Northern Brewer Bourbon Barrel Porter - How long to Oak?

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How long should the NB BBP be on 2oz of Medium Plus Oak Cubes?

  • ~3 Days

  • ~1 Week

  • ~2 Weeks

  • ~1 Month

  • ~2 Months

  • ~3 Months


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dlm3

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I'm a few days from racking my BBP into my secondary over oak and Maker's Mark. I've read a wide variety of opinions on how long this beer should sit on the oak cubes. The kit came with 2oz of Medium Plus U.S. Oak. I've heard anywhere from a few days to months. Many people say to take periodic samples and bottle once I like the taste, which makes sense. But I don't plan on drinking this until starting around October, so I don't want to taste to become lost to aging if I bottle too soon. Also, I don't want to be fiddling with my beer more than necessary either.

If you've brewed this kit, please let me know how long you left your beer on the oak and how you thought it turned out (and any tweaks you would make next time.) Thanks!!
 
If they are cubes its basically as long as you can wait. I only use cubes on dark beers and the last bourbon barrel stout i had on cubes for about 8 months before i bottled it. I hope that helps you some, and patience will give you a better beer.

Chromados
 
chromados said:
If they are cubes its basically as long as you can wait. I only use cubes on dark beers and the last bourbon barrel stout i had on cubes for about 8 months before i bottled it. I hope that helps you some, and patience will give you a better beer.

Chromados

To clarify, the kit included oak cubes, not chips.

Will I need to pitch more yeast at bottling if I wait months, or will they still be viable enough to carb?
 
once my barleywine is done fermenting... im putting it in a secondary on Hungarian oak cubes for a minimum of 4 months (August/September ill be bottling)
 
dlm, i dont mean to steal your thread but I brewed this beer sunday and am currently at a 1.030 gravity. How low did you get your FG to? I have a packet of windsor and 2 packets of nottingham and im debating repitching to get this thing going again.

Thanks
 
I brewed mine 10 days ago. This was my first time using liquid yeast (second brew total) and I used Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale yeast. I made a starter two days prior and had active fermentation about 3 hours after pitching. When I pitched dry (Windsor) in my first batch, it took around 18 hours before fermentation was noticeable.

I had active fermentation for about 3 days with this batch, ambient temps are around 61-64 degrees. I haven't checked the gravity of this batch since fermentation began, I try to disturb my beer as little as possible. The OG was right on target at 1.065 though. I'll probably rack this to secondary over oak cubes, Maker's Mark, and Madagascar vanilla beans around next Wednesday. When I do I'll take a gravity reading and report back.
 
cubes have less surface area than chips... start at 7-10 days... and maybe more? are they light or dark? I've thought about doing the pirate rum version with cardamum and a bit of licorice.

just saw survey medium toast.. cubes 10 days and taste... let ride longer if you want more oak like smoke can fade over time.
 
I brewed mine 10 days ago. This was my first time using liquid yeast (second brew total) and I used Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale yeast. I made a starter two days prior and had active fermentation about 3 hours after pitching. When I pitched dry (Windsor) in my first batch, it took around 18 hours before fermentation was noticeable.

I had active fermentation for about 3 days with this batch, ambient temps are around 61-64 degrees. I haven't checked the gravity of this batch since fermentation began, I try to disturb my beer a little as possible. The OG was right on target at 1.065 though. I'll probably rack this to secondary over oak cubes, Maker's Mark, and Madagascar vanilla beans around next Wednesday. When I do I'll take a gravity reading and report back.


awesome thanks again, I too am interested in the oak cube length. Im probably going to hang onto this beer and really just let it sit for a while, im going a month primary, probably 2 months secondary with a month and a half of it being on the cubes and boubon. I'd like to age it to next fall and see where it goes.
 
a month and a half seems long even with cubes
taste weekly. medium toast is not really strong but more so than light. start tasting at minimum of 2 weeks.

I'll be doing vanilla too even though Cruzan Black strap has a bit of a vanilla kick from the sugar cane.
 
a month and a half seems long even with cubes
taste weekly. medium toast is not really strong but more so than light. start tasting at minimum of 2 weeks.

I'll be doing vanilla too even though Cruzan Black strap has a bit of a vanilla kick from the sugar cane.

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately I'll be heading out of town for my sister's wedding exactly two weeks from when I'm planning to start oaking. Hopefully I'll have enough free time to bottle before I go if need be, or that it'll be good with the extra time on oak until after I get back. Even if it gets a little too oaky, hopefully the 6+ months aging will help smooth it out.
 
a month and a half seems long even with cubes
taste weekly. medium toast is not really strong but more so than light. start tasting at minimum of 2 weeks.

