Whisky Barrel Stout Question

I have a Brewers Best Whisky Barrel Stout kit that I will be brewing soon. It came with whisky barrel oak chips and the instructions say to add them to the secondary.

I was thinking about soaking the chips in some Bourbon to give it more flavor. Is this a good idea or not. I have never brewed this kit before so I don't know what to expect. I'm sure it will be good without doing anything extra to it, but I can't help but want to tinker with it.

Also, the directions say to add the chips to the secondary, but you can add them to the primary if you want. Is there any flavor advantage to doing one over the other. I don't mind doing a secondary. I just want to do what is best for the final product.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jon

Yea, go for the Bourbon. When I did mine I used a bottle of Rum my buddy got me from Nicargua. It was quite a change in the product at the end. I would stick to the secondary additions. Do you have a recipe? If it calls for a lengthy secondary, then I would just stick the oak in there and be done.

I've done the chips and added beer to a full on 5 gallon whisky barrel. I prefer secondary aging for 1-2 weeks. When doing the chips soak them in a whisky of your choice ahead of time (1week or more) and then put it all in the secondary.

I agree on the aging for 2 weeks in secondary. I did a foreign extra stout with some Maker's Mark barrel staves. I broke them into pieces and then soaked them in a few ounces of bourbon for about 3 hours before racking onto them in the secondary. It turned out sublime.

When I made my bourbon barrel stout I soaked my oak chips in bourbon for a week and then added the chips and 1/2 cup of bourbon to secondary and aged another 21 days in secondary. It takes some time for the oak flavor to impart to the beer...7 days is really not adequate.

Thanks for the advice. The instructions do call for a long secondary, 3-4 weeks. I like the idea of soaking the chips in bourbon and adding them and some of the bourbon to the secondary.

I'm really looking forward to drinking this one.

Cheers

jonwest said:

Thanks for the advice. The instructions do call for a long secondary, 3-4 weeks. I like the idea of soaking the chips in bourbon and adding them and some of the bourbon to the secondary.

I'm really looking forward to drinking this one.

Cheers

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My wife and several of my craft beer loving friends told me that the Bourbon barrel stout I did was the best beer they had ever tasted.

Oh, I also had 2 whole vanilla beans, split down the middle soaking in the bourbon with the oak before I added it all to secondary. Vanilla really goes well with oak and bourbon!

Jayhem said:

Oh, I also had 2 whole vanilla beans, split down the middle soaking in the bourbon with the oak before I added it all to secondary. Vanilla really goes well with oak and bourbon!

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I did this as well.. It was fantastic. Added some nice complexity..

All of this great advice is for stouts. What about a whisky barrel oak doppelbock? I have 5+ gallons on the tail end of fermentation and can't decide how long to leave the oak chips in the beer once it's done fermenting. I really want the caramel and malt flavors to shine, but I also want a subtle whisky/oak flavor on the finish. How else can I describe what I'm going for? I want a beer drinker to say, that's a good bock, but there's something else I can't pinpoint, but I want a whisky drinker to say, that's some oak aged whisky flavor you got there.

I've never used oak chips before. I have 2.5oz of oak chips. These are whisky barrel chips. Chips that are suppose to be from a whisky barrel. I still plan to soak in whisky for a week before adding them. How long should I keep them in the beer to flavor it? 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks? I'll pull samples until I think it's ready, but I would still like to know what others think.

Recipe:
10lbs Vienna
7 lbs Munich
12oz carapils
4oz de-bittered black
Double Decoction
1oz Tettnang - 60mins
1oz Hallertauer - 30mins
Hell of a lot of lager yeast at 52-54F
OG was 1.087. FG is expected to be around 1.018.

You're on the right track. I made the Northern Brewer Mustache Envy Belgian Stout a couple of years back using medium toast French oak soaked with bourbon, it was great.

Right now I am working on a 10 gallon Firestone Walker Double DBA Imperial Special Bitter and a 5 gallon Firestone Walker Velvet Merlin Oatmeal Stout. Both will use heavily bourbon soaked French Oak Cubes, probably 2 ounces of cubes per 5 gallons for about 5 or 6 weeks.

