Soaked oak chips

[peterpiper]

Looking for oakchips, from bourbon or Cognac barrels, for aging imperial stout once I've sorted a good recipe.

Chips, sold for brewing, often say 'from freshly emptied barrels'.
The ones for BBQ / smoking, some saying 'recently emptied', are much cheaper. Though some for smokers are probably too fine (size down to 1mm).

Has anyone tried either type, or know if there's any real difference?

I'd probably be rinsing either type in metabisulphite, and oven drying, before use.

 

[MashBag]

Rinse by all means, I do, but no need to dry.

But if you do be very careful oven drying, they can and have caught fire.

I use JD bbq.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

I used oak dominos, about 4 inch long, one inch and half inch.

Slower release of oak and just left them in the secondary fermenter before transfer to keg after a few months.

I put them in a little water in a pressure cooker for about 20 minutes then turned it off and let it all cool. Tipped the water and the oak blocks straight in only about 100ml of water all smelt very oakey.

 

[hoppyscotty]

Used them in an aged imperial stout. I aged it for 9 months, then for a week before reviving ahead of bottling I took some oak chips, soaked in bourbon for a bit then dropped them into the carboy I'd been aging the stout in. Then after a week of aging siphoned out into a keg and primed with sugar and Lalemand CBC-1 and attempted to condition in the keg....didnt work, came out flat as a pancake, I assume there was too much headspace to carbonate. Got another batch on the go and this time around will batch prime in the keg then bottle and condition in bottles.

Be careful if you are soaking in booze. I over cooked it and it is quite a boozy result. It's delicious for the first few sips, then it just becomes a real challenge to drink...it's very thick and heavy and boozy. Delicious, but just way to heavy to drink more than a few sips of.