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A number of wood products are available to homebrewers to get wood characteristics without using a barrel. While barrel flavors are generally not the primary goal of funky beer brewers who use barrels for fermentation and aging, wood can contribute some of the additional characteristics that barrels offer (such as mouthfeel influences) and can also be used to house microbes in a similar way to a barrel (Vinnie's dimebags). The most common non-barrel wood products available to brewers are oak based.
'''Chips ''' - Oak chips maximize surface area and have less variability in the depth of toast. Oak chips are not ideal because if the brewer is after flavor contribution chips will be more one dimensional and if the brewer is not after a wood flavor contribution, oak chips will give faster flavor extraction than other options and will therefore not give the other benefits of oak as well as other products.
'''Cubes ''' - Oak cubes are readily available to brewers. They offer greater toast complexity and a lower surface area to volume ratio than chips. (reference Vinnie's dimebags, amos oak in primary)
'''Rods ''' - Rods offer a similar product to cubes however the surface area to volume ratio is even smaller. In addition, rods (and lumber) are the primary source for alternative woods. [http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/resources/conference-seminars/?type=info&msg=3 See John Gasparine's 2013 NHC presentation on alternative wood aging] (AHA membership required).
'''Spirals'''
==See Also==