Using Bourbon: Amount? Time?

I was listening to the Brewing Network's podcast the other day, and they were talking about winter warmers and holiday beers. During one conversation, they mentioned that using bourbon to extract the flavors from, say, vanilla beans, is a great way to add flavor post-fermentation. This got me thinking, maybe I'll do a darker holiday beer. Yeah, it's a bit late, so it won't be a real holiday beer (I already have a winter warmer in bottle for that purpose), but I thought I'd do a dark winter ale...and after fermentation, add bourbon that's had vanilla beans and perhaps even oak chips/cubes soaking in it.

My questions are, for a 5-gallon batch of high-gravity dark mahogany ale:

1. How much bourbon should I use?
2. How much oak, if any, should I use?
3. How much vanilla beans should I use?
4. How long should I let them steep before adding the whole deal to the secondary?

Thanks!

Evan! said:

1. How much bourbon should I use?
2. How much oak, if any, should I use?
3. How much vanilla beans should I use?
4. How long should I let them steep before adding the whole deal to the secondary?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

This is a lot of stuff to add, but I'll answer one at a time.

1) At bottling, you should take a measured amount of beer and add measured amounts of bourbon until you like how it tastes, once you know the correct ratio, scale it up to get the bourbon you ll need for the entire batch. Then add 3/4 of the amount you figured out and see if you still need to add the rest. Once it's added, you can't take it out!

2) I would make an oak tea and add it the same way as the bourbon.

3) Rack onto a couple of chopped up vanilla beans and taste it every couple days until you get the flavour you want, then bottle!

4) See above!

Hope this helps.