Oak cubes covered in yeast

Northern Brewer General
1

So I am brewing a Russian Imperial Stout (Kate the Great clone recipe found here:

). I racked to secondary on top of medium toast oak cubes that had been soaking in bourbon. But I was careless and accidentally transferred a lot of yeast and sediment along with the beer. I am planning to let this age in secondary for five months. There is so much yeast in the carboy that the oak cubes are completely covered. Normally I would rack again to get a more sediment-free secondary, but if I do, then what about the oak cubes? Should I rinse them off and then plop them in the new secondary carboy? Or should I put them in yet another carboy and rack again? Or should I just let it be?

2

Just a thought but what if you got a long sterile stick of some sort and just periodically stirred up the bottom to expose the cubes to new beer?

3

I’m more concerned about leaving my beer exposed to autolyzing yeast for 5+ months. Are you saying that the layer of yeast could inhibit the introduction of oak character to my beer?

4

Stirring the lees once every two weeks is a method in winemaking thats used to give some sweetness and a bit of mouthfeel, I wouldn’t worry too much about autolysis. But if you are, then certainly racking, washing the oak cubes and throwing them back in is an option.

5

I would just rack off of the oak cubes and to another secondary in a 6-8 weeks.

6

I’m curious how your beer is doing. I also added bourbon soaked oak cubes (first time) and noticed after a few days that some of the cubes have white on them. The bottom of my secondary does have a decent layer of yeast as well.

I also sampled the beer and it had some off flavors that it didn’t have 5 days ago. It tastes like it was oxidized a little, but I completely purged with C02 the whole time. It made me think my cubes got some bugs on them.

Do yours look like the photo below? Or maybe mine is screwed.

7

Interesting. If the oak cubes float, how would they be covered with yeast at the bottom of carboy?

8

I don’t know. I’m confused.

I check on it a few times a day and it seems like the cubes are moving on their own, which I didn’t expect since the carboy is perfectly still. So maybe some were on the bottom, now on top??

I’m also wondering if during txfr to secondary if the tube was spraying directly on a few of these cubes, in effect depositing a layer of sediment on them.

9

[quote=“mcamack”]I’m curious how your beer is doing. I also added bourbon soaked oak cubes (first time) and noticed after a few days that some of the cubes have white on them. The bottom of my secondary does have a decent layer of yeast as well.

I also sampled the beer and it had some off flavors that it didn’t have 5 days ago. It tastes like it was oxidized a little, but I completely purged with C02 the whole time. It made me think my cubes got some bugs on them.

Do yours look like the photo below? Or maybe mine is screwed.[/quote]

I just took a look at mine, and it is doing fine. The cubes are all on the bottom with a layer of yeast on top. It doesn’t look like there’s any white on the oak, but I can’t see much of it. I’ve decided to just leave it as is, and I don’t even want to disturb it to take a sample right now.

How long was your oak soaking before you added it in?

10

I just bottled this beer and it seems to be fine. No bad off-flavors even though there was a sort of film on the surface of the beer while in secondary. After cold crashing, just about all of the oak cubes sank, and after transfer, I could tell most of them had a layer of yeast on them. I’m still not sure why after the first few days some of the cubes had floated back to the top with yeast on them.

I soaked the cubes in bourbon for 2 weeks. They were just in a plastic bag and not every cube was completely submerged. That could be why some got bourbonlogged and sank, and a few others floated.