oak aged imperial stout

have recently brewed a bourbon barrel porter (extract kit from northern brewer) using 2 oz medium toast american oak and 24 oz Maker's Mark bourbon in secondary for 2 weeks

thought about using the bourbon and oak for their imperial stout kit - any ideas on changing the amount of oak, bourbon, or time with a bigger base beer like this? ultimately would like to have something similar to Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout

Doing a Yeti Stout Clone and trying to make it an Oak Aged (possibly Espresso Oak Aged) Stout, myself. Answers, closure, solutions, please!

Interested in answers as well. I have an imperial stout in the 1' awaiting 1L of JB in the 2'. Would love to toss in a bit of oak to get closer to one of my craft brews whiskey barrel stout. Any idea how much wood one needs for a 5g batch?

for the bourbon barrel porter (based on kit recs), 2 oz medium american oak - soaked in bourbon (I left in for about 1 week) and then put oak and bourbon into secondary for 1-2 weeks. don't know if longer in the secondary with the oak, more oak, or more bourbon may be needed for the imperial stout as opposed to the porter

I did a similar kit from AHS last winter. I believe it was their Oaked Porter or something to that effect. What I did was soaked the oak cubes in a pint glass of Maker's Mark for the initial 1 or 2 weeks during the primary. I then racked it off, added the oak and the bourbon to the secondary and let that go I believe another 2 weeks. 2 weeks in bottle and then started drinking.... It was fantastic, and you could definitly feel the alcohol, however if didn't have the bourbon "sting" that Maker's would normally have when you drink it. It got much better with age. I have a few bottles left, but it was one of my favorites. I would definitely do this again and I'm interested in trying NB's version... My only change or consideration would be to leave it in secondary a little longer. I'd be interested to know how the taste changes if it was on the oak cubes a bit longer.

this will probably be better next year than it is right now, but is by far my best homebrew and may be one of the best beers I have ever tasted (enjoyed as much as the Founder's Breakfast Stout that I had immediately following this homebrew)!

ended up using the Northern Brewer imperial stout kit with 2 oz medium toast American oak in 24 oz Maker's Mark as well as 8 oz Mocca Java coffee from the French press

Wow! Amazing taste 4 months after brewing! The 2 oz oak and 24 oz bourbon were just right. Will definitely make this a yearly brew and hope to keep some of this batch around for some vertical tastings

How long did you let it sit on oak chips? Seems like 2 weeks is the norm.

2 weeks is probably good. I just did an amber in a similar fashion.... took about 20oz of bourbon, 1oz of oak chips, and 3 vanilla beans, soaked them all for 2-3 weeks, then added them to secondary. It has all been sitting in secondary now for about 3 or 4 weeks. I tasted it the other day and it was FANTASTIC. I'm going to bottle it this sunday. I guess if I were you, I'd just taste as you go.... The 3 weeks gave it an oak-y taste, but I wanted another week or so.... I figure that the oak taste will mellow overtime, so I'd rather there be almost too much at bottling, and then let it go down in the coming months....

We got too much bourbon flavor in ours on our first try. We used 4oz untoasted oak chips soaked in a pint of Jim Beam for about three weeks. We pulled the chips out, shook off the excess liquid, and threw them in secondary. Three days later it was almost overpowering the rest of the imperial stout (fwiw, Bourbon County Stout was our benchmark as well.)

Three days. Seriously. It mellowed a bit in time, but was more than we wanted.

We're on our second try now. We used the same amount of oak, 2 shots of Maker's Mark, and a half cup of maple syrup. This time we dried the oak chips off in the oven set to the lowest setting before putting them in secondary. Racked the beer off the oak in three days again, as the flavor change was very noticeable.

Best advice: taste test every day and be ready to rack.

I did 3 weeks on the oak - continues to improve with time. I had to box 12 - 750 cc bottles which I will age for a year or so

Burglar - did you use the NB imperial stout kit? I think the bourbon is much more noticeable in the BB porter than the imperial stout, but the coffee probably made a difference as well

dropitlikesitshot said:

How long did you let it sit on oak chips? Seems like 2 weeks is the norm.

Click to expand...

about 2 weeks. I'm getting ready to repeat this brew next weekend (as a double batch - going to use raspberry puree and cacao nibs in secondary with half instead of bourbon / oak / coffee) - may try 4 weeks with the oak to see how this changes things

3 days until brew day! going to add a pound of flaked oats and a pound of base malt to the specialty grains and mash for an hour at 154 deg (in addition the 12 pounds of dark LME). will secondary for at least a month and add dry champagne yeast at bottling time to hopefully assure carbonation - the scottish ale yeast may not be at its best after that time (figure c. 10% ABV before adding 20 oz bourbon)

Left the champagne yeast out and is carbonating without it - despite 11% ABV and nearly 1 month secondary. The oats and additional malt (as well as woodford reserve bourbon) are giving this batch a better mouthfeel and a nice residual sweetness - already tasting better than I could have imagined! If only I had a bottle of Bourbon County Stout to do a side by side comparison!

The hard part is waiting for it to peak and not drink it all too soon!

have 2 bombers of my 2010 version and 12 of the 2011 version that are sitting tight in my closet right now. They are calling my name, but so far I am resisting...