I've had some oak cubes soaking in bourbon for a couple of weeks now. I always pour the bourbon out, then add the oak; but what would happen if I just poured the bourbon in with the wood?
I let my bourbon sit on wood chips (I use Jack Daniels BBQ wood chips) for 6-8 weeks in a pint glass covered with plastic wrap that has a few small air holes for evaporation to protect from condensation forming on the underside of the plastic. Then I separate the wood chips from the liquid and gently stir in the liquid at the time of bottling. However, I bottle half of the batch w/o the bourbon before adding it to the bucket, so only half of the bottles get infused. After separating the wood chips I have 10 oz of liquid (I usually have to add a little more fresh bourbon to get to that level) to add to the second half of the batch which is about the right flavor mixture that I like. I've done a couple batches each of a Stout and a Scotch Ale, and I just bottled a Baltic Porter for my take on a 'Holiday Ale' for this year.
Pour the bourbon OUT! What? That's crazy talk friend! Not trying to come off as rude or what not but that is wasteful. At the very least you could pour it over new chips for the next batch... Pour it all in, more bourbon and wood flavor, no waste. Good times will be had by all. Pour it all in!
You get a beer that tastes like someone dropped half a shot of bourbon in it. It's appropriate for some big beer, but I"d dump it out, as you said you've done in the past. I'd take a nip during packaging and have a bottle of Knob Creek in hand just in case you want to add some in. And since everyone is going to shred me to pieces on this^^^ You can pour the bourbon out, (into a rocks glass and drink it).
I don't know where I heard this misinformation, but someone told me that the bourbon would be full of bad tannins that are too bitter or something like that. It broke my heart to pour that bourbon out, but I tried to drink it and it wasn't very good. I will definitely be dumping it all in OR saving it to dump in before I bottle.
I It Is possible to get too much bourbon in a light beer, but I typically don't add oak/bourbon to light styles as it overwhelms than anyways and upsets balance What style of beer and what OG/FG are you adding this to may I ask? What beer, OG and FG
FWIW, I recently brewed a Bourbon Barrel Porter where I conducted a two step soaking of my oak cubes (American Oak). I first soaked the cubes in cheap Bourbon (for 2 days). I discarded the bourbon and then soaked the oak cubes in Makers Mark for two weeks and pitched the Bourbon and oak cubes into the beer. The purpose of the 'pre-soak' was to extract the tannins from the oak. I am very happy with the resulting beer. This is my first Bourbon and Oak beer so I do not know for certain that this pre-soak was absolutely needed but I am extremely happy with the resulting beer. Cheers!
I never brewed a bourbon barrel anything, but common wisdom is you can always add more but once it's in, you can't get it out. Whether you add the chips, the liquid, or both, maybe do it a little at a time until you think the taste is right.
This is no light beer. This is my pallet mallet; a 50% rye barley wine. OG was 1090 and it's down to about 1025 right now, but seems to still be active.
They're selling a Knob Creek holiday pack at the grocery store by me that comes with a bottle of knob and some whiskey stones for $20. I've already bought like 7 of them for friends and for my own stock.
You should be fine with dumping it all right in. If you are concerned about too much wood tanin being introduced to your brew, do as JackHorzempa detaile din his post. Presoaking the oak in cheapo-swill and then discarding the tannin rich swill, resoaking in the good stuff and adsding all to the brew. You said you aged the oak on knob creek for a couple of weeks; has the color darkened significantly? If so; and you are concerned with tannin overkill, you could follow Jackhorzempas instructions and dump the bourbon, and re-soak the oak for a few days with new bourbon and dump all in. I would personally just dump it all in. I've aged oak on bourbon for months and months and dumped right into barleywines and many other styles without ever experiencing too much tannin in the finished product. YMMV. Everyone has there own specific palette and flavor likes/dislikes. Go with your gut.
'Dump it in' gives you a nice boozy quality when it's young in the bottle. Boozy fades with time as does its flavor. Dump It In! gets my vote.
