Oaked IPA

I'm trying another IPA today, partly because they're very tasty and partly because I have a few half-used bags of hops that I want to clear out of my fridge. I'm also trying an extra ingrediant - oak cubes - which should hopefully add a bit of a 'barrel' flavour to the beer.

Most of the recipes suggest using these as part of the secondary conditioning, but my secondaries are wine demijohns and I'm not sure the necks are wide enough. So the plan is to add them to the primary once the initial rush of fermentation has died down. A handy hint I picked up from the web is to soak them for a day or so first so that they don't absorb any of the lovely beer they'll sitting in.

The recipe is -

2 1/2 kg  traditional pale
1/2 kg wheat
360g light crystal

Mash for 1 hr @ 66 degrees (ish)

Add wort to pan and then add 20g Fuggles hops. Bring wort to boil (this is known as first wort hopping and should give a deeper flavour)
Sparge the mash and add the sparge water
Bring to the boil and add 30g Topaz hops (16.5%!)
After 30 mins add 25g Northern Brewer & 10g Topaz hops
After 55 mins add 30g East Kent Goldings
After 60 mins add 2 1/2kg pale malt extract, stir to dissolve and take off heat

Cool, strain into the fermentor and dilute to 25l  (Original Gravity approx 1.057)
Agitate the wort and sprinkle on S-04 english ale yeast

After a few days add 50g oak cubes soaked in water overnight (add the oak cubes to boilng water and boil for 10 mins before soaking to keep them sterile)

I've got a good feeling about this one :)