Wood-Aged Beer Bourbon Barrel Quad (Boulevard BBQ)

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skeezerpleezer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2010
Messages
2,672
Reaction score
737
Location
Brookhaven, GA
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
WY3787
Yeast Starter
Definitely
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.5
Original Gravity
1.088
Final Gravity
1.011
Boiling Time (Minutes)
90
IBU
24.8
Color
27.9
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
66F to 1.024
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
73.5 for 21 days
Tasting Notes
Nice and dry for a big beer, oak/whiskey flavors come through nice w/ the dark fruit
11.60 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 70.2 %
0.83 lb Carafa I (337.0 SRM) Grain 5.0 %
0.73 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 4.4 %
0.62 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 3.8 %
0.25 oz Warrior [13.70%] (75 min) Hops 8.8 IBU
0.50 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40%] (75 min) Hops 6.9 IBU
0.13 oz Warrior [13.70%] (90 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 5.1 IBU
1.50 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40%] (5 min) Hops 4.0 IBU
1.00 lb Candi Syrup, Dark Belgian (90.0 SRM) Sugar 6.0 %
0.75 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 4.5 %
0.50 lb Brown Sugar, Dark (50.0 SRM) Sugar 3.0 %
0.50 lb Brown Sugar, Light (8.0 SRM) Sugar 3.0 %
1 Pkgs Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787) [Starter 5000 ml] Yeast-Wheat

Mash Profile:
147.2 F for 50 min
154.4 F for 20 min
163.4 F for 15 min
Sparge 167.0 F

Notes
Sugars added with 15min left in the boil.
Target Pre-boil Gravity: 1.065 (7.5g), Post Boil: 1.088. I overshot my gravity a bit and ended up with 6g of 1.091 post boil. I ended with 1.012.

Ferment at 66 until gravity is 1.024, then increase temp to 73.5
I primaried in carboy for ~3 weeks, then racked to a freshly used whiskey barrel. Boulevard adds cherry puree to top off some barrels. If doing this, I recommend letting the beer get to the level of oak/whiskey desired, then rack to a carboy and add the cherry puree to taste. Boulevard does not add them to all barrels, so start out light and add more to taste.

I am not calling this a clone of Boulevard BBQ (yet), but after about 2 months, this beer is great and will be really close in the end. I will update with a head to head tasting after another 4-6 months. BBQ is hard to find where I live, so want to wait and let the homebrew mature a little more. I will update this post once it happens.
 
I brewed it a couple months ago. Haven't done a head to head, but based on initial tastings and the sources of my information, it will be really close.
 
Quick update:
I let this sit in the barrel for 12 weeks, then racked onto 24oz of frozen cherries on 11/14. I will probably let it ride on the cherries another week or so, then bottle. Initial taste is promising.
 
Quick update:
I let this sit in the barrel for 12 weeks, then racked onto 24oz of frozen cherries on 11/14. I will probably let it ride on the cherries another week or so, then bottle. Initial taste is promising.

What kind of cherries did you go with...sour or tart....I did a combo of both dried 1lb....

been sitting on soaked oak chips for two months now....bourbon and oak flavor is really good...but dont get much cherries...thinking about racking on to some more cherries but cant decide to go tart or sour
 
Intrigued and subscribed. BBQ is one of my favorites! Cracked a bottle on Xmas which I've been saving.
 
Another update. I have been lazy and letting this ride. It is a bit over 6 months old and has been sitting on the initial 1.5lbs of cherries for about 3 months. I finally pulled another sample. I am going to add another 1-1.5lbs of cherries to the fermenter for a few weeks and will then bottle. It may be lacking a little in the bourbon flavor, so i may add a bit of bourbon soaked oak chips as well.

Taste is great and smoothing out nicely, i am looking forward to doing a head to head.
 
I have a Rochefort 10 clone, 1/2 on cherries, 1/2 on cherry bourbon and oak. If both of ours is bottled by the time the pallet arrives, may need to talk you into a trade.
 
Update on my attempt....took a taste at 5 months.....wow it's good

Aroma has a nice oak/bourbon but not over powering....cherries really come through on the finish....tempted to bottle now
 
Cyclman said:
I am brewing this next month, any tips?

I followed the Original recipe pretty much....only differences I did was I used homemade dark Belgium Candi Syrup....look up the post about 20lbs of sugars and yeast nutrient to make..

I soaked 2oz medium toast oak chips in Bourbon for 48hours...I used the Jim Bean Black double aged Bourbon about 1 cup.

