Bourbon Porter

My friend wanted to try homebrewing and he wanted to make a porter with oak chips soaked in bourbon. My job is to assist and try to make a recipe. I haven't tried to make anything with oak chips yet. Recipe at this point looks like this:

OG 1.065-1.070 (yes it's pretty heavy porter) 15l batch (about 4 gallons)

72,5% Pale-ale malt+DME
10% Münich malt
6% Cara60l
3,5% Cara amber+ special b (leftovers)
3,5% Chocolate malt
3% Black malt
1,5% Roasted Barley

Mash at 67c (152F)

Hops:

Maybe Magnum or Northern Brewer fo bittering (better ideas?), 35-45ibu
and combo of EKG+Fuggles at 5min
Yeast is either Wyeast British Ale or Nottingham (dry)

Soak about 1-1.25oz of oak chips in bourbon for two weeks and rack them to secondary for about week or two.

Any thoughts, comments?

Sounds like a good recipe. I love a nice heavy porter...I usually shoot for about 1.75-1.85 and do 1oz magnum at 60 and .5 EKG at 10 for a 5.5 gal batch, probably the same for 4 since I like to use standard increments so I don't have tiny fractions of hops left over. I like S-05 for yeast for convenience and consistency, but those you mentioned would be great too. Soaked oak chips should give it a nice flavor, I have done it that way by just soaking in bourbon in a ziplock while the beer is in primary. Happy Brewing!

Ok, so my friend tried Imperial Stout and..well, U know.. He wants to change this recipe more lik a IS, or Imperial Porter (oaked) so I made little changes to it.

O.G 1.085-1.090

61% Palemalt+DME
10% Münich (maybe some brown malt too?)
6% Roasted Barley
5% Cara60l
5% Chocolate malt
4% Oats (Flaked)
3% Blend of Cara-amber&Special B (leftovers)
3% Black Malt
3% Dark Sugar (Muscovado?)

60min 50 IBU:s from Magnum (35-40g)
15min 20g Fuggles
0min 15g Saaz

Yeasts: Nottingham and Safale S-04

Oaking, as above.

What kind of oak chips are you using? American oak, French, Hungarian? Even if you have the pungent American stuff, with that much roasty stuff and that high an OG, I think you are using too little. I made a fantastic porter that had a whopping 8 ounces of American oak chips soaked in a pint of Maker's Mark all dumped into the secondary. (Recipe in the drop down.) I will warn you, though, if you do go the route of more oak chips, be prepared to bottle condition or keg condition much longer than you typically would to balance out the palate.

Also, what are you trying to get from the 0 minute addition of Saaz? Unless you throw in a massive amount, it's going to be obliterated by all the other flavors going on there.

Medium Toasted american oak chips. 8oz sounds a lot to me, but hey, if it works, it sounds good. I have about 9oz bag of chips.. Maybe I should add something like a 4-6oz of chips to it. Like I said, never used oak before.
U might be right about the saaz addition also.

I use 4oz of American Medium oak chips for 5 gallons of my Oak Aged Bourbon Porter. Ends up around 13%.

I would say 4 oz is a good amount for your first go at a wood aged beer. Medium toast American chips are pretty pungent (I use the light toast) so 8 oz. might be too much in your case.

Google "Denny Conn's Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter" - it's a tried and true recipe. Leave out the vanilla bean (or keep) and age on Oak chips (not cubes).

Finally able to brew this. Recipe looks like this:
OG ~1.090

64% Pale-Ale malt (inc. some dme)
10% Münich malt
6% Roasted Barley
6% Flaked Barley
5% Cara60L
5% Chocolate Malt
2% Black Malt
2% Muscovado Sugar

Bittering: Magnum+Chinook (leftovers) for 70ibu:s
Flavoring: Fuggles or Simcoe?

Safale S-04+Nottingham yeast
4oz Medium toasted American oak chips soaked in bourbon -> secondary for two weeks to month?

Looks like more of a RIS than a porter with that much roasted barley. It's gonna be really roasty. But looks good. IMO go with the fuggles for this.

True, as I mentioned above, my friend wanted to tweak the recipe towards RIS.