I have 10 gallons of a Breakfast Stout clone. I obtained the recipe from the BYO archive. I want to experiment with 5 gallons and soak oak chips in bourbon and add it to the secondary for a good bourbon barrel flavor. How many ounces of oak chips should I use, how much bourbon, and for how long? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks! BeerDunson
I have never brewed with oak chips/bourbon before but in a week or so I will be brewing a Bourbon Barrel Porter. I will be using 2 ounces of US Oak Cubes (medium toast) that I will soak in 16 ounces of Makers Mark Bourbon. My process will be: · Soak cubes in 16 ounces of bourbon for 24-48 hours · Add the cubes & bourbon to the beer and let it ‘sit’ for 1-2 weeks Needless to say but I won’t know how this turns out for some time from now. Cheers!
Tough to say exactly, since it's up to you how much bourbon character you want in your beer. For 3 gallons of a dubbel style, I used an ounce of chips soaked for 2 weeks or so, and just added the chips for a couple weeks. Came out great. In your case, I'd probably go with 2 ounces, soaked as long as you can, put them in when primary is over, and start tasting after a week or so. Cubes will take a bit longer to impart their flavor over chips, but from what I understand, the oak flavor is different - deeper, more complex, on top of the bourbon. BTW, you don't need a lot of bourbon to soak the oak in - just enough to cover the cubes / chips is plenty. You can add the liquid to the beer to get more of the flavor, or not.
I have 2 ounces of French Oak chips soaking in a cup of spiced rum for my pumpkin ale (5 gallon batch) I have fermenting right now. I plan on adding all of it. I did a BBA Breakfast stout last year with the same measurements and it turned out awesome. I'm hoping it wasn't just coincidence.
So it looks like the consensus is 2 ounces of oak chips for one to two weeks and bourbon to taste or desired level of bourbon character. Thanks everyone for your help it is greatly appreciated!
I'm not one to measure things during this my 'bourbonizing' process, so bear with me on these in-exact amounts, but here's what I've done in my quest to create a faux bourbon barrel-aging in my beer: I fill a shaker pint glass with wood chips and then pour bourbon to about a half inch from the brim. Then I cover it with plastic wrap, but I punch a few holes to help prevent condensation on the underside of the plastic as well as to allow alcohol to escape (assuming that the alcohol would be the first thing to want to evaporate). I let this soak for 6-8 weeks at room temp. My first couple of times doing this I poured the liquid into my bottling bucket (5-gallon batch) and gently stirred it along with the priming sugar. I got some bourbon flavor as a result, but I wanted it to be more intense. So on my third attempt I added the priming sugar to the bucket but only bottled half of the batch, and then I added the bourbon liquid. Essentially my bourbon flavor should have been twice as strong because the same amount of bourbon liquid went into only 2-1/2 gallons of the beer; however, it did not taste like it was doubled, although it was stronger flavored. That suited my personal taste preference (I like bourbon bombs) although this last version was not yet at that level.
I did the nb bourbon barrell porter kit last year. I ended up using 12oz of makers mark and 2oz of cubes. I soaked the cubes for two weeks in a mason jar and added everything to the secondary for two weeks. The beer ended with a strong tannic flavor that took awhile to fade. I had one this weekend about 10 months in the bottle and it is tasting a lot better. I remember reading reviews on the kit when I bought it and others had a similar experience. Next time I will do two things different. First is taste it after one week in the secondary and decide if I want to leave it for longer. The second thing I read recently. The person soaked the cubes for a few days in less bourbon and then tossed the liquid. Then they soaked it again for a week with the amount of bourbon they were going to add. They said the orginal soaking got rid of some of the harsh tannins and they ended up with a smooth oak flavor.
I brewed an IPA with 2 oz of American oak chips soaked in makers mark for 8 days and then transferred the chips to the secondary for a week and just had a background flavor of oak and bourbon. For something that has a stronger flavor like a stout, I would probably soak the chips for 2 weeks and put the chips in the secondary for 2+ weeks. Check every couple days though because there is no sure fire formula or time frame as to how long the chips should be in. Taste will be the ultimate factor in how long they are in the secondary.
