So I am doing a 5 gal batch of what I hope will turn out to be a Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale clone.... Or close to that! So I want your guys help with this Boubon, oak, and vanilla bean deal for secondary. I know people say that the oak an whiskey will give you a subtle vanilla flavor but I am wanting that to be more pronounced so I got 2 beans. I have read a few ways to prep them one that includes splitting the bean down the middle and scrape out the paste. My question is do you discard the paste and just soak the bean husk, or what? Second I am planning on using 2oz of med toast french oak chips, and 6oz of makers mark. Does this sound like a good ratio? Finally do I add the bourbon I soaked the oak and vanilla with into my carboy for secondary or just the chips and beans? I do like bourbon so keep that in mind, but I don't want it to be too overwhelming of a flavor. Any input would be awesome.
Bourbon, Oak, and Vanilla Beans?
- Thread starter moorerm04
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
I don't know what the right ratios are. You will learn with practice.
But ....... you add everything to the beer, and you add all the bean (including the paste) to the Burbon. Splitting the bean just makes it easier for the flavor to come out.
But ....... you add everything to the beer, and you add all the bean (including the paste) to the Burbon. Splitting the bean just makes it easier for the flavor to come out.
As Calder said, you do indeed put everything in vanilla bean-wise. 2 beans should be fine, however, if you don't want the bourbon to be too overwhelming, I think you might want to consider cutting back on your other additions. With the oak, a lot of it depends on how long you leave it in the beer, but I've gradually gotten down to 1 oz of chips, and still easily get a good oak presence (anything more than that it tended to be way too oakey...) Also, if you soak the chips in bourbon while you're doing the initial fermentation, you may not even need to add any additional bourbon. I found that I got plenty of bourbon flavor from just soaking the chips. You can always incrementally add a little more bourbon at packaging (to taste), but you can't take it out if it ends up being too much (and I really do think 6 oz could cause the bourbon to overwhelmingly dominate the beer.)
wolfstar
Well-Known Member
In the culinary world, one would use the paste and the bean pod..
Put the spliced bean and the oak in a small container and cover with Burbon, and leave until ready to use. Then add all of it (Oak, bean, & burbon) to your secondary.
Do some research on other recipes for how much Burbon is typical. If it were mine, I'd probably be using somewhere around 12 ozs in a 5 gallon batch, maybe more.
If I remember correctly, Denny's Chocolate Burbon Porter had 10 ml per bottle, which equates to half a liter in 5 gallons.
Do some research on other recipes for how much Burbon is typical. If it were mine, I'd probably be using somewhere around 12 ozs in a 5 gallon batch, maybe more.
If I remember correctly, Denny's Chocolate Burbon Porter had 10 ml per bottle, which equates to half a liter in 5 gallons.
BradleyBrew
Well-Known Member
Wow! We are attempting almost the same brew.... I am using a oak spiral instead of cubes that I soaked in about 6 oz of Makers for two weeks. Then I added it to my primary. Been oaking for about 3 weeks. Monday I will add the 2 beans for the last two weeks then I'm racking, bottling, and giving it about 6 months to mature.
According to the website spirals are fully depleted after 6 weeks. Also what is your base beer? I used a malty scottish ale recipe with some smoked malt. You?
According to the website spirals are fully depleted after 6 weeks. Also what is your base beer? I used a malty scottish ale recipe with some smoked malt. You?
My base is kind of a hybrid between an Irish red and an English pail ale. It's an extract with specialty grains... Some Carmel, and chocolate malt.
I brewed a dark ale,& at the same time soaked 4oz of medium toast French oak to 5 jiggers (7.5oz) of Beam's Black in an airtight container. I put the container in the fridge when I pitched on the ale. Left it there for the whole of primary fermentation. Then,poured the chips & bourbon through a hop sack into secondary. tied off the sack,& dropped it in,racking the ale on top of them. 8 days later,it was fairly strong.
So 2oz of the French oak,...I'd say 4-5ounces would be plenty to put a nice flavor on the back. It took the amount I used 9 weeks & 6 days,with 2 weeks in the fridge to carb up,get a decent head,& get the flavors rounded out.
I will def say that a good,strong malt backbone is a good thing. Even the dark ale I used as a base was a little light for 4oz chips,7.5oz bourbon.
The whole time the chips sat soaking in the bourbon,that 4oz of chips soaked up 2/3 of that Beam's black. But on the flip side,that bourbon soaks out some wood flavors. So adding all is the best thing. Just pour it through a muslin hop sack to keep the chips contained for obvious reasons.
So 2oz of the French oak,...I'd say 4-5ounces would be plenty to put a nice flavor on the back. It took the amount I used 9 weeks & 6 days,with 2 weeks in the fridge to carb up,get a decent head,& get the flavors rounded out.
I will def say that a good,strong malt backbone is a good thing. Even the dark ale I used as a base was a little light for 4oz chips,7.5oz bourbon.
The whole time the chips sat soaking in the bourbon,that 4oz of chips soaked up 2/3 of that Beam's black. But on the flip side,that bourbon soaks out some wood flavors. So adding all is the best thing. Just pour it through a muslin hop sack to keep the chips contained for obvious reasons.
i'm wondering if the whisky-bourbon addition to the beer before bottling will kill off the yeast cells because of its high alcohol content and hence destroy any chance of the bottled beer to carb correctly.. or is the concentration to low in comparison with the volume of the rest of the beer? hmmm
ao125
Well-Known Member
Anyone know what the ideal amount of time to let a bourbon beer sit before drinking?
MississippiSlim
Well-Known Member
I left my stout on oak chips for 14 days which was too long. A little too Oak-y. after 7 days in keg it was still too oak-y. I am hoping it will have mellowed a good bit. I am really planning it as a halloween beer so I still have time to let it age though. I dont have my rcipe but I brewed a stout then secondary over about 2 oz bourbon barrel chips and three vanilla beans. Added about a quarter of a fifth of evan williams at kegging along with some vanilla extract as neither the bourbon nor the vanilla was very pronounced in the beer at kegging. after a week I sampled and the vanilla was okay, the bourbon fairly pronounced but nothing too much. The oak as stated before was a little too much IMO. We will see.
MississippiSlim said:
I only used one oz of med roast French oak chips. And I went heavy on the booze using pretty much an entire 350ml bottle of MM. It took some time to age and smooth out but it turned out awesome. About 8-10 weeks in the bottles for me.
Similar threads
