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Anyone have any advice on sanitizing oak? I've read differing things online. Some say boil, some say starsan, some say its fine. So I figured I'd ask the experts.

I'm far from an expert, but I throw mine in boiling water for a couple minutes.

Booze.

Sandy

Hi Tim,

From what I've read, I agree with GAM. Soak them for a bit in some cheap whisky or vodka, then dump them in.

JLC

Indeed, booze will work quite well. If you don't want the booze flavour though, boiling or actually, braising would likely be better. Cool and pitch water and wood both into your brew, otherwise you're loosing a lot of flavour in the water.

Transmitted from the hop-phone.

NASH wrote:Indeed, booze will work quite well. If you don't want the booze flavour though, boiling or actually, braising would likely be better. Cool and pitch water and wood both into your brew, otherwise you're loosing a lot of flavour in the water.

Transmitted from the hop-phone.

You'll want to use as little water as possible to submerge the wood too - no sense in diluting your beer.

Thanks for the tips. I ended up steaming them.

benwedge wrote:

NASH wrote:Indeed, booze will work quite well. If you don't want the booze flavour though, boiling or actually, braising would likely be better. Cool and pitch water and wood both into your brew, otherwise you're loosing a lot of flavour in the water.

Transmitted from the hop-phone.

You'll want to use as little water as possible to submerge the wood too - no sense in diluting your beer.

Thus the term "braising" was used

Transmitted from the hop-phone.

I've never oaked beer, but have used lots and lots of oak products with wine. Prevailing wisdom is to just throw it in without sanitizing. Oak has natural antiseptic properties, and boiling will leach out the oak flavours. I've never had a problem with the throw in in method.