Bourbon barrel char

I did a tour of the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Kentucky. In their gift shop, they offered bags of bourbon barrel charred chips for BBQ/grilling. Bourbon barrels are charred on the inside. The charred part of the barrel was scraped out of the barrels after emptying them. I bought a bag thinking of brewing.

Do you think these might be good for brewing? How would you use them?

OK. I got an idea. I have an oatmeal stout that has been in the primary for nearly 3 weeks (ready to bottle). I was thinking that I could rack 2 gallons to a secondary and add some bourbon barrel char and let it sit for a couple weeks. Thoughts? Would bourbon and an oatmeal stout go together?

It sounds like it's mainly char and no oak. I would think it would impart more burnt/char taste than anything. If it was charred oak chips that would be better. I need to find a way to get the charred oak in thick form.

After 3 weeks in primary, I racked my oatmeal stout to secondary. I racked 2 gallons to a separate container for my bourbon char beer. I put 3/4 oz. of bourbon barrel char in a spice bag and covered it with 1/4 cup of Buffalo Trace bourbon for sanitation. After soaking for an hour, I added the spice bag to my stout. I only added a little bit of the whiskey. The char has been in the stout for 2 weeks. Today I did a side by side taste test. The char stout has a very subtle bourbon flavor, but it is very subtle. I think I might remove the char from the spice bag and let it sit for another week.

No burnt flavor by the way.

I know this is an old post, but did you ever come to a suitable use of the char. I just did the same tour that you did and I purchased a bag of the char. I'm looking for suggestions.

I would think that you would want whole barrel chips...meaning the entire barrel was "shredded" for it's chips. That way you get oak flavors, char flavors and whiskey flavors.