Racked to secondary after 3 weeks with the wood chips...and 1lb of dried sour and tart cherries that were also soaked in the bourbon also....aged for 6 months ....I added a can of Oregon Tart cherries at 3 months to add more cherry flavor....bottles were primed with 3oz of corn sugar....this entry was about 5 weeks in the bottle....should just improve with time now

I would called it more of an BBQ inspired recipe than clone ;)
 
I've brewed up this recipe many times now and its a winner...I'm actually working on a Can you Brew It? Article for kcbeerblog...decided to email Boulevard for some more info...they sent me their receipe

Bourbon Barrel Quad
Malt
Pale Malt – 84.2%
Cara 300 – 6%
Munich Malt – 5.3%
Malted Wheat – 4.5%

Mash Schedule
64 C – 50 minutes
68 C – 20 minutes
73 C – 15 minutes
Mash off at 78 C

We target a beginning of boil gravity of 15.9 Plato and reach 20.8 Plato at the end of our 70 minute boil. We add sugar midway through the boil to achieve the following increases in gravity:

Dextrose - 1.2
Brown Sugar - .9
Dark Brown Sugar - .5
Dark Candi Syrup - 1.7

Hops
Bravo – 9.2 IBU at 97 C
Saphir – 8.7 IBU at 15 minutes after beginning of boil
Saaz – 6.4 IBU at 15 minutes after beginning of boil
Saaz – 3.4 IBU at KO

We cool the wort to 19 C and ferment with our house Belgian strain. Once we reach 9 Plato, we temp up to 23 C for the remainder of fermentation. Final gravity is 2.6.

Aging
Finished beer is transferred to first and second use whiskey barrels. During aging, we either top up with fresh beer or an aseptic tart cherry puree. At the end of aging, beer is blended to taste. In the past, Bourbon Barrel Quad has been a blend of fresh and barrel aged beer, but the 2014 is a blend of first and second use barrel aged beer.

Jeremy Danner, Ambassador Brewer
Boulevard Brewing Company
@Boulevard_Beer / @Jeremy_Danner
 
Looks like there were a couple small changes since he sent me info back in July of 2012:

Savannah passed your email along to me. I'm happy to share some recipe information to get you going in the right direction for a beer similar to Bourbon Barrel Quad. What I'll do is provide some recipe information in the form of percentages of raw materials for the grain/fermentables and then a hop schedule. I'll also share some mash schedule and fermentation program info too. Let me know if I can clarify any of it further for you. I've also answered your questions inline at the bottom of this email.

Pale Malt - 84.2%
Cara 300 - 6%
Munich Malt - 5.3%
Malted Wheat - 4.5%

We mash in at 64 and rest for 50 minutes.
Heat up to 68 and rest for 20 minutes.
Heat up to 73 and rest for 15 minutes.
Mash off at 75.

Hops
Magnum 5.2 IBU at 97C
Magnum 9.8 IBU at 15 after beginning of boil
Styrian Golding 7.7 IBU at 15 after beginning of boil
Styrian Golding 4.1 IBU at 5 minutes before end of boil

We also add dextrose, brown sugar, dark brown sugar, and Belgian candi syrup during the boil to account for a plato increase of 4.3. We're targeting a beginning of boil gravity of 15.9 and are looking for 20.8 at the end.

We cool the wort to 19C and ferment at 19 until we reach 6 degrees Plato. At that point we temp up to 23 for the remainder of fermentation. The finished beer goes into a variety of 1st and 2nd use whiskey and bourbon barrels where we usually age at least a year, sometimes more. We really depend on the beer to let us know when it's ready. As the beer evaporates we top up with cherry puree or fresh 6th Glass. Not every barrel gets the cherry. That's something you'll definitely want to take into account.

Jeremy Danner
 
I soaked 2oz medium toast oak chips in Bourbon for 48hours...I used the Jim Bean Black double aged Bourbon about 1 cup.


Hey Schumed, I've got this recipe in the fermenter right now. It's just a few days in, so no oak yet. I've been soaking two ounces of oak chips in Makers 46. They've been soaking for about a week now. Will this be too long?

I haven't found any definitive answers to if there's a problem with soaking too long.
 
Hey Schumed, I've got this recipe in the fermenter right now. It's just a few days in, so no oak yet. I've been soaking two ounces of oak chips in Makers 46. They've been soaking for about a week now. Will this be too long?

I haven't found any definitive answers to if there's a problem with soaking too long.

I can't imagine you can ever soak oak too long with bourbon
 
I guess I might try to brew this up this weekend.

