The bourbon oak chips thread

Hi all,

I have done a lot of reading, and there exists a lot of great advice on the use of bourbon oak chips in flavoring beer, but it is tough to boil down (pun) all the information into even a semi-solid consensus.

There may not be one I know, but when people do give out what is often very useful information in threads, there always seems to be a key piece of info missing that would help others (like myself) in building recipes.

So, if you have used bourbon soaked oak chips and are interested, please fill out the questionnaire below, which I think includes all the necessary information for others to determine their bourbon oak chip flavoring strategy. Let me know if there is anything else that should be added.

Also, a few words following, describing how the beer turned out (i.e. too oaky, too bourboney…



1. Describe the beer you added oak chips to (style, OG-in fermenter, IBUs, aromatic additions)

1-1. Batch size. Gallons in primary fermentation vessel.

2. Oak chips (chips or cubed?) (american or french?)

3. Type of bourbon?

4. Wood chip processing pre-bourbon (were wood chips soaked in anything before bourbon? Boiled in water? If so, how long?)

5. How many oz chips were soaked in how much bourbon and for how long?

6. When were the chips added to the beer (i.e. primary, beginning of secondary, end of secondary...)?

7. Was the extra bourbon liquid that chips were soaking in also added to the beer?

8. How long did the chips sit in the beer?

9. After the chips were no longer in the beer, what temperature was the beer held at and for how long before consumption?

 

N/A at this point

I want to follow this thread as this my first attempt with bourbon oak...I was running on pure instinct. I suspect more bourbon and maybe a touch of vanilla may be needed at bottling to get where I want this to be. Onward through the fog, Boys!

 

Subbed. I've seen mention elsewhere that as little as 3-5 days on oak chips (chips, not cubes) can impart a noticeable flavor, I'm a tad skeptical on that, but would love to hear any feedback.

 

1. Allagash Curieux clone
2 JD bourbon barrel smoking chips
3 Angels Envy
4 No pre-treatment, just soaked in bourbon
5 2oz of chips about 6 weeks
6 chips added to primary after ferm was finished.
7 yes
8 18 days
9 the batch sat at basement temps till bottling, 72 for 4-6 weeks after bottling and back in the basement since.

Mines nice, real nice. I never had the original but saw the recipe and decided to give it a try as a generic bourbon barrel tripel It was a little boozy at first, but 3-4 months later is real smooth. Oak is there but not over the top. The bourbon is definitely there and dominates the flavor of the beer.

 

1) AHS Oaked Imperial Whiskey Stout; twice Innis & Gunn Original
1-1) 5 gallons
2) Whiskey barrel oak chips; American oak chips medium toast; American oak light toast
3) Wild Turkey 101
4) Just soaked in bourbon
5) 4 oz two days
6) put in primary, then dumped the cooled wort
7) yes
8) two weeks
9) bottled after primary, 4 weeks; 3 weeks; 3 weeks. Consumed steadily for about a year.

Non Bourbon:
Innis & Gunn Rum Aged
same as above but for:
2) American cubes median toast
3) Lemon Hart 151.

 

1. Describe the beer you added oak chips to (style, OG-in fermenter, IBUs, aromatic additions)Imperial Stout

1-1. Batch size. Gallons in primary fermentation vessel.5.5 gallons

2. Oak chips (chips or cubed?) (american or french?)american oak cubes

3. Type of bourbon?evan williams

4. Wood chip processing pre-bourbon (were wood chips soaked in anything before bourbon? Boiled in water? If so, how long?)no pre-processing, just soaked them in the bourbon.

5. How many oz chips were soaked in how much bourbon and for how long?3 oz of cubes in just enough bourbon to cover half of the oak cubes

6. When were the chips added to the beer (i.e. primary, beginning of secondary, end of secondary...)?when transferred to secondary

7. Was the extra bourbon liquid that chips were soaking in also added to the beer?It will be added, but only after I can determine how much is needed after sitting on the cubes

8. How long did the chips sit in the beer?They have been sitting for a week now, I will let them go for 10 days total and then taste.Don't want them to sit too long on the cubes.

