Great use of OAK - Cost Plus

[gdizzle]

So was at the Cost Plus, and came across (in the BBQ area) a package of used Red Wine Oak Barrel staves that had been cut into 12 inch pieces, bundled in a pack of 6 for $13. And then onsale for 30% off.
Little dirty on the outside, so I soaked them in Vodka. Smelled heavy Oak, not much of the wine.

Tossed one 12 inch piece into the 2nd fermenter. Been in 10 days and ready to keg. I wonder, what if I put the stave into the serving keg. Wouldn’t that, in theory, give the hint of Cask conditioned? And serving it from a cask?
Also I bet I can clean it and reuse, right? These are about 12in long, 1.5 in wide and about 1in thick.

[drawdy10]

I would say you are on to something here! What are they marketing the staves as being used for? I’ve always thought about using some of those smoking wood chips in a beer too.

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[mattnaik]

When trying to get the flavor of oak into your beers you generally want to try to get as much surface area exposed as possible. I’m not sure such a big chunk of wood will provide that. I could be wrong though and curious how this ends up turning out.