Oak wood chips, cubes, beans or spirals?

[Rob Martin]

What are your thoughts on oak wook chips vs. oak wood cubes or beans vs. oak spirals? Thinking more of the form of the wood, why would you choose one over the other?

[Swagman]

With the chips you would have more surface area but a little harder to clean up. The spirals are easy to handle and clean up after. Also if you are soaking the chips in whiskey the spirals work well. Time in contact is one of the problems I faced, a person should taste often to see where his flavor profile is. Myself I use a five gallon barrel soaked with whiskey. I left a porter in for a month which was way to long. Needed a chaser with each glass of beer. lol

Hope this helps

God Bless
Swagman

[krizwit]

I aged a strong scotch ale on 2oz of chips for several months and it was way too tannic and oaky. I recommend chips for a short period of time (2weeks or less), or some cubes. The spirals work well from what I heard, but they are more expensive.

[Rob Martin]

Thanks guys. I'm planning on keeping it shorter than longer. Kind of wondering if anyone has used multiple different forms (chips, cubes or spirals) and preform one over the other.