Aging beer in oak barrels is a long-standing practice for making beer (and wine & whiskey too!)
This is because the characteristics of the wood impart to the beer which can add to the flavor & drinkability of the beer.
Which a reason why wine000 made in oak barrels tastes so good too! And something about whiskey maybe...
There's a reason why brewers seek out new ways to make beer taste better and that's because, for them, the old days of getting smashed on Budweiserare over.
They constantly want to experiment, try new ideas and just make better beers.
To meet that need, using wood while conditioning or ageing beer can impart a range of aromas to the beer, including floral, vanilla, caramel, or coconut tones.
It's kind of like how smoking fish with cherry or alder wood or bacon with a good maple wood makes the meat taste nice.
While it depends on the type of wood as to what happens, oak is generally the preferred kind of wood as it produces the desired vanilla note tones.
All that might sound like some kind of fancy wine snob speaking at a tasting session, but that vanilla thing is true!
I don't have any spare oak barrels lying around to use, so how can a small-time home brewer use wood to improve their brewing results?
That's the short of it.
You can use oak wood chips by simply adding them to the wort.
However, it's not that simple.
There are some choices to make as to how you oak your beer and for how long and for what kind of beer.
Let's explore the ins and outs of 'oaking' homebrew beer.
First of all, we should consider this question:
What kind of beer profile suits wood chips?
You can oak any beer you like but through the experiences of many other pioneering brewers, it has been generally settled thatEnglish and some Scotch ales such as Old Ales, stouts, porters, browns, IPAs, and some bitters benefit from going through this process.
That's not a finite grouping of beers though.
Brewers have been known to successfully use oak in styles such as the darker Belgian ales, Farmhouse Ale, or even Saison.
And let's be frank, some of the current generations of craft brewers are trying all kinds of combos and methods to make their mark on the world, so backyard brewers should explore and experiment as much as they dare!
Theory: the higher the ABV, the better the result that oaking will produce
This working theory is usually in reference to beers that are being aged in wooden oak barrels. It is considered that the alcohol serves to ensure a healthy environment in which the beer ages, free of those pesky bugs that can infect and ruin a beer.
If you are going to invest time and money in a barrel, you don't want to wait six months or a year to find your beer has gone off!
High alcohol beers are also often sweet so an oaky vanilla tone can help counter or balance that.
What is the best kind of wood chip to use with the wort?
Not all oak chips are created equal.
Oak usually comes in three varieties, American, Hungarian, and French.
The American oak gives the strongest oak flavor, while French oak gives subtler notes with other sweeter flavors like vanilla.
Hungarian oak is considered in the middle between these two parameters.
Their use depends on what types of beers you are making and what you’re going for with them.
One more thing about the kind of wood - charring. When oaks barrels are used for making bourbon the inside is charred as strangely this helps with aging.
Different amounts of charring will have different effects on your beer. The more charred or burnt your wood is, the more strong the flavors and smells that are imparted into the beer.
Should I use wood chips or cubes or spirals?
Instead of using an actual oak barrel or the staves of one, these three options are handy methods for a homebrewer to add wood flavor and aroma to ‘barrel age’ their beer.
We prefer chips over cubes as you get more surface area exposure.
That's just good maths.
Your local homebrew store may have all three readily available on hand but Amazon will see you right too.
Using oak chips
Wood chips are essentially shards of wood that you add to your fermenter or secondary in order to achieve the level of barrel flavor you desire. Chips offer a greater surface area that's exposed to the beer than cubes.
Wood chips are probably going to float and that means a lot of oak will be making contact with the air in the fermenter and not imparting oaky goodness into the beer.
So a handy tip is to place the chips into a clean and sterile hop bag and then weigh the bag down with something heavy and inert such as a clean glass marble or three.
Make sure the marbles are sterilized!
It's a really good idea to do this as picking stray oak chips out of your tubing or bottling wand will be a pain in the ass.
Using wood cubes for brewing flavor
Wood cubes are exactly as they sound - they are cubes of wood (approximately ¼-½” in size).
They will sink to the bottom of your fermenter, and won't get stuck in your tubing and many brewers prefer to use cubes over chips because the amount of surface area to beer ratio is easier to determine on a cube than a chip.
Not that it's really a big deal.
Using spirals
Spirals are also a great way to get a high surface to beer wort ratio happening.
If you are looking for a hassle-free clean up, then like cubes, oak spirals could be what you want to use for your beer.
They are moreexpensive than chipshowever due to the time required to manufacture them compared to putting some oak logs through a chipper!
