Oak chips. To dump with or without bourbon?
 

Brewed up a IIPA that I am planning on oak agog half the batch for a while. Normally for a darker beer ( stout) I soak the chips in bourbon to sanitize and then dump the whole thing in. Bourbon and all.

I am worried that with an IIPA the bourbon may overpower the beer. Do I drain off the bourbon 1st?

Thoughts?

How much bourbon. A very little goes a long way. I was surprised when I tried it that it only takes a few shots to make a huge difference.

8 oz glass filled with oak cubes to the top and then bourbon to the top. Not sure how much that is maybe 4 oz of bourbon?

Think I am going to drain off the bourbon first.

Oh hell. DON'T USE THEM.

Oak in vodka if you must. A Bourbon IIPA has a cool ring to it, but sounds like vomit to me.

Bourbon is SO overpowering.

Bourbon is essentially alcohol aged on toasted oak. So what you have is oak chips aged in an oak solution. If you're going to dump the solution and just use the chips, I would say you made too much.

Again. Be careful as bourbon will go a long long way. I think I used 1oz and it was a little much.

not sure about an ipa, but ive made two porters that have used bourbon. The pecan one i used about 12 oz and have won awards with, but i thought it was a bit much. The denny conn bvip i used about 8 oz and just sampled it and its very good.

I think it depends on the malt backbone of your IPA. A very dry IPA without a lot of crystal might not stand up as well to bourbon as a darker fuller bodied IPA with some medium crystal malts in it.

How much oak (in weight) are you talking about? I'm not sure how many oak cubes fit in an 8 ounce glass. I'd guess you have somewhere in the 2 to 4 ounce range. Oak can get dominant. I would start out with 1 or 2 ounces and add more later if you think it needs more. That is a safer method than ending up with too much.

It was 2 oz of oak cubes. I think I am going to set these cubes aside for something darker and go with some hot water sanitized cubes for this one.

You guys have reinforced my hesitation that the bourbon will overpower the IIPA. That's why I asked.