Hey ya'll - I'm well into my home brewing career and I'm looking to get creative and risky with an upcoming batch. I have a gallon of pure VT maple syrup that I'd like to use in a stout. I also want to experiment with bourbon-soaked oak chips. How and when should I get these flavors into the beer? I'm planning on using secondary conditioning for flavor additions.
What grade is this syrup? Do you already have the oak chips? If not, I would not recommend them. Get an infusion spiral or honeycomb for the wood character and simply add bourbon to taste when you're bottling.
I have no experience using maple syrup but I brewed a Bourbon Barrel Porter once which I discussed in a past thread: “I have only brewed using oak once. I used American oak cubes: 2 ounces of medium toast. I was brewing a Bourbon 'Barrel' Porter. I pre-soaked the cubes in cheap Bourbon (Jim Beam) for a few days to extract the tannins from the oak. I dumped the 'liquid' and then soaked the cubes in 20 ounces of Makers Mark for a week. I added both the oak and Makers Mark to the secondary and aged the Porter on this for a couple of weeks. This method achieved what I wanted for this beer.” Cheers!
Add the maple syrup to your primary past peak fermentation, but while it's still active so it gets mixed in well. If it's a new sealed bottle of syrup and the beer is already well on its way fermenting, I wouldn't worry about contamination. As for the chips, soak those in a cup of bourbon for a few days, then add the bourbon and chips to the secondary and leave on there as long as you want for the flavor. If you're kegging, I'd add the chips/bourbon to the keg and the syrup to the primary. Not the only way to do this, but this has worked well for me.
add syrup to secondary, for me, no more than a Quart, or it will be too much. Hopefully you have a dark syrup and not fancy. Fancy have minimal taste. oak goes in at the same time as syrup.
If you haven't bought chips already, here's what I'd do: Use oak spirals. Take one oak spiral, boil it in water for 5 minutes, break it in half, and pour enough bourbon to cover the pieces in a small mason jar. Let this sit during the primary fermentation (3 or so weeks). When ready for secondary conditioning, rack your beer on top of this mixture and let sit for another 3 weeks. Bottle. It's not as good as a true bourbon barrel aged beer, but it can get pretty close with this method, IMO. Never used maple syrup in a brew before, so can't help you there!
If you want to use the syrup, boil it down to as thick as you can get it. Personally I've never done it but this is essentially what the guys at TG do for their beers with maple, at least that's what I've read. Their beers with maple are rather well received.
There's quite a bit of discussion on adding maple syrup in this thread: https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...one-of-mornin-delight-or-good-morning.244681/
What is the purpose of boiling the oak spirals? I bought a set of 3 oak spirals, broke them in half, soaked them in Heaven Hill for 3 weeks, then tossed them in the fermenter, overly oakey, probably due to the volume that I used, it is currently mellowing out, and I expect it to be ready this week. The bourbon has started to shine over the past week. Aging at ~60F.
Boiling performs two functions: · Sanitation/sterilization · Removes excess tannins. @FATC1TY discussed this succinctly in a past thread: “Cubes are by and far the best way, IMO, but you need to rinse, boil, and then soak them. Removes some of the "yuck" tannins from the oak, and then it really melds.” https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/using-oak-chips-cubes.180250/ My preferred method is to pre-soak the oak with inexpensive bourbon to achieve to two items listed above. I dump that liquid since it contains the “yuck” tannins and then soak the oak in higher quality bourbon (Makers Mark for me). Cheers!
The boiling supposedly keeps the oak from becoming too tannic/harsh in the overall flavor, although I recently used one spiral (unboiled) soaked in heaven hill as well. 3 weeks on one spiral and my stout was almost ‘too’ oaky. I’m sure with 3 it’d be insane! Everyone’s perception of oak is different, but for me, one spiral/bourbon at 3 weeks will get the job done.
Ah, @JackHorzempa beat me to it! But he’s right - cubes are the best method (aside from an actual bourbon barrel) but the drawback is you have to let the beer sit on them for quite a while. If you want a quick infusion, spirals are the way to go. I used chips once, and will never use them again
...I guess If you’re going for a barrel-aged character, in the world of oak infusion, they’re the worst at achieving that, IMO. Probably because they infuse the oak too quickly through more surface area. Extended aging on cubes gives you that depth and complexity of oak more associated with barrel aging. But, I find spirals to be the happy medium, where I can get a decently complex oak character, with a fairly quick turnaround. Oak chips will infuse oak, but lack the depth
