Looking bad = looking good! Help with first sour, please.

[Shred]

This is my first sour / lambic-style ale. I'm going for a pseudo-Gueuze. Your input is greatly appreciated!

I just dumped 2 ounces (pre-soak weight) of cognac-soaked french oak chips into this mess. It's gone 3 weeks in primary and 3 so far in secondary. I have it at a constant 70F.

5 gallon recipe is as follows:

1 lbs Wheat, Flaked (30 minutes @ ~165F)
1 lbs Extra Light Dry Extract [Boil for 35 min]
1 lbs Light Dry Extract [Boil for 35 min]
4 lbs Wheat Dry Extract [Boil for 15 min]
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins)
1.00 oz 3-year+ Aged Hops [0.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min

1.0 pkg Belgian Lambic Blend (Wyeast Labs #3278)

Dregs from 2 bottles of Boon Oude Geuze added to primary

Beer Profile
Original Gravity: 1.064 SG
Final Gravity: 1.015 SG

How long should I leave it in secondary before bottling? Is there any harm in leaving the oak in there longer than a week or two? Any thoughts on the recipe and what I might have done differently?

Thanks!

 

[blacty]

Not sure about the oak, but I always leave mine in the secondary for a minimum of 3-4 months before bottling. longer the better!

 

[Shred]

My thinking is that since it's going to age so long anyway, it's probably good to go crazy with the oak or it will age out. This is just based on what I've read about oak and very little experience, however.

I know a lot of sours are aged in oak, so it's not as though mine will have more exposure than that and I'm trying to get a nice oak aroma and maybe a mild oaky/cognac finish.

 

[Calder]

My thinking is that since it's going to age so long anyway, it's probably good to go crazy with the oak or it will age out. This is just based on what I've read about oak and very little experience, however.

I know a lot of sours are aged in oak, so it's not as though mine will have more exposure than that and I'm trying to get a nice oak aroma and maybe a mild oaky/cognac finish.

Most commercial sours are aged in aged oak barrels. They impart no oak flavors to the beer; it is just a place for the bugs to hang out and allows a small amount of O2 to get to the beer.

My sours are left a year before bottling.

You can either leave the beer on the oak for the long haul, or rack off. If you rack the beer off the oak, dry them out and store in a clean jar. You can use the oak to inoculate another beer with bugs.

 

[dcHokie]

2 ounces of oak chips, unless boiled substantially (> 20-30 minutes), will impart a ton of oak flavor if left more than a few weeks. For aged beers I prefer oak cubes as they aren't quite as intense. YMMV and your personal preference is obviously the ultimate decision maker, but you may want to pull some samples to taste-test along the way. Other than that, sounds good...set it and forget it.

 

[Shred]

Hindsight being 20/20, I'd probably have used cubes. I'm thinking I'll take a sample in a week or so and maybe rack off the oak if it's too intense.