I brewed an RIS this weekend that I plan to serve at an event in October. I planned to transfer it to a keg after sitting in primary for 2-3 weeks. I was then going to leave it uncarbed and in my kegerator until I'm ready to add some flavorings to it. I'm contemplating vanilla, coffee, and bourbon soaked oak (toasted and charred). It might be one or two or all three. I wanted to taste the beer first after conditioning and see what would marry in the best. What I'm struggling with is the timing of everything. I have oak pieces that are around 1/2" square by 5-6" long. I know that those could take time to integrate properly and smooth out. How far out from serving should I drop those in the keg? 2-3 months? My experience with the vanilla and the coffee is that they will not take long to infuse and integrate. I was thinking of waiting about 1 month prior to putting it on the gas before I play around with those. Has anyone tried this approach? My fear with dropping them all in right after primary and carbing it up right after is how much the flavors may drop off in about 6-7 months. I want vibrant coffee and vanilla if possible. I also don't know what the base beer will really taste like without proper conditioning.
All three of those adjunct flavors will fade over time. Unless you have space to split up the batch into several containers for testing, I would start making tinctures now and start doing flavor/ratio testing in June/July so you still have time for extended oaking in the keg if needed. Normally I use Oak cubes and make tinctures with my spirit of choice and add to the finished/conditioned beer at a predetermined ratio. In general I find tinctures to be more foolproof than adding adjuncts to kegs because once you have your tincture you can just season to taste.
In my limited experience, I am finding the oak fades least of the 3 ingredients listed. I,d write more, but don,t keg.
Coffee fades fast, and tastes like bell peppers when it oxidizes. I suggest dry beaning the week prior to carbing, or adding cold pressed or fresh brewed coffee right before carbonating.
I would wait and add no less than 2 weeks before you plan to tap it. There is no benefit to adding 6-7 months in advance, only disadvantage.
I think the above advice is sound. I would add the oak sooner than later and the vanilla and coffee later than sooner. I wouldn't wait to carbonate though. Might as well get that out of the way now. Also wanted to mention, that while I think practically everyone will understand your question as you have phrased it, there seems to be some confusion on what adjuncts in brewing really are. Coffee, vanilla and oak are flavor additions, not adjuncts. Adjuncts would be grains like oats, wheat, rice, rye, corn, etc - or sugars like honey, molasses, candi sugar, etc.