I need to get the cherries but everything else should not be too bad. This will be the ultimate test of patience since the longest I have ever waited to drink a brew has been 3 months when I brewed my Allagash clone.
 
I brewed this a few weeks ago and just transferred it into two secondary carboys (splitting the batch) after sitting it on bourbon-soaked oak chips.

It tastes incredible so far. Good enough that I was nervous to add the cherries, which is why I split the batch. I just added two pounds of pureed, tart cherries to one of carboys.

Any suggestions on how long I should let it sit on the cherries? I figured I'd taste it every few weeks and then bottle once to taste.
 
I brewed this a few weeks ago and just transferred it into two secondary carboys (splitting the batch) after sitting it on bourbon-soaked oak chips.



It tastes incredible so far. Good enough that I was nervous to add the cherries, which is why I split the batch. I just added two pounds of pureed, tart cherries to one of carboys.



Any suggestions on how long I should let it sit on the cherries? I figured I'd taste it every few weeks and then bottle once to taste.


Exactly just taste it until you are satisfied with the flavor ...if it needs more add more ...Boulevards final product is a blend of cherry added and non cherry added along with fresh non barrel aged beer
 
Looking at this being my next brew, last for the year as well as the weather is starting to cool in upstate NY and kids sports are starting to pick up :)

I'll be using WLP 545 for the yeast, I currently have a Dubbel/Belgian Stout (Stone Vertical Epic 06, that I messed up one of the grains on) fermenting and will use part of the yeast cake for this.

Since the OP used a bourbon barrel does anybody that's brewed this and used oak cubes/soaked in bourbon have any input the type of oak cubes or bourbon and how much? If not I'm mostly planning to go with medium French oak and either Jack Daniels/ Jim Beam Devil's Cut, or Crown Royale XO. I really like the XO by taste alone, but not sure how much of it will come through in the final product.
 
I've made the allagash curieaux clone on here. Awesome awesome recipe. Considering it is a bourbon Oaked Belgian tripel - think recipe might've called for 2, maybe 3 oz of bourbon soaked Oaked cubes for a month or so to taste. I recall using 2.5 oz of oak cubes- soaked them in makers mark for a month. Then racked on them after month primary fermentation. I left them on the oak for over 3 months (also added some of the bourbon the cubes were soaking in- maybe 2 oz). The oak doesn't come through too much because the bourbon really permeates it but it was subtlety there even after 3 months. The bourbon came through very soft and in the background- it was great. Now that is in a crisp dry tripel where there aren't a whole lot of competing flavors. In a dark rich fruity quad like this- I believe u may want to try 3 oz oak soaked and maybe add 2-3 oz of the soaking bourbon in also. After the cherry addition let it meld for a few months and take a sample and tweak from there. But I think 3 oz oak & 3 oz bourbon are a good start.
I'm up for the curieaux clone this weekend and plan on throwing the boulevard quad on the yeast cake after
 
Thanks mhot55
A little of topic for this thread but...

I've made the Curieux clone before, should do it again :) I used Jim Beam Devil's Cut, soaked oak cubes for 30 days, added about .5oz of the liquid and cubes to secondary and transferred the beer into the secondary. I only let it sit on the oak for a week and I picked up the oak. This could be because Devil's Cut has more oak to the taste than other Bourbon's, at least it does to me. So if you, or anybody else, wants more oak to the taste Devil's Cut may be the way to go.
 
I'm debating between this and a Rochefort 10 clone. Has anybody done both? What is your feeling between the two? I'm planing to make my own candi syrupb based on this thread if that makes a difference. If anybody thinks making the syrup rather than buying is going to be a major mistake please say so and I'll debate this decision. There's a local brewery that makes an awesome dubbel using "homemade" candi syrup with honey as the base that I like, the only downside is that I think it's a little thin for the style, but that could be the brewers preference vs mine.
 
Pretty sure Schumed never shared this beer with me...lol. So this or the dark truth recipe...hmmm.

Ive got another batch of this almost ready to go that has beem aging in a fresh bourbon barrel ...going to try and do what boulevard does and make a fresh batch not aged to blend
 
Sounds spectacular. How does the beer compare to sixth glass prior to bourbon, oak and cherries?
 
I'm going to be giving this a try over the weekend. Thanks for all the information everyone provided!
Q - Regarding the tart cherry puree addition, does one typically boil or prep them in any way before adding?
I imagine sanitizing the packaging before opening and adding to the keg is enough?
 
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