Beachwood Aged???

[branlovesbeer]

I know, I know...

Big conglomerates are the devil's beer company.

I was just wondering. I went to Sea World recently and did the Beer school, thing they have there. That is where I got excited about wanted to brew at home and create my own beer.

One thing that I have been wondering about is...

What does Anheiser Busch mean when they say their beer is Beachwood aged?

Do they put beachwood chips in (what would be equivalant) to the secondary firmentor?

Thanks

[newportstorm]

Always a good read:
http://www.allaboutbeer.com/columns/fred4.html

Be sure to read A-B's response - link at the bottom.

Cheers!

[HogieWan]

I'd still like to know if beechwood aging could help homebrewers.

[hooky]

It would just give the lager yeast more surface area wouldn't it? I read the AB process as not imparting any flavor. The last AB product I had confirmed it.

[danno]

beechwood "aging" speeds up the fermentation time by, as hooky said, giving the yeast greater surface area in contact to the beer. so yes, I'd think it could be beneficial, but think of the labor involved in prepping this stuff. you'd have to cut it into strips, boil the crap out of it so you wouldn't impart any flavors, just to gain what? a 10% - 20% shorter primary fermentation? is it really worth the effort?

[HogieWan]

I was thinking of using it to shorten secondary. Couldn't the chips be cleaned and reused?

[hooky]

I don't brew lagers, but why couldn't you just sanitize a bunch of marbles and put them in your primary? You'd get a big boost in surface area.

Unless you want to wood chips to impart a flavor and then the marble idea wouldn't work for that.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by hooky
It would just give the lager yeast more surface area wouldn't it? I read the AB process as not imparting any flavor. The last AB product I had confirmed it.

Nice, very nice :)

[steveh]

Another link on the subject (http://www.realbeer.com/discussions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12236) from our own back yard.

S.