Adding Spirits

Just getting back into brewing after 20 years and may be biting off more than I can chew to start. Anybody had any problems with the addition of spirits (bourbon/brandy) and oak to the secondary resulting in killing bottle conditioning/carbonation?

 

Adding spirit soaked cubes, chips is pretty common. I have one going now that I added 16 oz of bourbon to a 5 gallon batch. I haven't heard of anyone having trouble with carbonation. I guess if you were to leave it in secondary for a really long time, it might be reasonable to add yeast for bottling. Even then if you give it time, it should be OK.

 

I do a whiskey oak thing on maybe every third beer i brew and never had a problem. Are you worried about a future batch or is a brew you just did not going well?

 

Current batch of bourbon barrel vanilla porter has been in bottle 14 days, no carbonation and only faintest traces of sediment. Was in secondary 30 days w/bourbon & oak. Think I should open them up and add a touch of dry yeast?

 

no no no no no. Dark beers for whatever reason take longer to condition anyways, and many times my beer wont be carbonated for three weeks to begin with. what temperature are the bottles at? if the answer's not 70 or so, maybe raise the temp a bit

 

Didn't think about temp, thanks! Got a room that stays about 75 degrees, I'll move them there for a while.

 

good call. let us know how it turns out.

 

Ive had high alcohol beers that took over a month to carbonate, just put them under your bed and forget about them for a while and im sure they will be great. In my experience the longer you wait the better off you are with the big beers.

 

Left bottles at about 75 degrees for 10 days. Cracked one open about a week later, perfectly carbonated! Thanks for the help.