Vanilla Bourbon Oak Stout

I've got a recipe for a high gravity Vanilla Bourbon Oak Stout that calls for soaking oak chips in bourbon for a week. I have a new 5 gal french oak meidum roast barrel that I would like to put this brew into to age.

My question is or problem is should I follow the recipe and put the oak chips in or should I leave the chips out and just put the brew in the barrel when it is ready? If I do that when should I put the bourbon in? At what temp is the best for aging a beer?

Leave the chips out...you'll get plenty of oak from the barrel. IMO, the best time to add the bourbon is right before bottling or kegging.

Thanks any tips on how much bourbon to add. The recipe dosent say. I'm brewing a 5 gal batch.

In my BVIP recipe, I use 375 ml. of bourbon for 5 gal. of beer. It's just enough to taste without screaming "BOURBON!" at you. But I recommend you decide for yourself the same way I did. Pour 4 2 o. samples of the beer with bourbon. Add a measured amount of bourbon to each. Taste them, decide which you like best, then scale that amount of bourbon up for the whole batch.

Thanks that is a big help. I'm going to brew later on today, I'll psot the results in a couple days.

I added about 400ml bourbon into a similar sounding brew. Strong bourbon taste, but nowhere near over the top.

what's your whole recipe this sounds very interesting?

Can you post pics? I think barrel brews are awesome and I love to see how they look in people's houses. One day I will buy one...