Toasting Oak Chips

[jgodd]

So, I bought some oak chips from my local home brew shop, they are not toasted. I have been searching online to try to find out the proper way to toast them myself. I have read about soaking them (not sure in what), or just throwing them in the oven at 450 for a half hour.

If anyone knows how to toast oak chips, can you point me in the right direction!?

Thanks!

[Usge]

Some people wrap them up in alum foil and bake it at around 400F for a while. I did this and it just turned them to charcoal (not what you want). It burned them all the way through and they were just dry crisps. So, I tried again on my grill outside and watched them till they had just toasted up on outside but were still "wood" on the inside. I put them in my corn whiskey and they didn't seem to be working very well.

Best results I've gotten on cubes...is to use a propane or mapp gas torch and just torch them. This burns the outside..but doesn't consume them the way baking might. Got better results doing it that way. I "refurbish" my cubes this way after I've used them.

[mash rookie]

I use Jack Daniels smoker chips straight from the bag. They work great.


http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... ck+Daniels

[Usge]

I use the med+ or heavy toast american oak cubes from "moorebeer" dot com. They work really well also.

[kobold]

chips need less time. i chuck a handful of hickory in the oven every time i bake something and take them out as soon as i can smell them. 20-30m at 180-220C is enough for a medium to strong toast.

[beelah]

Wine barrel staves, cut to once inch square, toss on the BBQ until as done as you want them, then drop the in cold water...two reasons..1-cleans the soot off and 2.shocks them and cracks the wood so more product can penetrate and sugars crystallize. Don't let them soak I the water just in and out then let them dry. After they have cooled, cut to varying sizes from one inch to 4 inches and see how they work ink your product. This Is some what like what the pros do, in that they start a fire in the barrel to toast them and then quench with water....or so I read, but it works fine for me.

[jgodd]

What I ended up doing was letting them cook for about 15min at 350 F and then jacked the temp up to 450 F and let them toast for a few minutes. When I opened my oven smoke billowed out. I let them cool and then stuck them in my jar of shine. After about 2 days the shine was already turning color!

[DavidWatkins]

I have a gas stove and a hood. I just fold a sheet of heavy duty foil into a pan and toss a couple slices in on high flame. That way I can see how toasty the slices are getting.

[jgodd]

Update on the oak chips: I probably put a half ounce of toasted oak chips in about 300 mL of my rum at 70% alcohol. I let it sit for a month. End result: My rum tastes like liquid wood!

I then diluted it down to 40% alcohol with distilled water. The taste is very mild and actually, it's not that bad. I added a cinnamon stick and I'm going to let that sit for awhile. Updates will come!

[frozenthunderbolt]

Update on the oak chips: I probably put a half ounce of toasted oak chips in about 300 mL of my rum at 70% alcohol. I let it sit for a month. End result: My rum tastes like liquid wood!

To avoid this dont put them into Alcohol above 65% tops, the higher the percentage the faster you pullout the 'woody' tannins, lower % gives more vanila-ish and sweeter flavours.

[bcboyz86]

So I'm guessing as a good rule of thumb, chunks/cubes are better than chips and staves are better than chunks? Just because of the thickness and how much you can char the outside without burning the whole thing? But if you char the wood all the way through, would it act as a carbon filter a little bit? I mean charred things are pretty much carbon anyway...so would charred wood chips be able to pull double duty in the regard? To be able to give off flavor as well filter a little bit due to the carbon outer shell as the alcohol is being pulled in and out of the wood? Or would it just be getting more and more woody/smokey flavor from the burnt wood pieces?

[Usge]

Filtering to remove impurities is different than aging on oak.

[bcboyz86]

Is carbon that's used at q filter different than the carbon char on the outside of the wood? I guess maybe that's the question I'm trying to ask. Would using charcoal act as a filter the same as activated carbon? I've read up on some tennysie whiskeys and they said the final step is to run the alcohol through maple charcoal to filter it and give it a touch of sweetness. Could this be achieved the same with oak? Say filling up a long tube with oak charcoal and running the linker through it?

[jgodd]

From my knowledge, yes. The charcoal you have to filter is pure carbon which will adsorb any impurities from your alcohol. Yes, the charred outside of your wood is carbon, but it's not exactly charcoal or pure carbon. It may adsorb some impurities, but wont be nearly as good as pure charcoal.

[Durhommer]

So I'm toasting some white oak sticks in my oven started 2 hrs at 280f then raised to 370 for 1hr almost done and it smells like high school wood shop all thru my house

[cayars]

You would be better off picking a specific temperature then trying to adjust the temp as you go. Otherwise you really don't have any idea what flavor you "tuned" the wood to. For the most part it will mostly be the highest temperature but why not just stick with a specific temp.

[Durhommer]

Well I soaked it in water then dried for the 2 at the lower temp then I rested and went to the 370 for the toast I have a chart deal for flavor and temp range

[DSmith78]

Update on the oak chips: I probably put a half ounce of toasted oak chips in about 300 mL of my rum at 70% alcohol. I let it sit for a month. End result: My rum tastes like liquid wood!

I then diluted it down to 40% alcohol with distilled water. The taste is very mild and actually, it's not that bad. I added a cinnamon stick and I'm going to let that sit for awhile. Updates will come!

In my experience chips only need a couple of weeks tops.

[cayars]

Normally chips aren't ideal as you get a ton of end grain. The only chips I'd consider using are chips made from barrels like JD smoking chips used in moderation (less is more). They are from used whiskey barrels, so much of the tannin and "wood" taste has already been extracted.

[Chip N Dale]

I use local white oak firewood. I chip the heartwood into 2" square chunks. I wrap them in foil and toast for 2hrs at 400f. It works great.

[pope]

Normally chips aren't ideal as you get a ton of end grain.

Using the 'bundle of straws' analogy for wood grain, is the implication you're making that if spirit touches edge grain it doesn't extract tannins the same way it does when it goes 'through the straw' at the end grain and then wipes the oak fibers clean?

[cayars]

I'm making no such claim but closer to the opposite of that. You will pull tannins and other undesirables from the wood much faster with end grain exposed. Depending on application this maybe could be used to an advantage but in the whiskey/spirit world we go out of our way to not use wood end grains.

You won't get end grains exposed in a barrel for instance. That is why I said the only wood chips I'd consider using are JD chips or others like them that were previously part of a barrel. Because these used chips will already have a lot of the tannin extracted so the chips won't over oak your spirits as fast as fresh chips will.

Staves with minimal end grain will perform better than chips any day of the week ounce for ounce of wood.