I’m going to be brewing a somewhat subtle nut brown ale soon. My goal is to see if I can add a little bourbon flavor. In a 5 gallon batch what type of wood chips do you guys recommend, how long would you soak the wood chips for, and what point would you put them in the fermenter?
Thank you for your insight!
I tend to use spirals, instead of chips, but here’s what I do. Keep in mind, I tend to do this on bigger beers, so it may be a bit strong.
I soak anywhere from half a spiral to a whole spiral for 5 gallons… I use bourbon and soak for a week. I dump in the spiral and soaking spirits together into a secondary and leave it for 6-8 weeks.
This gives a lot of raw oak flavor… you could not include the soaking spirits to ease that oaky bite, and maybe choose a lighter oak. Maybe a French oak instead of American if you’re going for subtle. You could also go for less time… I’m usually clobbering taste buds on a big Barleywine when I oak.
And to do a subtle wood, birch! I’ve done some wood aging with wood, but, it just wasn’t something that made a difference that I enjoyed… As far as bourbon, you could always add a measured amount at little at a time until you have the taste you want… Sneezles61
