I am going to be experimenting with woodchips soaked in bourbon this weekend, something I have never done before. I have a few questions and any advice, knowledge, or experience would be appreciated. I appoligize if these have been asked before. 1. For 5 gallons of imperial stout, how many oz. of woodchips should I use and how much bourbon should I soak them in? 2. Should I strain the woodchips before putting them into the fermenter or toss in the remaining bourbon with them? 3. How long should I let the woodchips sit in the secondary fermenter? I am going for a mild to medium bourbon/wood character but nothing overpowering. I will also be using cocoa nibs and a vanilla bean in secondary so any input on that would be helpful as well. Thank you and Cheers!
you will get a bunch of opinions. mine, sir. 1. steam the chips for 10 min (assuming they are new) 2. put 0.5 oz of chips in 1 oz bourbon. place in a ziplock bag. leave for as long as possible (2 weeks to 2 months to 1 year. longer the better) 3. i strain them, since the bourbon will possibly be woodjuice. your call. 4. let them sit in the fermentor for a month or until taste.
Here's my opinion. Use cubes if you can, skip the chips. They don't get a rounded flavor, like the cubes do. Wash them to remove the dust and debris. Soak them in some cheap vodka or bourbon for a short while.. maybe a week. Dump if you want. Some thing it has all the tannins in it and some add it, because it gives a more oaky flavor. I've done both. If you dump, then add back the boubon or whatever spirit you want to use. I've used chips, and started with 2 ounces of chips, soaked for 2-3 weeks. I dumped the whole thing in there. Taste it weekly. Chips don't need to sit for very long, they work fast, and give like I said, a one sided flavor. You can over oak it easily with chips, so be weary.
2 oz of chips. Pour enough bourbon to cover. Refill as needed as there will be some absorption. It's up to you whether to strain the chips. The beer will have a notable and delicious boozy character when young if the bourbon is included. Expect the character to fade over time but not its overall effect. A one week soak was enough for me. Suggest you taste-test and remove them when it has the character you want. Better to under do it than have 5Gs of something undrinkable. They have. There may be more better advice in the archives.
I fill a pint glass loosely with oak chips and add bourbon to within about a half inch from the top, and then cover the glass with plastic wrap except for a small opening to minimize any condensation on the underside of the plastic wrap. I let the chips soak in the bourbon for 6-8 weeks, then I strain the bourbon into my bottling bucket. Twice I've done this with a 5-gallon batch of scotch ale with good results, but this last time I bottled half of the scorch ale first and then added the oaked bourbon to the second half of the batch for bottling, effectively doubling the bourbon flavor. The first two batches had a light-to-moderate bourbon background flavor, and this last batch was just a moderate flavor, not overpowering at all.
