So I got a beautiful stave from an online store. It is from a barrel which held red wine for 4 years. The stave is beautiful french oak, it smells amazing. How would you prep it for use in beer? My hope is to use it in some sours to carry bugs around and contribute that barrel aged flavor in my carboy until I get a place with a basement. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Chop it up? Doesn't appear like it would easily fit in a carboy. I'd probably sanitize it before adding, maybe a brief soak in Star San.
I second cutting it into cubes. I wouldn't sanitize though. Starsan wouldn't work on that, and any bacteria and/or wild yeast on the stave will add more character to your sours as well. I've got about 5# of French Oak cubes that were once in a Red Wine barrel in Lodi that I use in my sours (not all of them all of course).
Should I cut the outside part, the part that was exposed to the air while wine was inside, off first? Or attempt to toast the sides which are just oak? Or leave them raw and untoasted?
The smaller you cut it up, the more surface area will be exposed to fresh, unchared wood. If it were me (and admittedly, this is all armchair talk- i have no experience with staves), i'd cut it into the largest possible sections that you can still stick in a carboy. This way you will be able to leave it in the beer longer (less surface area exposed to the wood) and the majority of the wood will have been chared/"wine'd".
I'd go with horizontal cuts about 1" apart to make cubes. Make the first cut and then test that the piece passes through the neck of your carboys nicely, without any forcing. And don't attempt to toast these unless you really know what you're doing.
I do not have much experience with staves, but I would probably just slide that beautiful piece of wood in whole.
Probably need to cut it in half length wise (not a problem at all) and then cut it again in half the other way.