Do I need to sterilize my wood chips ?
All brewers fear introducing anything into their brew but there are a few things you will most definitely need to consider doing to ensure the health of your brew.
Here’s a summary of different approaches for adding bits of wood chips to the beer:
- The 'do nothing' approach, just pitch your chips in and see what happens (kind of like dry hopping)
- Boil the chips in water to make tea, then add the tea to the wort (just like you would a hops tea). You could use your propane gas burner if it's handy.
- Soak the chips in aspirit like rum or vodka for at least a day, and add it all to the beer. The strong alcohol content in the booze will kill off any microbes present in the wood.
- Use a pressure cooker to cook them?
- Sanitize wood with chemicals such ascampden tablet solution(we don't recommend this method as you'd likely be transferring the solution you made (potassium metabisulfite) into your wort as the wood absorbs it. That said, campden tablets are great for removing chlorine from your beer.
How many oak chips should I add to my wort?
The amount of chips to use is notan exact science. I've seen recommendations that range from 10-60 grams per 5 gallons.
Remember this is largely to taste - especially if you are using the tea-making method.
We would, however, recommend you start light and add more as you get more experienced and learn the effect of whatever form of oak you are using.
How long should I soak oak chips in bourbon?
You could be forgiven for wondering why the spirit of bourbon is suddenly being mentioned.
Brewers have discovered that if you are going to age beer in oak barrels, then those that have been previously used to age bourbon do a wonderful job.
The idea then is that if you soak your oak wood chips in bourbon, you're going to somewhat re-create or imitate the effect of a good old fashion barrel soak.
We'd recommend that you soak your chips in bourbon for at the very least 24 hours but we have read online that some brewers wait as long as four weeks!
As we noted above spirits in general also help kill any bugs that could be present in the wood chips so using a good bourbon will ensure you do not accidentally infect your beer.
You could just drop them in some boiling water too.
You can probably do the same trick with a good sherry or any similar spirit.
Cognac?
I've never done it but you could potentially skip the oak and just add bourbon to your brew directly!
You'd have to experiment a bit so maybe split your wort into a few small units, or add a small amount in the first instance and build to taste.
Making an oak tea
There are a few ways to add the oak flavor to your beer and making an 'oak tea' is an easy way.
Simply boil the oak chips and make sure they are covered in an inch of water.
Once the tea is made, add a bit of the water to your beer in the fermenter and then taste it. Continue to add the oak tea until you reach the flavor you’re looking for.
Making a tea is much faster than aging with oak, and also lets you more closely control the flavor.
The boiled tea will also be sterile but don't confuse it for some medicinal brew!
Speaking of tea - did you know you can make hops tea for brewing?
How long do I leave the wood chips in the fermenter?
Chips impart flavor pretty quickly, and usually, 7-10 days in the fermenter is about as long many brewers go before the effect on the beer becomes overpowering.
Taste tests along the way will help as it all comes down to a matter of taste!
If you've put your chips or cubes in a bag, they'll be easy to remove with a clean pair of tongs.
Just like a good cook doesn't over-egg the pudding, the discerning home brewer should not over oak the beer. Too much oak doesn’t allow for complex flavors to emerge in your brew before an overwhelming wood flavor takes over the batch.
So, timings wise, if you know you are going to bottle your beer within the week, then add the chips seven days before you intend to bottle.
You'll be seeing 'red' if you add too much!
How can I tell the difference between anoaked and unoaked beer?
Generally comparing beer that has been oaked to one that hasn’t will show subtle variations.
A beer that has been properly oaked beer will often have what can be described as having a smooth backbone and aftertaste.
If the oak has been toasted/charred just right, you might get some of those vanilla notes we mentioned above. It shouldn't taste like over BBQ-ed steak.
Can you re-use oak chips?
The question is can one re-use the wood chips? Can I just dry them out and store them until the next time?
We've read that beer makers often just leave them to sit on a paper towel to dry, then place them into storage in something like a mason jar.
Make sure they are thoroughly dry though as any moisture could help microbes or mould etc thrive.
We imagine that the more you re-use chips, the qualities they possess will reduce.
I found this totally pro tip which I'll shareas found:
"I keep a 1.75 LT bottle of Jim Beam half full of bourbon and the rest with medium toastFrench oak chipsso they are always soaking up that great flavor to add to bourbon stouts. The chips pick up a lot of the great bourbon flavor and stay sanitized due to the high alcohol."
So for that brewer, they don't really care about how long they soak their chips in bourbon!