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barrelboy wrote:

drsmurto wrote:American oak stave will be cut up into 2 cm pieces, boiled then dropped in the keg.

This may or may not be a stupid question but could you put a piece of the boiled American oak into individual bottles to age, if so how big/ little a piece?
Cheers BB

Risky. Best bet is to do it in secondary so you can monitor the flavour development.

Thanks db and drsmurto, food for thought. Secondary seems the go.

Finally got this brew on the go. I should rename the thread to 106th brew

Had a few changes to the grain bill to use up what was in my cupboard. Some Vienna even found its way into the mix.


7.700 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (5.9 EBC) Grain 7 68.0 %
1.457 kg Vienna Malt (Weyermann) (5.9 EBC) Grain 8 12.9 %
1.000 kg Amber Malt (Joe White) (45.3 EBC) Grain 9 8.8 %
0.500 kg Barley, Flaked (Thomas Fawcett) (3.9 EBC) Grain 10 4.4 %
0.400 kg Roasted Barley (Joe White) (1398.7 EBC) Grain 11 3.5 %
0.264 kg Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (1000.8 EBC) Grain 12 2.3 %
105.0 g Willamette [4.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 13 40.3 IBUs
85.0 g Styrian Goldings [5.20 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 14 35.3 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 15 -
0.10 kg Oak Chips (Secondary 7.0 days) Flavor 17 -

Any suggestions on yeast? I haven't any W1007 that Smurto used.
I have a Us05 yeast cake, a 1469 smack pack or I could culture up some Coopers.

Also any suggestion on the quantity of oak chips? Distillers reckon a small amount over a long time is the go.

BTW the oak is American.

DOn't know about oak, as I've never used it. DrS is the guru on that one.

As for yeast, my vote goes to WY1469. Should lend an extra good complexity to the brew.

What volume is your planned batch size?

I love the Classic Oak ale wetpaks, got one going now actually.
Not a lot of chips and I find db's post on the matter very interesting.

The taste is beaut, no doubt terrific after time, but I drink mine at about 6mths, so I added mine late this time and will still do a very slow fermentation on them. I just woudn't mind toning it down a tad, but it ain't crucial.

I believe in something so gravity heavy, you'd need at least half as much again as what's in a wetpak so as not to overpower the RIS flavours. (sorry I didn't weigh it or know what type of oak it is)
This info on the wetpak's oak pkt content would be helpful in working out the type and amount I believe.

Tipsy, be sure to save one for us in the next lotto!

warra48 wrote: As for yeast, my vote goes to WY1469. Should lend an extra good complexity to the brew.

What volume is your planned batch size?

I've no chilled 24lts.
1st runnings tasted fantastic, I could have poured it on ice cream.

Sonny wrote: Not a lot of chips and I find db's post on the matter very interesting.

I looked at db's post ages ago, thanks for drawing my attention to it again, very informative.
I'll stick with 100g and keep on tasting it.

Sonny wrote:Tipsy, be sure to save one for us in the next lotto!

Might have to be next years, sounds like it could take a lot of ageing.

How small are the oak chips? As db pointed out, the smaller they are the greater the surface area and hence the faster the oak flavour will appear in your beer.

I didn't weigh the 1/2 stave i put in but will be doing the same thing very soon with a few beers (RIS, Old Ale, Barleywine) and leaving them in kegs for months tasting to see how the flavours are developing.

drsmurto wrote:How small are the oak chips?

They vary quite a bit, from around 50mm long to fine dust.
I was going to pick out the larger ones and use the fine stuff in the Webber.