Beer that tastes like whiskey...

I want to make a beer that tastes like Irish whiskey. Any ideas?

 

Age it in a whiskey barrel

 

Add Irish whiskey

 

O'Boilermaker

 

Like any whiskey the flavor in the product comes mostly from the aging on wood(with the exception of the smoke in Scotch whisky). Irish whiskey is aged in used Bourbon barrels, sometimes followed by additional time in used sherry casks. It's not something you are going to be able to add in the brewing process, IMO. Make a very lightly hopped, higher alcohol pale ale with some good UK pale malt and perhaps a good hit of flaked barley. Then after fermenting age on some used American whiskey wood.

 

I made an IPA a while ago using whiskey malt, had a very nice taste. I'm gonna make another batch next weekend with some adjustments to the recipe (more hops, dryhopping).

 

Where do you find whiskey malt?!

 

This...inquiring minds want to know! AFIK, barley is whisky malt.

 

maybe he means distillers malt, I know that's a thing.

 

Make a 5 gallon batch of a good hearty, slightly on the sweet side beer. This can be a sweet stout, a strong ale, a barleywine, a DIPA or IIPA, a tripel, etc.. Two weeks before your bottling date, take an ounce of light american oak chips and place them in a small 4 oz. mason jar. Pour a few shots of your favorite single malt whiskey over the chips, screw on the lid and soak the wood chips for 1 week.

One week before bottling, take a small hops bag and fill it with the whiskey soaked wood chips. Add a food safe weight to the bag with the chips so that the bag will sink to the bottom. I have some large glass marbles that work perfectly for this. Just sanitize them in starsan or iodophor for a few minutes before putting them in the baggie of whiskey soaked oak chips. After everything is in the bag, open the lid on your fermenter and toss the bag into the beer. Let the oak chips soak in the beer for about 3-4 days, then start drawing off a few samples with a wine thief, turkey baster or an auto siphon. When the beer tastes like it has just a little bit more oak whiskey flavor than you'd like, it's perfect and time to bottle or keg.

By the time the beer carbonates up properly, it'll be 3-4 weeks down the road. The oak in the flavor will have had just enough time to tone down a little in the flavor profile, leaving your beer with a perfect tasting whiskey oak cask flavor.

 

Whiskey malt is just 6 row with a higher Diastatic power for converting adjuncts. (around 200 I believe)

 

My local brewing supplier has it. And I believe it's barley malt that's been dried over a peat fire, wich gives it its flavour.

 

Distillers malt has a DP of around 210. If you want a whiskey tasting beer, try a Kentucky common that's been oaked. Grain bill is very similar to bourbon.

 

Interesting idea and please let us know what sort of process you pursue and how it ends up.


Personally, I wouldn't chase that dream. Good whiskey is cheap, in a relative sense. Making good whiskey is not easy and takes years to mature. Go buy a nice bottle of Writer's Tears or Connemara or Jamesons and enjoy it. And keep brewing good beer and let beer be what it is.

 

Ive made a KY common and oaked it, came out very nice and smooth...do get a bourbon character from it and that only took about 3 weeks to make (2 in primary, 1 in secondary with more oak than normal). It was Revvys Kiss Yer Cousin rye KY common recipe.

I also thought of finding a grain bill for a rye whiskey and using that with a bit more 2 row for conversion then freeze concentrating it to increase the alcohol and mouthfeel (make it a bit thicker/fuller), then oak that with less oak for longer.

 

If you were to do a 5 gal batch, you can just used 10 lbs malted rye and you're good. If you wanted some 2 row in it, you can do 8lbs malted rye, and 2 lbs 2 row and you're still fine, plenty for conversion.