Anyone Sanitize Wood Chips?

[TonyP]

During a conversation at my LHBS on wood chips, the owner told me I should sanitize wood chips contained in a kit, which I never heard before. The chips, of course, come in plastic bags. Anyone take this step? It seems to be unnecessary to me.

Tony P.

 

[rjb222]

I never sanitize wood chips that come in a sealed bag. I will toss wood spirals and cubes that come in a open ended package into a microwave for a few seconds to knock down wild yeast ETC. just as a precaution. I have never seen in the instructions to sanitize any of the wood in a kit before use though. I do not have every kit manufacturers instructions though.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Well 2 years ago I had some frontac going and it was about a year old and I decided to oak it for 1 month prior to bottling. I did not santze it and the entire batch went bad. So from now on I santize even oak considering it is very porus and not in a airtight bag ir even sterile - just my personal opinion

 

[Norton]

I raised this issue in another thread. I bought two bags of chips and the instructions on the bag said said boil them in water for 15 minutes before using them which didn't sound quite right to me since the implication in the directions was then to pitch the water. It sounds to me like a lot of the essence of the oak chips would be gone in this process.

Anyway, on the other thread a suggestion was made to soak them in a little vodka instead of boiling water. I tried that and so far so good. Plus it made for a very interesting oak infused vodka which didn't go to waste.

 

[Boatboy24]

You could put them in a corkidor for a bit.

 

[BobF]

I remember a previous discussion about this. Everybody that weighed in said they use them without boiling or otherwise sanitizing them first, myself included.

I have since read, I can't remember where, that unsanitized oak is a potential brett source.

Just an FYI for now. Consider this hearsay until confirmed.

 

[Julie]

ok, if a oak chip is porous and that is the reason you need to sanitize it, then what about your primary buckets that have scratches in them. I was always under the impression that once a bucket has scratches in it you can not santize. Would this not be the same?

 

[TonyP]

ok, if a oak chip is porous and that is the reason you need to sanitize it, then what about your primary buckets that have scratches in them. I was always under the impression that once a bucket has scratches in it you can not santize. Would this not be the same?

In terms of porous, I don't think that's an issue for sanitizing. Plenty of wine makers sanitize corks and straining bags. I believe the issue with scratched buckets and carboys relates more to dirt and creating microbe breeding grounds, making cleaners and sanitizers more difficult to reach.

Tony P.

 

[Julie]

Thanks Tony

 

[GreginND]

I would never boil oak chips. I think you would lose a lot of the benefit. I agree - a corkidor is the way to go. If you need to sanitize them, get them exposed to the SO2 gas. Personally I would shy away from any wet sanitizing method because I would never know how much of the solution is absorbed into the wood and then released into the wine.

I use them directly from sealed bags and make sure my wine has proper SO2 levels.

 

[JohnT]

I would go so far as to say this...

It all depends on what you are after when it comes to oak.

Some like the plain "wood" flavors, others like strong vanilla. The vanilla compounds come from beneith the surface of the wood in the "caramel stratum". This takes time for wine to get to. Although I would not recomend that you boil chips, I see no reason against at least rinsing them in k-meta.

 

[BobF]

Another question I'm researching is solubility of the good stuff in water vs. alcohol ... boiling chips for 10 minutes as recommended on bags I've received may in fact do zero harm.

 

[GreginND]

Bob, I would be interested in learning what you find out. I presumed that some of what leaches out in boiling water was beneficial oak tannins, but I don't know for sure.

 

[BobF]

Bob, I would be interested in learning what you find out. I presumed that some of what leaches out in boiling water was beneficial oak tannins, but I don't know for sure.

I don't know either! Damn, I hate that ;-)

The only I know is that the people that package the chips I use label with boil first instructions. I've also read this on vendor web sites.

The other thing I know is that most of us are ignoring those instructions

 

[TonyP]

Thanks for all this good information. Back to corkidor, for a minute. As I understand it, a corkidor is an open bucket of corks with a much smaller jar of K-meta in the middle. Anyway, I finished bottling 30 bottles yesterday and (from equipment, bottles, and corks) got a nasty reaction to the SO2 I'm still feeling in my head today. So, the idea of leaving a jar of open K-meta doesn't appeal to me. Is there something I'm missing here? Wouldn't SO2 get into the air, even though it's heavier?

 

[BobF]

You leave the SO2 bottle open inside a closed bucket. For example, I use a 5g bucket with a 3 liter bottle 3/4 full of SO2 solution. There is no closure on the bottle.

I dump corks around the bottle inside the bucket and put the bucket lid on, trapping the SO2 fumes inside with the corks.

This also serves to keep the corks from drying out.

 

[kevinlfifer]

For kits that don't have oak included, I boil the chips going into the primary, and add that water as well as part of the batch. That has worked well for me.

 

[DirtyDawg10]

The one time I used oak that's what I did as well. Boil the oak in a small amount of water and add water and chips to primary once it cools off a bit

 

[Norton]

I finally broke down and called a seller of chips about why the instructions say to Boil for 15 minutes and discard the water.. The response was that the boiling oak Chips in water removes the harsher tannins in the oak chips. That is why they recommend that you don't then use the water that chips were boiled in.

 

[FTC Wines]

Very interesting thread. I always boil as per instructions when adding oak & throw the water away. Only exception is if the oak is in a sealed packet included with a kit, then I assume its ready to go. I have a few "opened"bags of oak lying around & would not want the oak to spoil a wine I've nurtured for the past 6 months! Roy