I like the idea of vanilla but it will fade over time, so if aging this could diminish before consuming. And with rum, since it was mentioned, I have used this and it became more powerful I think over the course of a few months.

There's nothing better in my opinion than a whiskey barrel aged strong stout or Barleywine!

Check out theses links for good info, I came across this info a few months back when trying to decide whether to procure a used Woodinville Whiskey oak barrel, and decided to go with cubes instead due primarily to oxidization risk. (If its not okay to link to another forum or something please let me know so I can delete the links):
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=104116

http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=113047

Yup, soak those chips in bourbon for several days to a week prior to adding them to secondary. Soak a couple vanilla beans (split) as previously mentinoned. Add those along with a small portion of the bourbon to your secondary as well.

If by some chance you feel it is a bit woody or strong after your secondary just get it off the chips and either bulk age or bottle/keg and age the beer a little longer. The harsh edges of the bourbon and the wood will soften and fade with time if you overshoot.

Thanks for the links and suggestions. We'll see how this turns out in a few months.

So, I think I'm ready to bottle this beauty, but I have a few more questions first.

My OG was 1.070 on 3/3/13, on 3/25/13 SG was 1.020, and I racked to secondary. Soaked 2.5 oz Whiskey Barrel Chips (from kit) and 2 vanilla beans (split) in 8oz Makers Mark for a few days. Added all of this to secondary and forgot about it for several weeks. Checked it the other day 5/8/13 SG was 1.020. Tasted fantastic!

My questions:

If I added 8 oz of Makers Mark to secondary I would expect the SG to decrease, resulting in a higher ABV, right? Or, am I thinking all wrong? Is 8 oz not enough to have an impact? Also, I broke my hydrometer between the 3/25 reading and the 5/8 reading so it may be a difference in equipment.

Second question. Would there be any value in aging this any longer. I was thinking about racking one gallon into a one gallon carboy, and bottling the rest. I have read that the vanilla flavor will fade but the oak and whiskey flavors will increase. Thoughts?

Thanks,

Jon

Actually the oak and bourbon flavors will fade as well over time once you remove the chips from the beer. Well fade may not be the correct word, the flavors will mellow and meld with other flavors within the beer. It could certainly benefit from some aging if it has been handled well. If you introduce oxygen during transfers or otherwise than extended aging could lead oxidized off flavors.

MidTNJasonF said:

Actually the oak and bourbon flavors will fade as well over time once you remove the chips from the beer. Well fade may not be the correct word, the flavors will mellow and meld with other flavors within the beer. It could certainly benefit from some aging if it has been handled well. If you introduce oxygen during transfers or otherwise than extended aging could lead oxidized off flavors.

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I think that my batches may have been exposed to oxygen despite my best efforts. I was racking into a tertiary and had dry hopped in the secondary, and some hops got stuck on the intake of the racking cane causing the suction to pull from inside the cane. I slowed the flow by pinching the tube but there was still some exposure. Not sure how this will play out over time as I had intended to age this one.

I bottled my whiskey barrel oak doppelbock 2 weeks ago and it's already coming together nicely. I'm going to give it another week and try another bottle. The flavor is already pretty close to where I want it. I just need to let it finish carbonating.

This is a 5.5 gallon batch. It went from OG 1.087 to FG 1.018 in 7 days at 50-52F with 3 packs of rehydrate W-34/70. I "lagered" it for a 2 weeks at 32F. I soaked 2.5 oz of whiskey barrel oak chips in about 8oz bourbon for few days then dumped everything, bourbon and all, into the beer for 5 days. The chips were in a hop/muslin bag so I pulled them out, added gelatin to settle everything out and then bottled it. It went from boil to bottle in about 4 weeks and like I said, it's been in the bottle for 2 weeks now.

It's a doppelbock, so it has a rich malt flavor. I find my malty beers like stouts and brown ales take longer to condition than my IPA's, IIPA's, Belgians, or light beers. This one seems to be following the same timeline as my other malty beers. The doppelbock will last me a while, so I'll see how it ages, but I don't feel it's going to need extended aging to be ready.