Oak Chips, boiling, and tannins.

[cookmic5]

To boil or not to boil? I'm going to add bourbon soaked oak chips to my secondary. I'm not concerned about sanitizing them, but I've read contradictory advice on the impact of boiling on the release of tannins. Some say to boil to reduce the tannins. Others say don't boil because it will bring out the tannins. I guess the difference could be related to whether the speaker was assuming that the boil water would go in the secondary: if yes, then more tannins; if no, then reduced tannins. But no one has been that specific.

Does anyone have a tried and true answer on this or a link to an article?

Thanks.


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[mrphillips]

I've always been told by fellow brewers that boiling oak chips is the same idea as boiling grains...and not to do it because it releases astringent tannins into the wart.

I've read recipes on this forum of people who did the opposite of this, and while I've never tried it myself (nor would I), but apparently there has been those who have had success.

 

[unionrdr]

Don't bother boiling them if you're going to soak them in bourbon. The liquor will do the job of sanitizing without release of astringent tannins in my experience. I soak 3ozs of chips in a couple jiggers ( a jigger being 1.5ozs) in an airtight container in the fridge while primary is going.

 

[user 141939]

I read someone say to boil them to release some of the tannins that would not taste good in the beer. They said try boiling and then taste the water to see what they meant. I tried boiling some oak cubes and tasted the water afterwords and it tasted fine, so I'm not gonna do that again.


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[helibrewer]

Don't do anything, just add the soaked cubes. If you don't want tannins don't use oak, that is it's primary function...to add tannin structure.

 

[bobeer]

ya, if you're soaking them in booze then don't boil them. I've added straight chips to beer before without soaking in booze or boiling and it was fine.