I'll be doing vanilla too even though Cruzan Black strap has a bit of a vanilla kick from the sugar cane.

good to know, I may start the bourbon soak when I drop it into the secondary but hold off on adding them in until im about 4 weeks out from bottling.
 
good to know, I may start the bourbon soak when I drop it into the secondary but hold off on adding them in until im about 4 weeks out from bottling.

My thought was to soak the cubes in bourbon with the vanilla beans for a few days, then put that in the carboy and siphon the beer on top of it all, so it gets mixed well. Is this method any better than simply pouring the bourbon and cubes on top of beer already in the secondary, or should I consider letting the beer sit in secondary for some time before adding bourbon and oak?
 
wait until you get back if you can. add oak first then vanilla I'd say about 5-7 days for vanilla longer on the oak. It won't hurt anything leaving it on the trub... yeast will do it's clean up in that time. used booze soaked vanilla once and a week was plenty.
 
whats the bourbon do in terms of bringing up the abv, do you guys know? I was just reading some other porter threads and got curious what the actual numbers are
 
not much.. 1% or less depending on how much you actually add. at the recipe level 1% sounds right...
 
Cubes: (impart flavor much slower) for aging after primary (in keg) use about 1-2 oz for 5 gal 5
months-1 year
---No point to using cubes if only aging for a month or so.
------The more the beer sits on the cube it penetrates deeper causing a variety of flavors
------The more oak you apply the shorter amount to time it takes to show itself
------The flavor is different depending on amount placed and time left
------The flavors that come out first from the oak only become more defined with age
---It takes 3-4 weeks to notice flavors are melding (especially with cubes)
------Vanilla and caramel are first, then spices and cloves later on
------Toasted coconut for lighter toast oak
---Oak cubes will dissolve to “little nubs” after 1 ½ -2 years of keeping them in a keg (Jamil did this with an English Barleywine, which became an award winning beer)
---Too little oak for too long creates bad tannins
---Too much oak does not create complexity of flavors before it becomes overwhelming (varies between different styles of beer)

Thanks, going by this I'll probably oak for 3-4 months. I'll probably just soak the vanilla beans in the bourbon for a few days prior to adding it to the beer, but not actually add the beans to the beer since they would be sitting there for months. From what I gather, the alcohol in the bourbon should extra most of the flavor in a few days anyway.
 
just wait until you get back... yeast clean up is your friend. last few days on bourbon soaked vanilla, oak it first.

Are you saying to wait until I get back to take it out of primary? Cause that will be about 6 weeks in primary, which is a bit long, isn't it?
 
nope! 6 weeks still good! let your yeast clean up. you'll be fine! oak and vanilla when you get back.
Many times I let my primary go that long then dry hop or oak... won't hurt anything. if you've never done it try it. I've found a longer primary does great things to final bottled product and even better force carbed kegged beer
 
dlm, i dont mean to steal your thread but I brewed this beer sunday and am currently at a 1.030 gravity. How low did you get your FG to? I have a packet of windsor and 2 packets of nottingham and im debating repitching to get this thing going again.

I racked this to secondary this evening, I forgot to take a gravity reading until after I had racked it over ~18 oz of Maker's Mark, but the reading came out to be about 1.014. I'm pretty impressed with the Wyeast 1728 yeast so far!
 
I accidentally let two of the vanilla beans go into the secondary and have left them there so far. Will they cause bad flavors if I leaving them there for two or three months while my beer ages?
 
I let the oak cubes soak in about 18-20 oz of Makers Mark for about 4 weeks with 2 vanilla beans. I fermented 2 weeks in primary, 2 weeks in secondary before adding the bourbon, chips, and vanilla beans. I bottled on 17th. My FG sample tasted great, but very heavy on the bourbon. I sampled a bottle on Sunday, and was pretty much fully carbed, but the taste needs to settle out alot. It was really heavy on bourbon. Some nice vanilla coming through.
 
Thinking of bewing this kit but was wondering if anyone has kegged this brew instead of bottling? Everything I've read about has involved bottling. Is there a benefit for bottling over kegging this type of beer? Does the aging process work better in bottles?

Thanks!
 
I have not kegged this before, but I'm sure that would be just fine. However, I would age it on oak in secondary for a few months, then keg within a few weeks of when you want to serve it.
 
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