Reusing oak spirals

[wailingguitar]

I have a barley wine that has been aging with toasted oak spirals for about a week and I have extracted the amount of oak flavor I am looking for in this beer. I am going to remove the spirals in a day or two and am looking for suggestions on how to treat them post removal. I figure I should give them a sound rinsing with 180+degree water, but what then? Air dry? Oven dry? Wrap in cellophane? etc. Thanks!

[GlacierBrewing]

Resurrecting this post:
What does the Probrewer brain trust say to reusing oak spirals? I would soak them in prior to using again but how should I store them until then?

Prost!
Dave

[dick murton]

I've not reused wood like this but if I was going to do some time after the last use, I would dry them thoroughly between uses. This is to prevent leaching out of the oak flavouring compounds and getting washed away when you discard the soaking liquid. I would be unsure what reaction there might be between the sanitiser if you used one, and I think you would have to use one, and the oak materials. By drying, you prevent growth of additional yeasts / bacteria. Having said that, I also don't know if the drying process might affect the flavouring compounds remaining in the wood.

Are they really so expensive that you can't afford / wouldn't be better off paying for fresh ones each time, with the potential for a degree of repeatability?