Home Brew Ohio American Medium Toasted Oak Chips, 1 lb. (Pack of 2)

I make and unusual kind of alcohol: Goatka. My base is cheese whey instead of water. It comes out of the still pretty much a smelly spirit. I charcoal filter 3x to bring it to neutral. As an experiment, I wanted to try aging on some oak chips (barrels are so expensive!). These chips arrived quick, had little to no dust, and after I gave them a little char with a propane torch, I tossed 2 handfuls into a gallon jar and filled with spirit. In less than 24 hours it was 5x darker than a quart jar I'd put a dark toasted oak spiral in a month earlier (and had been doing nuclear aging with as well). Within a week, it was as dark as some long-aged whiskeys. The flavor was mellow- actually nice to drink with subtle hints of vanilla and charred oak. I suspect if I leave it on the chips longer it will build more character. I consider myself a newbie to distilling, but when I compared my Oakygoaty to some of the more well-known brands, I actually found it smoother and more "comfortable" to drink.

This is my first attempt at home-aging so I thought I'd start with a jar of moonshine we have had for a few years but never really drank. The wood chips are clean and perfectly dry, and a great size to put down the neck of a bottle, so you wouldn't necessarily need to put your spirits in a different container for aging if you didn't want to. There was a fair mount of wood dust in the bag I received so I put a few ounces of chips in a colander and rinsed them off to make sure I wasnt putting those fines into my jar. I started with a perfectly clear jar of moonshine with this experiment and the chips have imparted a nice color and flavor so far. The photos I took were after exactly 4 weeks of home-aging. I have sampled the contents every week and really couldn't even notice much of a difference in taste until this week. Seems like another month or two of aging for this jar is in order. Overall, this seems like a great value, as I used very few chips out of the bag. I'm very happy with my purchase!

The chips are good quality and are a great at flavoring wine or spirits. However, the form of chips can be a hassle to deal with in the carboy when racking. They tend to clog siphons. It is best to bag these in some cheesecloth of muslin.

After doing some comparison shopping, I found that I could purchase these Oak chips for half the cost of what they sell for locally. Normally I prefer to support my local brew suppliers and other small businesses, but with the cost difference and uncertainty if I would be able to use these chips more than once necessitated that I go with a more financially prudent choice. I chose chips over cubes initially because they are thinner and I figured that they would not require as much time soaking in my wort to impart any flavors which I was correct about. But after using these chips with several of my batches, I will likely switch to cubes in the future especially for batches that I can allow them to age in for longer than 2 or 3 weeks (now that I have increased my fermentation capacity considerably). The main problem with using chips over cubes is that chips require the use of a bag (I use cotton Muslim bags) and pose issues with cleaning after use, especially if you want to avoid imparting the taste of the previous style beer into the next one. If you are new to brewing and are considering using Oak (or other wood) chips, here are some tips I would recommend considering before using them: 1. find a suitable storage container with an air/liquid tight lid that you can use to store them in between uses 2. use some type of distilled product (vodka, bourbon etc) to soak the chips in prior to initial use (for sterilization) and for storage 3. before removing them from the bag, rinse them thoroughly with hot water to remove any yeast or other fermentation by-products 4. consider reusing them only for the same type of beer again Even after soaking for 2 to 3 weeks in secondary, I found that these chips imparted some wonderful flavors into one my porters, a saison and an IPA and look forward to using them to experiment with other recipes in the future.

Bought those spirals that take months to age your stuff? These worked VERY quickly and gave a great final taste. After using the spirals I put in quite a bit of chips and found out less is more because there's so much contact that you age very quickly and leaves a great oak taste like years in a barrel

Rich vanilla and caramel flavor with an unexpected butterscotch sweetness. I was initially concerned about the toast level after seeing some negative reviews. After comparing this with a light oak product using grain neutral spirits at the same volume and ABV, the extract is significantly darker than the light untoasted oak. When the product is wet, the color of the chips is also noticeably darker. The flavor profile is also different from light, untoasted oak with this one being richer and more complex. I am using this to flavor spirits and was pleasantly surprised at the complexity this toasted oak has added. Compared to some of the other products listed as a medium toast I would say this is probably closer to a medium minus or a light plus plus toast. The product is impressive in its character, complexity, and sweetness. I just made a second purchase and the product is very consistent with the first batch.

These chips are fantastic for cleaning up cheap and/or lower quality booze. I've made my own vodka, and purchased plenty of homemade vodka, and if it's made too quickly or with cheap ingredients (cheap sugar), it can end up with a "gym socks" smell. Toss in a handful of these chips, let it sit in a warm spot for a day, then in the fridge for the next day, alternating days of warm/cold for a week or 2 (the longer the better), and you end up with a completely different spirit. Works wonders on cheap whiskey as well. It's recommended to boil the chips before using, but I never have, and they still work wonderfully.