Beer Forum

I couldn't find much on the web, so I thought I'd ask what people thought about adding some oak to the brown shugga clone? I thought it might be a nice addition to that beer so I reacentely made a batch to give it a try, however I haven't added oak to any beer before, so I thought it'd be valuable to see what others thought about pairing oak with this exact beer, and weather I should just add the "raw" medium toasted oak I have or give it a short soak in bourbon?
Thanks

I don't know why it's raw.
If you want a Bourbon hint add it.
Start with an ounce of oak.
I add the oak to a Mason jar and pour boiled water over it, put a lid on it. Let it cool to room temp.
Pitching oak and water will give you a stronger flavor( more tannins ). If you just want a hint of oak, pour out the water and pitch the oak.
If you add bourbon.. Don't add so much you can tell what brand you added.

I like medium toast French oak, personally.

You could always try splitting the batch. Half with oak, half without. Or half straight oak, other half bourbon oaked. Then you will not only increase the variety of beer you have to choose to drink from, but you will also know what you liked best for next time.

That's not a bad idea, I'm just not sure I want to do twice as much work for 5gal when it comes to transferring and kegging the beer.
I think my trouble is in not being familiar with the flavor differences and contributions from plain oak chips vs bourbon soaked chips and how to use one of the respective options to compliment the malt character in brown shugga, while not clashing with the relatively large hop character in that beer.

Maybe start with 1 oz oak. Taste it after a week. If you want more oak add a 1/4 to 1/2 oz at a time. I would think 2 oz would be the limit for oak. You can always add more but you can't get it out.
For the bourbon try adding couple millimeters to sample after its oaked. If you like it dose up to the larger batch.

Thanks of the advice norfire0, I ended up steaming 1.5oz of medium toast oak then soaking in 4oz of bourbon for a few days then draining chips from the Booz and adding soaked oak in a mesh bag with dry hops ( per the recipe) and SS fittings to sink it, plus 2oz of the bourbon that was drained from the oak chips.
i let the hops and chips soak for six days and am kegging tonight. If it's any good I'll see if Dr. Home brew will take it.

Sounds good