I recently made an oatmeal stout. When I transferred it to secondary I put a package of oak chunks in it. The oak chunks were soaked in makers mark for two weeks before being added. After a month I noticed that a white film was forming on the oak chunks. Any ideas of what it is?
I have attached a photo of the film. It isn’t the best photo but I hope it will work.
It could be yeast due to surface area of the oak cubes. What is that web looking stuff on top? Hard to tell from the photo but that could be a pellicle.
The web looking stuff is dried on the inside of the carboy from when i moved it. I hope it is just yeast. This is my first try at oaking a beer so I have know idea what it could be. The white film is only on the oak chunks, is there any part of the oak that would make the yeast or anything else attracted to it?
Yes the surface area and micro ripples in the wood give the yeast lots of places to settle. Budweiser pulls yeast out of solution with “beechwood aging” which is basically what you’re doing in principle. Yeast will settle and stick to anything with little pits.
Well thats good to know. Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it.
