Feedback on a Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout?

I'm trying to put together a recipe for a stout competition that will happen August 2011. Here's what I have so far:

6.6# Munton's Dark LME
3.3# Munton's Amber LME
4 oz. Molasses
8 oz. Brown sugar
1# C-120 Crystal Malt
.5# Black Patent Malt
.5# Chocolate Malt
.5# Roasted Barley
2 oz. Kent Goldings Hops (60 min)
1 oz. Willamette Hops (30 min)
.5 oz. Willamette Hops (5 min)
.5 tsp Irish Moss (10 min)

Irish Ale yeast

2 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary w/ Maker's Mark-soaked woodchips. Bottle condition for 4 months.

Any advice out there on this recipe? I've also thought about some cherries in the secondary, but that may be too much. I really want the roastiness and bourbon character to be up front and play nice together after some time in the bottle.

I like to do pale extract since it gives you more control over recipe formulation. That said, there is nothing that looks "off" in your formulation. I've just never used dark extract so it is hard for me to say if you have enough dark malts in the steep.

I think you might be a bit low on bitterness, remember you are aging this beer for 6 months so the bitterness will fade. Although you are also on the low end of the style in terms of gravity.

I would just add the bourbon directly to taste, I don't think 2 weeks is enough time to draw the complexities from the oak (alternatively you could age it in secondary on the oak for a few months and give it less time in the bottle).

The recipe looks good, just make sure to pitch enough healthy yeast to have a full fermentation.

If using a dry yeast, I would use two rehydrated packets. If liquid, make a 2 liter starter.

Oldsock said:

I think you might be a bit low on bitterness, remember you are aging this beer for 6 months so the bitterness will fade. Although you are also on the low end of the style in terms of gravity.

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Thanks! I may try to use another half ounce or so of hops in the middle of the boil for flavor.

Yes yes yes. Make sure to hop it well not paying attention to just the bittering additions. Make good size late additions too. Also, when you go to buy molasses, don't get Blackstrap, it gives a noticeably weird flavor.

boostsr20 said:

Yes yes yes. Make sure to hop it well not paying attention to just the bittering additions. Make good size late additions too. Also, when you go to buy molasses, don't get Blackstrap, it gives a noticeably weird flavor.

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Good deal, I already have a surplus of hops hanging around in my freezer. I'll remember that on the molasses. Using Maker's Mark Bourbon and I think I'll go for the longer secondary on the oak cubes and give it a taste test once every couple weeks.

Have you been soaking the oak in bourbon? If you haven't already started that process do yourself a favor and boil the oak cubes in water for a couple minutes to take off the harsh oaky edge. I used fresh oak that was in Jim Beam with a couple vanilla beans in a stout I did and the oak just dominated everything about the beer. 7 months later and the oak is finally settling down and its pretty good. Unless you have a long time to age it, I'd boil the oak before the bourbon soak.

boostsr20 said:

Have you been soaking the oak in bourbon? If you haven't already started that process do yourself a favor and boil the oak cubes in water for a couple minutes to take off the harsh oaky edge. I used fresh oak that was in Jim Beam with a couple vanilla beans in a stout I did and the oak just dominated everything about the beer. 7 months later and the oak is finally settling down and its pretty good. Unless you have a long time to age it, I'd boil the oak before the bourbon soak.

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Yes, I've already started soaking, but I bought a 3 oz. bag of oak cubes and only planned to use 1.5 oz., so starting over wouldn't be a pain. My friend at the LHBS suggested american oak with a medium toast to keep it rather mild and didn't say anything about boiling. I think I'll just wing it and keep checking the flavor every week or two while it's in the secondary. I plan on putting the cubes in a hop sock so I can take them out whenever it tastes ready.

Brewed it today. Went with 1 oz Kent Goldings and 1 oz Chinook for the bittering hops and upped the aroma hops to 1.25 oz Willamette. We'll see how it goes! This will be my longest timeframe for a brew so far.

I am going to be brewing the Northern Brewer Imperial Stout extract kit but I'll be doing some tweaks to "Bourbon Barrelize" it... ha-ha. I would love to see what people say about their kit and if anyone has brewed it and has any recommendations or brewed something similar and would have tweaked it in another way.

12# Dark LME (6# 60mins / 6# 15mins)
.5# Roasted Barley
.5# Black Malt
.5# Chocolate Malt
2oz Summit (60 min)
2oz Cascade (Flameout)
Wyeast 1098 British Ale (using instead of 1728 Scottish Ale)
2oz American Medium-Plus Toast Oak Cubes
16oz Makers Mark

3 weeks primary
3 months secondary.
Soak oak cubes in Makers Mark for 48 hours and add to secondary and age another 1-3 weeks.
Bottle 6-12 off and keg the rest.

I’m sure it would be fine as is, but I'm not a big fan of dark extract. I like to have as much control as I can over what goes into my beer (How much of which dark grains did the extract manufacturer add?). The rest of the recipe looks fine, but if you switch to light extract you'd have to up the steeping grains.

I'd suggest using less oak for a longer period of time. Short soaks give more oak/wood/lumber flavors, while longer exposure tends to bring out the vanilla/spice/coconut. I'd hold off on the bourbon until kegging and then add it to taste (that way you can adjust to suit your tastes).

Just general high gravity tips, pitch lots of yeast, loads of aeration, watch your fermentation temperatures, and be patient.

Hope that helps (pretty much the same comments I had on the OP), good luck brewing.

I did a Midwest Supplies Oatmeal Stout kit and wasn't a huge fan of the dark extract because it's not as fermentable as Light extract. I will probably research some other recipes and might tweak

Great tips on the oak. This will be my 1st batch using any oak chips. What do you consider short soaks? Would 1-3 weeks be in the short soak category as I'm thinking that would be a good amount of time. I will test often as to not overpower the beer but I do like hot Imperial Stout and like to lay them down to see how they age. Never thought of adding bourbon to the keg and never heard of that method but I'm still new into the adding bourbon and oak to beer.

This will be my 1st batch where I use a starter... can't wait! I hear you on the be patient. I tell that to all of my other homebrew friends and none of them seem to listen and are pissed when their whole batch is consumed and the last bottle they drank was the best one when I told them to let it sit in the 1st place... ha-ha.

1-3 weeks is short, imagine if a brewery advertized that they barrel aged a beer for 2 weeks? I like 3-6 months with ~1 oz of oak cubes (boiled to remove some of the tannins, I keep a few mason jars of them soaking in different liquors ready to use), the extra age will do nothing but good things for the beer.

Good luck brewing!