ok, so i've been getting some conflicting advice... please advise! so i'm brewing a 10% imperial stout. i'm 1 week into fermentation. now i need some advice - i have a mason jar with a half of a 5th of bourbon, 10oz of b grade maple syrup, and medium toast oak cubes. i plan on kegging. when do i add the cubes/bourbon/maple into the mixture. now? when i move to the secondary in a week? when i keg it? other? Thanks in advance!
Add the maple now. When the fermentation is done and the batch has aged a bit, soak the cubes in half that bourbon and add to the batch. Start tasting it after two weeks to see if the flavors are where you want them.
I would not move to secondary after 2 weeks, IMO. Leave it on the yeast for another week atleast. The maple syrup will be fermented out once you add it, so don't count on getting much from it at all. Once you add the liquid, you'll kickstart the fermentation due to the sugars you added from said syrup. I'd add the wood into a secondary vessel, and let it ride. Cubes will take a while, my last RIS needed 3-4 months on the oak cubes to get where I wanted it, and it was subtle. Taste it after a week, and then go another 2 weeks and taste again.
Well then add the liquid to your primary. Because it'll ferment the maple out, leave the bourbon, and once fermentation is done, let it sit longer to clean up. 10% stouts ain't done in 2 weeks. Best left alone.
but if it ferments the maple out, i lose the maple flavor. what if i just hold onto the liquid further into the process and wait to put it in. any chance i'll retain any maple then?
Add the liquid NOW. You'll ferment it out. Add the cubes later in secondary when it's all cleaner. Don't add the liquid later, because you have maple syrup in it. Unless you want to add it to the keg and keep the keg cold as hell to stave off any fermentation, which I would advise to avoid in the keg. If it were my beer, I'd dump the liquid in if you want the bourbon and maple in there. Otherwise, don't. Let the beer sit for atleast 3-4 weeks in primary. Rack to secondary on top of the said cubes, sans liquid. Wait, and wait and wait and taste. Once it's good, if you think you want more bourbon than the wood gave off, add bourbon to the beer. The maple is a wasted entity really.
You could add maple syrup to the keg, but it will not mix in well, since the beer will be cold, it'll settle to the bottom. I tried this, it sucks, so trust me here. It will ferment out. You might get a hint of it, but honestly, you've got a RIS, aged on oak. Maple flavor isn't gonna go anywhere near the front, ever. If you want maple, add some maple extract.
Secondary before you keg it.. I'd add a little, mix slowly and gently, and taste.. You can always add more.
got it. and again, if i add the liquid to the secondary, i'm just gonna dirty my clean beer? (just asking because im trying to learn)
Its personal preference, some people swear by adding everything, others of us dump everything but the actual oak. I'm in the dump all the crap, just add the oak to the beer camp. If this is the founders-cbs ish clone, IIRC Founder's gets their maple flavor from the maple-bourbon barrels they age CBS in, not from an actual maple addition, so it would be a more accurate clone attempt to huck the liquid and add your "maple-bourbon" oak cubes to the beer. Other thing worth mentioning, if using maple syrup and you want more maple flavor in the beer, use Grade B instead of Grade A maple syrup. Grade B is much darker and more flavorful. Adding maple extract to taste on top of the maple syrup will help you retain some flavor lost from whatever ferments out.
No, the sugars in the maple syrup ferment out. The maple syrup flavor compounds (other than sugars) do not ferment out. Trying to add sugars (later) in the hope that they don't ferment is asking for bottle bombs or gushers.
I actually got in a bottle of maple extract from Beanilla, and it's pretty tasty stuff to be honest. I dosed it in some beers today and found it to have a nice subtle background sweetness to the beer. Added to a Chocolate stout I'm aging on second use oak and nibs that were soaked in bourbon and man... it's damn decadent.
