you had fun.
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Re: Oaking...Beer!

Post by thecroweater »

All things considered ya good to be happy with that, love ya work SCD :thumbup:
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