Achieving Authentic Barrel Character Without The Barrel

In my opinion no homebrewer can provide you with a 100% correct answer to your query. There is just so many variables here.

What level of "rich barrel aged character" are you seeking here? If you say "x" would I really know what that means?

I have only brewed using oak (cubes) once but it was for a Barrel Aged Porter which was 5 gallons. I decided to use 2 ounces of medium toasted American oak cubes which were pre-soaked in bourbon twice (Jim Beam initially and then later Makers Mark). I secondaried for a couple of weeks including 20 ounces of Makers Mark bourbon. Would this process = "rich barrel aged character" for you? Who the heck know?

To expound upon the variables aspect:

• How much oak per volume of beer?
• Which type of oak (American, Hungarian, etc.)?
• What format of oak (chips, cubes, spiral, etc,)?
• What level of toast (light, medium, heavy)?
• What Bourbon the use and what amount?
• What duration of secondary?
• etc.

Best of luck for your next batch.

Cheers!

 

On the off chance you didn't know, oak barrels are available in a variety of smaller sizes, including 1, 2, 3, 5, & 10 liters.

 

I'm a big fan of doing a long soak on the oak in liquor, which I think @DrewBeechum also advocates. Use a fair amount of liquor in ratio to the oak. After that, I subscribe to the "less for longer" school of wood aging. I like around 1/3 of a spiral for a 5 gallon batch. Needs at least a few months.

Latest was a smoked foreign/export/tropical stout (whatever you want to call a dryish, 7-8% stout with a pronounced roast and dark caramel fruit flavor) that I had aged on bourbon soaked oak for a year. The 1/3 spiral had sat in a pint of bourbon for a year prior to using it in secondary. Sat in secondary for a year. Even with all the dark fruit, earthy smoke, and roast, the bourbon comes through well and is very well integrated.

A thing to remember is that most of the breweries doing barrel aging are using full American spirit barrels (~55 gallons) for at least 6-8 months. There is significantly less surface contact between 55 gallons of beer in a barrel than 3 gallons of beer on a spiral. And those barrels have had contact with the liquor for at least 2+ years, usually more. Maybe way more. Jim Beam white label is in the barrel for 4. That's kinda the base that I go off of.

 

For myself using oak,,, you need to soak the oak in the beer a long time, like 2-4 months . Shorter time will give you some oak flavor but longer orbs best for me.

I also find that my best course of action is after I bottle the finished brew, I forget about the beer for 4-5 months, longer is better.
Cause it allows all the ingredients used to meld to gether.

Best ofluck

 

Would you mind sharing your recipe? I’ve been thinking about doing a 3 gallon batch of a imperial stout?

 

T

thanks a lot!!

 

Surprised you didn't get no vanilla/marsh mellow flavor. Half a spiral would have been enough for 3 gals. Have my first stout on cubes and did a ton of reading. What temp was your secondary.

 

Nah, that bourbon will have leached out all the tannins and raw wood character. If you want more bourbon flavor, add it from the bottle.

 

^ this

 

When I brewed with oak cubes I performed a double soak. I first soaked with cheap bourbon (Jim Beam 4-year) and discarded the liquid and then I soaked with a 'better' bourbon (Makers Mark - 20 ounces) and used the oak cubes and Makers Mark in the secondary. I didn't pick up any tannins or raw wood flavors via this method.

Cheers!

 

I don’t understand “add it from the bottle”
Does this mean when bottling add the bourbon?

 

Yes. Pour bourbon directly from the bourbon bottle into the bottling bucket.