too much oak...

[heferly]

my buddy brewed up an oaked ipa...except i think he ended up using 8 oz of oak chips for 5 gallons for a month, and it came out tasting like a piece of wood :cross: can't taste any hops or malt, just pure oak. hard to choke down, to say the least

he brewed standard beers for about a year, then tried to mix it up a little...guess it didn't work! he's the type to read a few books, hasn't joined a forum or anything, and doesn't seek out any information from others (or learn from their mistakes)...he pulled a recipe from the interwebz somewhere, and ended up making a lemon

i traded him some of my homebrew for a case of his oak beer, just so he wouldn't dump it...wanted to teach him a lesson in waiting it out although, i think he dumped the other case

i'm wondering how long you think it will take to mellow out. i traded him about a month ago, so i'm guessing he brewed it up sometime in march...i'm thinking maybe crack them open sometime this fall? hopefully this one will get better with time, and i can share with him revvy's vast knowledge on the subject

 

[Revvy]

There's no equation or anything that can tell you how long the oak will fade...just that it will. All you can do is wait a few weeks and try one, and it will either be mellow or it won't...so you just do it til it's where you want it.

 

[unionrdr]

I'm going to do one of these eventually. Only thinking of 3-4oz of oak with maybe 2-3oz of bourbon for the time it takes to ferment before adding it for a week or two. I think that'll be a bit more balanced.?...
But I was also thinking of letting them sit for a few months in the bottles. I'm thinking this will give the flavors more time to meld better. My thoughts,anyway...

 

[heferly]

There's no equation or anything that can tell you how long the oak will fade...just that it will. All you can do is wait a few weeks and try one, and it will either be mellow or it won't...so you just do it til it's where you want it.

that i could do...and if it's still woody blend it with another ipa or something

havne't brewed up an oaked anything yet, besides playing around with a half gallon of a stout i'm saving til the winter, so i guess my question is what the typical timeframe is like, even if it's for a normally-oaked brew