Do brewers age or ferment beer in whiskey barrels? I thought I'd heard that somewhere.

Where ever it was that I got that idea I've decided to give it a try. I don't really know where to get oak barrels that don't cost an arm and a leg so I bought some oak chips from the brew store and have about a pound of them soaking in some whiskey.

I was wondering if anyone had any input on the best way to go about it. Should I toss them in the boil, in the primary fermenter, or in a keg, or something else?

What would happen if I poured the pint of whiskey in the boil? Or after the boil so I don't evaporate all the alcohol?

Thanks for the input.

Do not put them in the boil and definitely don't use that whole pound in a 5 gallon batch. In general I think its about 1-3oz per 5 gallons and added either during the secondary or keg.

I also wouldn't add the whiskey they've been soaking in. The chips will pick up some flavor from it, but it's mostly just to sanitize the chips (you can also steam them instead) so you'd essentially be adding junk back in. Most people add the whiskey before bottling/kegging.

I meant and ounce. Oops. I bought a pound, only used an ounce.

Thanks for the info.

I've done this a few times and you don't need anywhere near a pound for five gal! An ounce is much better. There are two methods I've used,

(1) soak them in the whisky/rum for a day to sanitize and then add to the secondary in a stocking or grain bag.

(2) soak in the whisky/rum for a week and then pour the whisky/rum into the secondary through mesh filtering the oak chips out (the spirit will have the flavour in it.)

Unlike dcp277 I do add the spirit to the brew both ways. I guess it depends if you want the spirit taste in there.

I'm doing a 'Bourbon Barrel' stout right now. I've flavored the bourbon with oak cubes, and will use the oaked bourbon to flavor the beer. This way, I am adding a known amount of oak flavoring to the beer right away, rather than having to check it every couple days to make sure I don't overdo it.

Alternately, I've heard of folks using these:
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/store ... erralID=NA

Good luck!