Dry Hopping Oak Chips

[dordelli]

I am brewing the More Beer, Fire in the Hole, all grain kit and calls for adding Oak wood chips in the secondary for one week. Do I need to boil or somehow sanitize the chips prior to adding and since wood usually floats on a liquid, i am guessing i should hop bag to minimize floaties?

My plan is two weeks in the primary, followed by oak chips in primary for one week, then dry hop in primary for one week, then finally secondary for one week before kegging, sound like a good plan?

 

[dordelli]

Doing a little research here, it seems the consensus is soaking the chips in Bourbon for 2 weeks and just dumping the whole concoction into the fermenter. So that's what I'll do. But do I need two weeks, would one week cut it?

 

[duboman]

Personally I would soak in the bourbon for two weeks, add to secondary and rack the beer onto them, keep until it tastes a little stronger than you like as it will mellow while conditioning. I would also then dry hop and package when done so you don't lose the dry hop aroma and flavor

While I'm sure you can do all this in primary, I'm not a fan of all those flavors being added on the yeast with oaking

 

[dordelli]

My reasoning was in the interest of having the clearest beer possible and worried that both an oak and dry hop addition in the secondary might be tough to clear out. Did not consider the yeasties having an ill effect to the Oak though.