How long to let a bourbon beer sit?

So I kegged my imperial nut brown yesterday and added bourbon.

How long should I let it sit (after the two week carbing time) to give everything a chance to even out? A month? Two months? Six months?

Mine was blech after a month, blech after 6. Turns out I hate bourbon beer though.....

Depends on how much bourbon you added. If you added a little, you should be fine after a few weeks. If you added a lot then maybe months.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

Depends on how much bourbon you added. If you added a little, you should be fine after a few weeks. If you added a lot then maybe months.

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8oz to 5gal batch

ao125 said:

8oz to 5gal batch

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I don't believe there is any reason to wait, no matter how much you added.

8 ozs isn't much; I usually go 16 to 17 ozs for 5 gallons.

The bourbon's been distilled several times, so the "hot" alcohol quality you'd want to age out of high-abv beer won't be present. However long you'd age that beer without the bourbon is how long you need to age it, although I'd imagine that had already been done before you added the bourbon. All the melding the bourbon will ever do it did during its years in the barrel.

Calder said:

8 ozs isn't much; I usually go 16 to 17 ozs for 5 gallons.

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I was doing the math and I probably could have pitched 2 pints of bourbon... and I may very well, the next time I make this - I just can't take bourbon away if I f- it up and add too much.

I've been drinking a few sample pints of other beers that I put about 2tbsp of bourbon into, to get the flavor I want - and I'll try to get closer to that next batch.

2 pints! Wow that seems like a lot.

When I made my Bourbon Barrel Old Ale I could taste 1 tsp in say 10 oz. of my test beer (Dry Irish Stout).
2 TBS = 6 tsp, though you may have had 12 or 16 ounces of beer compared to my test of 10. Thats still at least 4 times my dosage.

If thats what you like, go for it, but for me, the Bourbon would dominate.

ao125 said:

I was doing the math and I probably could have pitched 2 pints of bourbon... and I may very well, the next time I make this - I just can't take bourbon away if I f- it up and add too much.

I've been drinking a few sample pints of other beers that I put about 2tbsp of bourbon into, to get the flavor I want - and I'll try to get closer to that next batch.

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ArcLight said:

2 pints! Wow that seems like a lot.

When I made my Bourbon Barrel Old Ale I could taste 1 tsp in say 10 oz. of my test beer (Dry Irish Stout).
2 TBS = 6 tsp, though you may have had 12 or 16 ounces of beer compared to my test of 10. Thats still at least 4 times my dosage.

If thats what you like, go for it, but for me, the Bourbon would dominate.

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Maybe I'm doing my math wrong (which it may very well could be).
I had 2tbsp of whiskey in my glass, and that tasted right.
There are 40 pints in 1x 5gal keg
2tbsp = 0.0625 pints
0.0625 * 40 = 2.5 pints of whiskey, scaled back to 2 to ensure drinkability.

This time around, I added half that, so that I just gave a hint of whiskey.

2 Tbs = 1 oz, so you'd be looking at 40 oz per keg. 2.5 pints x 16 oz/pint = 40 oz. Same thing.