Going to try using dry oak chips in my secondary fermenter. How do you recommend sanitizing the chips before adding them?

I have an old 5L oak barrel that has been used in the past for aging rum. It hasn't been used in a long time so I am I the process of swelling the wood again by adding boiling water but when the barrel overflowed there was a wax like substance coming out. Does anyone know what this is? Second question, is boiling water enough to clean the barrel? I am going to use I for flavoring cider.

I'm brewing an imperial stout. It will have 10-12% ABV in the end (hopefully). I never used wood chips before, but want to add it to this beer. I read through guides but I read everything from just 24 hours to 2 months. I have about 12 liters of the stout and want to add the chips next week after primary fermentation is done. How much do I add and how long? I would prefer to do it for 2 …

I am about to brew my first test batch of a Flanders Red/Brown. I am thinking Rodenbach, but with local ingredients. So, for me Maris replaces lager malt, Admiral and Progress replace nobel hops. Basically harking back to Porters of London from the late C18, early C19. Malt 8 Kg Maris Otter 1.5 Kg flaked corn 0.2 Crystal 150L 0.2 Chocolate Malt Hops Admiral 20g @ 60 min Progress 30g @ 60 min Yeast/Bacteria Wyeast - Roeselare Ale Blend I …

Stupid question...but I am making an 11% stout with bourbon oak added. I have never kegged anything higher than a 7% so not sure what to expect. Will the higher abv allow it to last longer in the keg to drink all Winter? Should I add more bourbon so the taste doesn't dissipate? Anything else I should think about? Thanks for the help

I use bourbon-soaked oak chips in my scotch ale. My last batch got infected, but that's another story. I want to add the chips to a carboy, as I'll be aging it for over a month. It's easier to add them to a bucket, but I'd rather not age it in plastic for that long. However, oak chips are hard to get out of a carboy. And a muslin bag with oak chips is REALLY hard to get out of …

I was recently given a 5L oak barrel from Oak Barrels Ltd. and I've never used such a thing before and have some basic questions. The barrel came with a great little instruction guide which talks about basic barrel prep, sanitation, and storage (among other things). Also on their website they link to this article by Terry Terfinko from 1995 titled, Oak Barrel Experiment, which answers a lot of questions about beer making with barrels. However there are a few …

Making a wee heavy and adding medium toasted oak chips that have been soaked in bourbon. The chips are tied up in a cheese cloth bag. My question is, should I let the chips dry thoroughly before dropping into the carboy? Or should I add them when they're still moist with bourbon? Thanks in advance...cheers!

I am planning to brew 3 batches of Imperial Stout at the same time with the same recipe. The difference is that I will age two batches with different oak cubes (one will be soaked in bourbon, one will be plain oak) and one will be left as it is. I want to compare 3 batches at the end. Anyway... How many oz of cubes (assuming they are 1/2") should I use for a 5 gallon batch? How long should …

I have 200 litres of cider which was racked yesterday into 2 x 100 litre oak barrels. Before racking, the cider was still fermenting at a rate of about one bubble (through the airlock) per two minutes. This was due to cool weather here since October and the recent addition of a heater to the brewing room about a week ago. Both barrels have been stoppered with a cork bung with no airlock. Can anyone tell me if this is …

I have a very old oak barrel that was given to me that used to have rum in it. It has been empty for about 10 years but I would like to clean it to store cider. What is the best way to clean it so it is safe for next use? I cannot guarantee that it has been treated properly in the past and it has been exposed to air since it has been empty.

I ordered more oak cubes than I currently need from an online store, since my local store stopped carrying them. Are there any special considerations for storing these, and is there a shelf life?

I'm about to add oak to my second beer, having thrown out the cubes from my first tasty experiment. This time I hope to pull them back out, store them in bourbon, and re-use them. How much of the oak flavor is lost with each re-use?

I have a Flanders Brown ready to be kegged for aging, and I'm going at add some oak cubes for the flavor and oxygen and bugs. I've heard it's a good idea to boil the cubes first, but I feel like that will kill off the Brettanomyces that naturally live in them. Is this a valid worry? Does it even matter since I used a Wyeast strain that has all sorts of lambic bugs to begin with (including the beloved …

Background: I've purchased some lovely dark roasted oak chips that I plan on soaking in bourbon and using to flavor an Irish Red. Friends of mine who have seasoned their beer on oak chips claim that you should rack your beer onto it in a secondary and "rotate" once every couple weeks to keep the oak exposed to flavor the beer. I've looked around at a number of sources on the subject, but I want to know what Homebrewing thinks …

What other "nationalities" of Oak are used in brewing?

I know that French and American oaks have often been used to flavor wine. Are there any other types of wood that is suitable for this purpose?

I may be able to get my hands on a oaken barrel that I'd love to age a Scottish ale in. What can I do to sanitize it adequately and minimize oxygen exposure?

As I was thinking about how I want to make my bourbon oak stout, I was thinking of how to soak the oak in bourbon. I wanted to get the bourbon into the wood, for the purpose of putting it into my beer where it would get the bourbon out. Is there a reason to do this? It just sounds better than pouring a small amount of bourbon directly in, but I can't think of how it's different. EDIT: I've …

Short of buying an oak barrel, what forms of oak are available to the homebrewer for getting oak into yuor beer? Are they available with different levels of toast? Are some forms easier to sanitize that others? Do some take more time or less time to get flavor?