rum stout ideas

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Izumidai

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I am interested in making a rum themed stout and I have a couple of questions...

My original idea was to use a foreign export stout as my base recipe and add a pound of blackstrap molasses and age it on dark rum soaked oak chips. I then thought, hey, why not add some spices that would be traditionally used in spiced rum?

After doing a little research, I have read a lot of things saying that rum can be a little overpowering in a beer.

I have read quite a bit that molasses can add a rummy character to beer on its own, so my question is should I just skip soaking the oak in rum? and will this give me a nice rum character?

As for spices, I am thinking things like vanilla, anise, allspice, ginger, maybe some rosemary. My question with the spices is, am I better off adding them to the end of the boil, or am I better off making an extract with some vodka and the spices to add at kegging? I am afraid of adding too much spice and would appreciate any feedback on how to really dial in spices.

Also, any ideas on yeast. My original thought was to repitch some wlp013 London yeast that I have, but I am wondering if a belgian strain or something else might give this a more piratey feel.

THX,
Kevin
 
i would think that if you soaked the oak cubes in run and then drained off the rum before adding it to secondary it would be too overpowering.
 
Tell you what. When my RIS finishes fermenting out I will let you know what rum soaked oak cubes taste like. Not only did I soak the cubes in rum then stick them in the beer but I poured the rum in with them. Now mine is a big 15% RIS but you can taste the oak at this point and some of the rum. I think it's actually quite nice. However at this point there are still some sugars left for the beer to ferment. I just reyeasted the fermentor with more wlp099 and removed the oak cubes. After it's finished I will check it again and add the oak back. I put more rum on them so they don't start growing anything. I might rinse they off first but I might also just add the cubes and rum again into the fermentor.
 
1# of molasses won't give you a rummy flavor. Your more likely to get licorice and iron notes. I always argue against blackstrap. If you are using molasses, just just the regular unsulphured. It lends a smoother, less harsh flavor. If you want rummy notes from an adjunct, you're better off with D2 candy syrup.

As for rum overpowering, I haven't experienced it in a stout. I find it more subtle than bourbon or brandy, and we know how common that is. I find with a simple dark rum like goslings or Appleton (I like both better than myers), you get a nice caramel rum note and soft spice as opposed to something like bourbon which gives off the huge vanilla and caramel flavors. Also, it depends on what kind if oak you are soaking the rum in that will determine what flavors you get from the oak.
 
any news on how that RIS with rum oak turned out? I've got 2 oz of hungarian soaking in appleton to add to my stout next week, wondering if I should dump in the appleton.
 
It's awesome. I've only taken small tastes here and there. I will be bottling in a month or so since it's been about 5 months since I brewed the RIS. I say chuck the rum in with the cubes. It will add a bit to the oakiness as well and in a beer with flavors as strong as a RIS I think a strong oak balances well.
 
Izumidai said:
I am interested in making a rum themed stout and I have a couple of questions...

My original idea was to use a foreign export stout as my base recipe and add a pound of blackstrap molasses and age it on dark rum soaked oak chips. I then thought, hey, why not add some spices that would be traditionally used in spiced rum?

After doing a little research, I have read a lot of things saying that rum can be a little overpowering in a beer.

I have read quite a bit that molasses can add a rummy character to beer on its own, so my question is should I just skip soaking the oak in rum? and will this give me a nice rum character?

As for spices, I am thinking things like vanilla, anise, allspice, ginger, maybe some rosemary. My question with the spices is, am I better off adding them to the end of the boil, or am I better off making an extract with some vodka and the spices to add at kegging? I am afraid of adding too much spice and would appreciate any feedback on how to really dial in spices.

Also, any ideas on yeast. My original thought was to repitch some wlp013 London yeast that I have, but I am wondering if a belgian strain or something else might give this a more piratey feel.

THX,
Kevin
Click to expand...
I made a 10 gallon stout 2 month ago. I have it in my secondary now. Instead of oak chips I had a dried hickory log 1' long that smoked using hickory for 6 hrs. I then proceeded to chop it up in to 2"-3" cubes and soaked them in 2 gallons of Captain Morgans spiced rum for 2 weeks. The chips soaked up about 1 gallon of the rum. I placed all the chips in my secondary with .5 gallon of the soaked rum and repitched WLP002 English Ale . I tried it last night and it is tasty. I get just the right hints of spiced rum and smokey flavor.
 

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