Bourbon brown ale

I'm looking to make something similar to tyranenas rockys revenge. To get a light bourbon taste to the brown ale what should I do? I was thinking of soaking a vanilla bean and 1oz of medium toast chips in 5 or 6oz of bourbon and then straining the chips and vanilla bean out of the bourbon and adding that bourbon to secondary. That way i get a set amount of added flavor rather then throwing in a bean and chips and trying to guess in time.

Good bourbon is barrel aged, so there's no reason to add more oak, unless you want a very prominent oak flavor. You can just dump the bourbon in. I would toss it into secondary and let it diffuse into the beer for a week or so and then bottle.

No reason for vanilla bean either huh?

BogusOwnz said:

No reason for vanilla bean either huh?

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Depends on what you are going for. I'm going to be bourbon oaking an Oktoberfest in the next couple days. I have been soaking oak cubes in bourbon for a week. I intend to drain the bourbon and add the cubes to the keg. I'll rack the oktoberfest onto the cubes and let it sit, probably until about Christmas.

The oak should be providing a good vanilla flavor to the beer, thats why you may want to forgo the vanilla beans.

Oak cubes can remain in the keg for a very long time. If I recall, the oak chips have a limited time before they start to disintegrate.