2020 Oak Preparation

I use quite a bit of oak in my aged homebrew.  I sometimes use plain, toasted, but most often will soak it in a wine or spirit first in order to both condition the wood (leach out some of the tannins) and to impart extra flavor to the beer.  I had initially been purchasing small, toasted, oak cubes from the Homebrew Store for this but I recently found that purchasing White Oak lumber and preparing it myself is both cheaper and provides a better customizable product (like being able to decide the size)

I've typically been producing small amounts on an as-needed basis which often didn't allow for a very long soak time.  I think a longer soak time could result in better absorption of the wine or spirit into the wood and get me more flavor.  So, I'd decided to prepare a lot of oak all at once for use over the next year with Sour Beer, Raspberry Wine, and bulk aged English Barleywine and Russian Imperial Stouts

This post will document my approach for making this oak

Whiskey Oak Preparation Steps:

• First I left the American white oak lumber outside on the roof of my shed to be exposed to the weather for a year.  The rain, snow, sunshine, cold and warm weather result in the wood becoming seasoned.  This should result in some reduction of tannin in the wood which makes for a smoother character when aged with barrel strength spirit

• At the end of the aging the wood had a dark layer on the outside

• I cut the seasoned wood into 1x1x6 inch chunks using a table saw.  I slice off the outer layer once cut to rough shape

• I then toasted the oak in the oven at 375 F for 4 hrs.  The oak creates a wonderful vanilla, caramel, and toasted aroma - it's very much like a bakery smell

Toasted vs untoasted oak color

• After letting the oak cool I then char it over my propane burner until a good alligator char is achieved

Sprayed with water to put them out - this also caused additional cracks in the char

Example of char depth (from a stick made earlier this year)

• I then rinsed the charred oak with water for several minutes to clean any dirt or lose char off as well as to cool it
• Then I mixed up a 63% spirit using spring water and Everclear and add it to half gallon mason jars with 3 sticks of oak each.  This is 3x the amount of oak the equivalent amount of spirit would be in contact with in a real barrel which makes a much more oaky "whiskey" than the real thing.  It is still drinkable at this level of oaking.  This will be one potential area of difference when using the oak for beer ageing

• The jars are moved up to the non-climate controlled attic where they'll be exposed to wide temperature variation over the next year.  This will drive the whiskey in and out of the oak which will cause oak flavor to infuse the spirit and cause the wood to become saturated with alcohol

Wine Oak Preparation Steps:

• For my wine oaks I'v'e used unseasoned oak as I think the tannins are potentially more benefit to the beers I'll be using these in
• I cut these sticks into 0.75x0.75x4 and 0.75x0.75x6 inch strips.  These are smaller to fit through the neck of a glass carboy

• I toasted these in the oven for 4 hrs.  Some were toasted at 350 F and some at 375 F
• I put 10 sticks of 375 F toast oak at 0.75x0.75x4 into a 1 quart mason jar with Port.  This should leave just enough room to allow for expansion of the wood once liquid is absorbed but still get them out

• I used a half gallon mason jar to age the oak with Cabernet Sauvignon wine.  These are 6 inch pieces.  Most are about 3/4 an inch but there are some smaller ones.  Probably have 15 jammed in the jar.  These were toasted at 350 F

• I setup 10 sticks of 350 F Toast 0.75x0.75x4 oak in a 1 quart mason jar with Brandy

• I put 18 0.75x0.75x6 375 F toast in a half gal mason jar with Chardonnay