brewers best whiskey stout kit

i was so excited when they released this kit. now im grumpy.
1st the whiskey chips arent chips they're splinters.
gotta filter them out of the secondary somehow. cheesecloth over the siphon? i dont know. any ideas?

2nd. my final gravity is 1.024. pitched more yeast with nutrient and energizer and it aint budging. its done. kit instructions call for FG of 16-19.

been in 2ndary 1month. gonna bottle.

3rd there's no whiskey taste or aroma.
kit said to boil chips. i steamed because i thought boiling would boil out whiskey flavor

I am in the middle of this kit as well. It's been in my secondary for 2 weeks. My FG reading when I racked it was around 1.02 also and I'm hoping that has changed. I'll be taking another reading today.

I too was disappointed by the "splinters". I don't know what I'm going to do when I siphon to my bottling bucket. I do plan to add some bourbon when I bottle as suggested in the instructions, but I have yet to figure out what kind and how much.

I'm a fan of bourbon stouts and I really hope this one comes through - especially given the longer 2ndary time.

i think im going to add 1 shot of makers mark at bottling time. wish i woulda bagged the chips b4 adding into secondary. moved the carboy 2day( basement temp is good so everything got moved down there 2day) and its bubblin about once every 2 minutes now. gonna leave it sit.

If you want "Bourbon"flavor do add something, more like a 1/4 to 1/2 cup for 5 gals

I just took another reading and mine hasn't changed. It is still 1.026. Although it does have a nice bourbon aroma and flavor. It has another 1-2 weeks before I bottle. I hope yours improves

Henrythe9th said:

If you want "Bourbon"flavor do add something, more like a 1/4 to 1/2 cup for 5 gals

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you are right, a shot does seam to little. i'll try a 1/4 cup, leave it sit in 2ndary a day or 2 then sample and decide.
thank u

I know the recipe I plan on doing calls for 16oz of Makers Mark...

16 ounces may be a little much 4 my taste.

I wanted to come back and update on this. I added about 3/4 cup of Jim Beam Black when I bottled and I am thrilled with the results of this beer. I was worried all the way through it.

It has a gorgeous thick head and a really nice bourbon flavor. It is perfect barely chilled. One of my very favorite beers is Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout and this is very similar.

you were correct all along. mine is nice, a very faint aftertaste of bourbon, but not much. (i didnt add any bourbon). overall a very nice stout. will brew again in fall and drink over winter. this time i will add bourbon,

cheers

MomsBrewing said:

I wanted to come back and update on this. I added about 3/4 cup of Jim Beam Black when I bottled and I am thrilled with the results of this beer. I was worried all the way through it.

It has a gorgeous thick head and a really nice bourbon flavor. It is perfect barely chilled. One of my very favorite beers is Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout and this is very similar.

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That's what I used in my Whiskely Ale I have aging in bottles now. I ised 4oz of medium toast French oak chips soaking in 5 jiggers of Beam's black for the whole time the dark ale fermented. I poured the whole thing through a hop sock into secondary. Tied off chip bag,& dropped it in for 8 days. Smooth,almost creamy flavor,but still a bit young when tasted some 10 days ago at least.
Whiskely is the slang name for it since colonial times,up to Prohibition.

1ratdog said:

you were correct all along. mine is nice, a very faint aftertaste of bourbon, but not much. (i didnt add any bourbon). overall a very nice stout. will brew again in fall and drink over winter. this time i will add bourbon,

cheers

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Hey 1ratdog, how did you end up filtering out the wood chips?

I've got this same kit in primary and am ready to rack to secondary and was wondering the same thing. I don't really want any splinters making it into the bottle.

i racked carefully, i lost some beer. the chips were mostly floating. at bottling time i used my auto-siphon with a piece of muslin bag tied over the end that was in the bottling bucket. some ships did make their way through and got stuck in my bottling tube ( and made it stick open and i made a hell of a mess when one bottle was full and i was getting it into the next, had to throw it away and buy new one)
overall i lost alot of beer, made a mess, and was never so stressed during a bottling day ever. grrrrr.
if i do it again i wll follow unionrdr's advice that he posted earlier in this thread.

good luck.

ps. i didnt share any of this brew. was worried about splinters, so i drank it myself. still have a couple bottles.

unionrdr said:

That's why I,for one,poured the bourbon soaked oak chips through a muslin hop sack,tied it off,& dropped it in. Racked the dark ale I brewed for it on top of that. Worked perfectly keeping the chips out of the bottles. I didn't want anyone to get splinters in their throats.

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Did you do any sanitizing of the muslin bag before you racked on top of it?

This seems like the safest bet - I just don't want to pick anything up from the muslin sack itself.

I have a similar all grain recipie... the smaller the chips the better for extracting flavors! they will settle out in the yeast cake and wont make it through the racking cane into your bottling bucket. The only ones that have a chance are the ones that are still floating but those are easy to spot and pull out after you transfer.

I put 1 cup of burbon in with 4 oz of toasted white oak (to sanatize the chips) then add that to secondary and rack beer on top of it. Turns out great!