French Oak wood Chips

French Oak Mini Wood Chips

Adding wood chips to your brew can add a rich array of flavours and complexity. 

French oak chips are softer and have a more well rounded wood character. French oak chips are prized for their sweet spice flavors including cinnamon and allspice and although they have more flavor compounds and tannins, they have a less pronounced “oaky” character.  

Dosage for wine generally ranges from 0.5–2 g/L for whites to 2–6 g/L for reds, depending on desired intensity and toast level. For a standard 5-gallon (19-liter) batch, this translates to roughly 1–4 ounces (28–113 grams) of chips. Contact time is typically 2 weeks to 6 months. 

Dosage for beer: 14 g - 28 g per 20 liters of beer.

There are 3 ways to use wood chips in you beer

3 Ways to use oak chips:

Add during Secondary Fermentation: This is the most common method.  Oak chips are added to a weighted bag (remember to sterilize the bag too) and dropped into the fermenter. Oak aging can take anywhere from a few days to several months depending on oak used and desired flavor level.

Oak Tea:  This simple method involved adding wood chips to enough water to cover and bringing it to a boil for 10-15 minutes.  Once the flavors have been extracted the tea is added gradually to the finished beer until the desired flavour is reached. This method give you more control in the flavour and is faster.  

Liquor Tea: Add the wood chips to a small amount of liquor (This can be vodka, brandy, whiskey, rum - use your imagination - possibly diluted with water). Let the chips steep for at least a week.  Mix liquor in with beer in small amounts until you reach your desired flavor.