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Bourbon soaked oak cubes

Epml74

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I am brewing an Imperial Stout that I plan on adding some bourbon soaked oak cubes in secondary.  Just curious on how others have used soaked cubes.

Do you:
A. Just add the soaked cubes
B. Add soaked cubes plus bourbon the cubes soaked in.
C. Add soaked cubes with fresh bourbon for extra bourbon flavors.

Also how long have you let your Imperial Stout sit on the oak,  I plan to monitor it but was curious what you have experienced in time for your brews.  Sharing your experience is greatly appreciated.

eric
 
I have done several bourbon oak stouts, and some have been more oaky and some with more prominent bourbon flavor. It partly depends on which oak chips you use: untoasted, medium char or heavy char. Here are instructions I got from a magazine article (https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/new-holland-dragons-milk-bourbon-barrel-aged-stout/). Use a mix of all 3, 0.5 oz each, boiled them in water for 5 mins, then drained the water and soaked them in 8 oz  bourbon for a couple of days. I then tossed that bourbon and added 24 oz new bourbon for a soaking of a week or so. At that point the bourbon had oaky taste and the oak had bourbony taste, so I tossed them both into the fermenter for about 5 days after fermentation was complete. I got very prominent oak with noticeable bourbon. Next time I think I will use less untoasted oak and more of the medium toast.

--GF
 
Thank you for the reply.  I have medium toast American oak cubes.  I did not boil them, just went straight into the bourbon.  I figured the original soak bourbon might not be the best to add but I wasn?t 100% sure since this is my first go at it.  I also was not sure on how long it would take as I don?t want it to be over Oaked.  Ill start tasting at 3 days and go from there.
 
The oak cubes have less surface area than the chips, so they won't give up their flavor quite as fast.  I think the boiling is mostly for the untoasted oak, to get some of the astringent tannins out.

--GF
 
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