soaking wood chips

[farmer brown]

Hey All

Have a question about soaking french oak chips. Once soaked in rum for a few weeks, do I need to sterilise or will the rum do the job? I read that baking the chips at 150c for 20 mins will do the job but is it possible to blast it in the microwave or is that just wrong?! Im using about 30g of french oak to 1 gallon of stout, is that ok?

Thanks

 

[graysalchemy]

if they are being soaked in rum then i would have said they would be fine. :thumb:

Baking or putting them in a microwave runs the risk of loosing the volatiles which is what you want to flavour them.

 

[farmer brown]

Great, thanks graysalchemy
I have them sealed away so ill dump them straight in.. :