Oak spriral

[kramerica]

Looking for a little help from anyone who has used an oak spiral. I purchased an oak spiral with medium plus toast from farmhouse brewing. Planning on doing a English bitter and then age it on the spiral. How long would you recommend letting the spiral sit in the secondary? I'm looking for the oak aroma and a light taste of oak in the beer, nothing overwhelming. If anyone has had Two Brothers Long Haul Session Ale, that's kinda what I'm shooting for.

 

[BradleyBrew]

full extract is suppose to be in 6 weeks. Ive had the same spiral in for about month and its just now becoming oaky if you will. I would say a minimum of 2 weeks then start sampling from there.

 

[kramerica]

Do you recall your toast level? Not sure if it makes a difference.

 

[BradleyBrew]

It was medium... It might play a very small part only because high toast levels have more dominating flavors.

 

[kramerica]

Alright, spiral going into secondary tomorrow. Do I soak in a sanitized or vodka? I guess I'll take samples as it goes along and checkmate level of favor.

 

[kramerica]

Reading online, says you can steam it. Probably try that...

 

[BradleyBrew]

at this point I would steam it. You probably do not have enough time to sanitize with spirits because it woud not soak into the inner parts of the oak to sanitize properly.

 

[BradleyBrew]

.

 

[kramerica]

Updated, Oaked beer turned out great. Secondaried for four weeks. As a side note: I have learned that after fermenting, let the oak spiral dry before putting away on storage. I had planned on keeping the spiral for a future batch and I stuffed it in a sandwich bag after two days. The inside of the spiral was obviously not dry because I found mold growing shortly after.

 

[Brad1775]

the flavor wodul ahve been fully extracted already, no need to keep those. If the package is sealed from the facotry (airtight) you can use without steaming, though I bet that doesn't hurt at all.