Introduction
Several beers benefit from exposing them to oak (and other woods) during maturation. These include Belgian sour ales, barley wines and imperial stouts. Oak is also widely used with ciders and meads. However, oak is not compatible with all beers (e.g. IPAs) so care must be taken when choosing to use oak.
There are several methods used to impart oak flavor – ranging from storing the beer in oak barrels to adding oak chips to the beer while in the secondary fermentation vessel. Plastic buckets should not be used for extended storage of the beer because the walls are permeable to oxygen from the air and could cause staling of the stored beer.
One aspect of oaking is that it is easily possible to over-oak. Beer with too much oak in it tastes horrible and there’s not a great deal that can be done to fix it other than to use the beer to blend with other (non-oaked) beer – not an efficient way to make good beer. The only exception seems to be with Belgian sour ales – these bugs seem to love oak and will consume it. Of course with very sours ales, you’re probably not going to taste the oak anyway.
So how do we arrive at a beer with just the right amount of oak flavor? The homebrewer needs to consider the following:
- What type of oak is being used?
- How is the oak prepared or treated prior to use?
- How will the oak be presented to the beer?
- How long does the oak stay in contact with the beer?
- What type of beer is it?
All these factors will have a direct effect on the character and strength of oak flavor in the beer. In this article we’re just going to consider how to best put the oak in the beer and how to easily control the length of time it stays in there. There will be another article on this website that describes how to choose and prepare the oak.
From my experience, oak chips happen too fast and the more harsher and aggressive flavors seem to find their way into the beer. It’s very difficult to control this process.
Conversely, oak barrels and inserting things like oak chair legs into beer can create a smooth mellow flavor but the process can take months.
Oak cubes are a reasonable compromise and will normally do their job in a matter of just a few weeks. What is now needed is a simple way to add and remove the oak cubes from a beer in a secondary fermenter without having the rack or otherwise disturb the beer. We’re going to achieve this by threading the oak cubes on to a length of dental floss. This “necklace” is then very easy to add and remove from a carboy of aging beer.
Materials
Choose the type of oak and level of toasting to suit your recipe. Or prepare and toast your own oak as described in another article on this website (still to come). The crystal pendants are a great way to sink the oak cubes. Make sure there’s no metal parts left on them. Don’t use stainless steel parts for the weights as some beers (e.g. sour) will corrode them. It’s important that the dental floss is unwaxed and unflavored or you’re going to get some strange additions to your beer.
Tools
Toasted oak can be very hard, so use a sharp hardened steel drill bit to drill the holes.
Making the Necklace
- Weight out the required weight of oak cubes for the recipe. Add an extra cube to allow for the wood lost during drilling.
- Hold each oak cube with the long-nosed
pliers on a piece of clean timber and drill an 1/8″ hole through the center. The hole should be drilled cross-grain to maintain strength.
- Arrange the oak cubes in a row and measure and cut a length of dental floss that is about 8″ longer than the row of cubes.
- Push one end of the dental floss through the hole in the crystal pendant and secure it with a knot. If over 0.75oz of oak cubes are going to be used, you may need to use two pendants to sink the oak or make two necklaces.
- Bend the paperclip into the shape of a
big needle.
- Use this needle to thread the other end of the dental floss thro
ugh the holes in each cube.
- Loop the dental floss through the hole in the last cube to secure it in place.
Your necklace is ready for use.
Using the Necklace
- Sanitize the necklace before adding it to the beer. You can do this by:
- Boiling it in water. Heat the water with the necklace in it from cold or the crystal pendant may shatter with the heat change. Let the necklace cool slowly in air for the same reason.
- Steaming it in a steamer pot. Again, cool slow
ly.
- Steaming it in a steamer pot. Again, cool slow
- Submerge it in a strong alcohol s
pirit (e.g. Bourbon) for a week or two.
- Submerge it in a strong alcohol s
- Hold the necklace above the mouth of the carboy by the free end of the dental floss.
- Remove the airlock stopper.
Lower the necklace into the beer in the carboy until the top cube is just submerged.
- Replace the airlock stopper.
Secure the end of the dental floss to the neck of the carboy by wrapping the rubber band around the neck and over the dental floss. When the stopper is removed, the necklace should stay in position.
- Leave the necklace in the aging beer until the required flavor is achieved. It’s suggested that you taste the beer every 3 or 4 weeks (using a turkey baster or wine thief) to check on progress.
- When the beer is ready, remove the rubber band and pull out the necklace.
- The necklace can be thrown out (but keep the pendant) or rinsed and sealed in a vacuum sealed food bag to inoculate a later brew with any micro-organisms absorbed into the wood. I do this frequently for sour ales.