Austin kit

I just bought http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=13192
And was wondering if anyone can tell me if they made this kit. Also any tips I can use for this type of beer. Oak chips etc. thanks in advance.

I've made Northern Brewer's Bourbon Barrel Porter and Midwest's Bourbon Barrel Old Ale, but not AHS' Oaked Imperial Whiskey Stout. So the only tip I can give you is be patient. It's a big beer and will improve with time, upwards of 6 months, maybe a year....

indiansfan82 said:

I just bought http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=13192
And was wondering if anyone can tell me if they made this kit. Also any tips I can use for this type of beer. Oak chips etc. thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

I just bottled my Midwest Supplies Bourbon Barrel Old ale.
Based on reading the posts here on use of oak and Bourbon I used 11 ounces of Makers Mark, and let the oak cubes it in it for 45 days. When it was ready I added the Bourbon to the beer. I used 45 days so I could gauge the oak flavor, tasting a tea spoon once a week after a month. Some have said the full 16 ounces is too strong, so I used 10 (1 oz consumed in the tasting).

I used the 2 oz of oak cubes, but didn't add them directly to the beer. I had read that you can get too strong an oak taste. Maybe my way will be too weak of an oak taste, I will find out.


There are multiple threads on the use of oak, and on Bourbon.
There is a lot of great information you will miss out on if you rely soley on responses to your question.

Thanks for the replies. I have read on here and watched YouTube. Seems everyone has their own theory. Yet no real answer that everyone agrees on. I'm sure it will come out fine just looking to get a leg up hoping someone had already made it and I can learn from any of there mess ups or how they stream lined it. What I read on the websites comment area one of the men said he broke up the batch did one one way the other like a car bomb. Assuming he made 5 gallon batch and Carboys are normally 5-6 gallons he had it only half full. With all that head space he had and leaving it in there for lets just say 2 months won't that head space oxidize the beer. I had always thought that it's best to have as little as you can.

>> Yet no real answer that everyone agrees on

Thats because tastes vary. I don't really care for Belgian beers, millions do.

>.Assuming he made 5 gallon batch and Carboys are normally 5-6 gallons he had it only half full.

Splitting your batch in 2 is a fine idea, if you have the ferementers.
I would not want that much head space, unless its filled with CO2.

(You can always add in a small amount of boiled sugar water, to generate some extra CO2.)