My attempts at oaking are limited, and I've yet to make an IPA - with Wine chips (like from Wine Kitz) I haven't had very good luck and they tend to be expensive (relatively speaking). I know that you can get 1" White Pine boards from Eaglewood (North side). These can be sawed into 1/2" to 1" thick sticks, maybe 4-6" long. I've charred them on my barbeque with a torch (hotter the better) and then used those to age Wine with... I've had much better luck with those.
I've played with toasting to different levels. There is quite an art to it apparently. Here is a graph of what different levels of "toast" are supposed to taste like:
[attachment=0:17x57qvi]oak_aromatoast.gif[/attachment:17x57qvi]
Originally from http://www.worldcooperage.comI haven't really had a chance to become good at this, but you can see why barrel making is a whole industry of its own. If you're a newbie like me, then for my money, char it good with a torch so it has an nice alligator look to it and you can't go wrong - makes a good place to start at least...
Couple of suggestions:
- Chips cook through real fast - if there's no actual wood in the middle of the chip / stick, toss it.
- Use White Oak - its hard to find around here as it doesn't grow in NB naturally. Anybody who knows of an actual white oak tree around here, I'd be interested... (to start with, they have rounded leaves, not pointy like a Red Oak, which we have everywhere). Red Oak is a bit nasty - you won't mistake it... there's a whole description of pore size, etc... as to why this is...
I wonder if a regular pale ale (maybe munich based) might be a good candidate for oaking? Or maybe should do that with something darker...