Bourbon Dubbel oak chip additions?

What kit did you use for this ?

It was the Brooklyn Brew Shop's Bourbon Dubbel ingredient kit. I bought two of them and made a two gallon batch.

I've now done 3 of these Brooklyn Brew Shop dubbels. One fermenting now with bourbon. The last version I used vodka and it turned out fantastic. An excellent slow drinker with food or on a special occasion.

BTW - the reason I brewed these was my local BevMo put them on sale for $5. Wish I would have bought all their stock.

I did that too at Bevmo!! 5 bucks was a pretty decent price for all the ingredients so I grabbed two. Can't wait for it to carb up!

So I made this on Sunday and have a few questions. I didn't RTFM before brewing otherwise I would have asked these questions beforehand.

The instructions said to add these right at the end of the boil, which I did. It then said to run the wort through a strainer to get some of the sediment out. It made no mention of the oak chips after telling me to add them at the end of the brew.

To me, it made no sense to add them for the approximately 10-15 minutes that it took to cool the beer from boil to 70 degrees, so I just poured the wort into the carboy, chips and all. Pitched yeast and put it in the closet to ferment. Searching today, I found this thread about it...

My first couple of brews have ended up being cloudy in the end, so I'd already planned on racking to secondary for the clarity (and yes, I am well aware of the mixed opinions on secondaries, lol). After reading comments in this thread, it sounds like that is the ideal time to add the oak chips, and adding them during fermentation was not ideal as the yeast will hide the oak/bourbon flavor.

So question #1 is: should I add more oak chips when I rack to secondary, or will that make the flavor too oak-y or bourbon-y??

Second question: The recipe says to use maple syrup as the priming sugar during bottling. Does this sounds like a good idea? They recommended using honey as the priming sugar for their Everyday IPA and I ended up with an IPA with honey aftertaste. I'd like to avoid a maple syrup tasting beer, and I bought priming sugar at my LHBS. If I do use the priming sugar, how much should I use for a one-gallon batch?

Thanks!

If I were you, I'd taste the beer once you've reached your desired gravity. Then, if it isn't oaky or bourbony enough for your taste, go ahead and rack to secondary with your preferred amount of oak and bourbon. NOTICE: I did a two gallon batch of this, and 4 oz. of bourbon was just about right. Although, I do love bourbon, so I like alot of that rich bourbon taste. If you're not sure, I'd start with like one or two ounces of bourbon and go from there, adding till you like the taste of it. And as for the maple syrup, I just used priming sugar, as I've heard that honey and maple syrup, being natural products, have varying sugar contents. So you may want to stick with priming sugar.

My batch of this is almost ready to chill and crack open!

I've done two of these - one bottled with maple syrup the other with corn sugar. The version with maple syrup was very, very maple-y, a bit too much. The corn sugar version was much, much better.

In this batch that I did, I had a bottle that needed maybe another ounce or two to be full. So I topped it off with the maple syrup. I wrapped it and put it in a sealed container. I figured all that sugar would make a bottle bomb. I'll post a picture of it when I pour it!!

I currently have mine in the last week of bottle conditiong. Will crack open next weekend. I did mine with spiced rum instead of bourbon. Added the oak and rum for last 5 minutes of the boil. Also I used maple flavored corn syrup for priming, and a bit less then what they called for. I wish I would have racked to seconary though... I have a fairly thick yeast cake in my bottles. My fault though for not paying attention when siphoning. Shoul turn out good.d

I now make this on my own without any all grain BBS kit. I make 4 gallon batches, as this beer is AWESOME after 6-9 months of aging in the bottle. Here's my recipe:

7 lbs Pilsner
1 lb Munich
.80 lb Special B
.60 lb Crystal 60L
1lb Belgian Candy Sugar (light)
Styrian Golding hops
.50 @ 60
.50 @ 30
.50 @ 10
(hop schedule is fairly flexible)
S-33 yeast (blow off tube is a must!!!)
Mash @ 152-154

Last time I made this I put 2oz or orange zest in at flameout and left out the bourbon oak chips.

Such a great beer and better with age!