Oaked Abstract Bastage

I did my first oaked ale a couple of months ago with the Oakengrueven, but as it aged it got and more like chewing on a board. I'm gonna age the remaining bottles for another couple of months before trying them again to see if they've mellowed out a bit.

But that doesn't mean, I give up on oak flavors and this time I'm taking my Abstract Bastage and oaking it. It's a nice strong ale that could do nicely with some oak flavors.

The two mistakes I made with the Oakengrueven was putting the oak in during primary fermentation and putting them in dry. I just put the new toasted chips into a bottle with a about a cup of Dewar's White Label (bought a Costco size a while back and decided, that I really didn't like it nearly as much as Glenlivet) and will soak them until the Abstract is ready for secondary, then dump the whiskey and rack the ale into with carboy with the chips. I'll probably taste it once a week after the first two weeks to decide when the chips come back out and then age it for another 2-3 months.

Couple of things I plan on changing with the Abstract are (i'll write out the full recipe as I do it):

• use California Ale yeast instead of British Ale yeast
  
• Re-pitch with Champagne yeast without racking and as soon as the first fermentation dies down and only move to secondary after the re-pitched fermenations dies down
  
• Toss the Cascade for Simcoe and up the dosage on the dry hopping to at least 2oz.
  
• Swap out the 2-row used in the steep with rye malt.
  
• Actually use 2# of brown sugar, like originally planned
  
• Drop the Wheat DME and up the Syrup to 12#
  

I doubt i'll even get around to starting this batch until Xmas tho.