9. After the chips were no longer in the beer, what temperature was the beer held at and for how long before consumption?[/QUOTE]have not gotten this far, but I will store it in my keg to mature in my kegerator around 40*

 

Thanks for your contributions!
So far we have several styles:

1x porter
1x tripel
1x scottish ale
2x imperial stout


Keep em coming everyone!

 

1. Bourbon Barrel Porter, low IBU bittered with Fuggles, 9.5% ABV.

2. American Oak chips.

3. Jim Bean.

4. Nope.

5. 5 oz by weight for 2 weeks.

6. After the beer had been in primary for 4 or 5 months I added them to primary.

7. I added most of it, total of about 2-3 ounces including what the oak soaked up.

8. A few weeks.

9. Lagered it for a week I think.

The beer tasted great, I sent it to several competitions in the wood aged and specialty categories and it scored low 30s consistently. It did not have much oak or bourbon flavor so I started sending it in as Baltic Porter after it was in the bottle for 6 months to a year, and it won me some gold medals. Next time I would lightly toast the oak, use 10-15 oz and maybe add a touch of vanilla to help mimic the bourbon flavor.

 

Updated style count:

2x porter
1x tripel
1x scottish ale
2x imperial stout

American chips are the clear favorite so far.

Keep the great info coming!

 

This is a great thread I hope more information is attached in the next couple of days because I plan on making a Bourbon Barrel Ale this Friday.

1. Bourbon Barrel Ale
1-1. 5 gallons
2. Hungarian oak cubes, American light toast chips
3. JB Devils Cut
4. bourbon was just added to chips they were not boiled or pre-processed.
5. 4 oz of each oak has been soaking in the bourbon
6. Plan to put in secondary
7. Seems I will be adding liquid
8. 2 weeks

All of this information is what I plan on doing when brewing on Friday. I know I have a lot of cubes/chips so should I just use 4oz of one style of oak or should I split and use 2oz of Hungarian and 2oz of American light toast? Also, Id be curious to what types of yeast everyone is using

 

Updated style count:

2x porter
1x tripel
1x scottish ale
2x imperial stout
1x ale


On average, folks are soaking chips in bourbon for about 16 days. The range is wide, from 2 days up to 42 days. The 42 days data point is an outlier, artificially increasing the average. Remove the outlier, and the average sits closer to 8 days.

On average, folks are adding chips to beer also for about 16 days. There range however is much tighter, from 10 days up to 21 days.

 

Base on the data we have so far, here is what I'm doing (currently the chips have been in the beer ~ 7 days) :


1. Describe the beer you added oak chips to (style, OG-in fermenter, IBUs, aromatic additions)

Imperial stout
72 IBUs


1-1. Batch size. Gallons in primary fermentation vessel.

5 gallons


2. Oak chips (chips or cubed?) (american or french?)

chips
american light


3. Type of bourbon?

bulleit bourbon frontier whiskey
90 proof


4. Wood chip processing pre-bourbon (were wood chips soaked in anything before bourbon? Boiled in water? If so, how long?)

none


5. How many oz chips were soaked in how much bourbon and for how long?

2 oz chips + bourbon = 1.5 cups
used just enough bourbon to cover chips


6. When were the chips added to the beer (i.e. primary, beginning of secondary, end of secondary...)?

during secondary, near middle to end


7. Was the extra bourbon liquid that chips were soaking in also added to the beer?

yes


8. How long did the chips sit in the beer?

TBD, planning on ~ 14 days


9. After the chips were no longer in the beer, what temperature was the beer held at and for how long before consumption?[/QUOTE]

TBD, will likely transfer directly to keg, then beer will be near 40 F

 

1. Describe the beer you added oak chips to (style, OG-in fermenter, IBUs, aromatic additions) Robust Porter

1-1. Batch size. Gallons in primary fermentation vessel. 5 gallons

2. Oak chips (chips or cubed?) (american or french?) chipped Hungarian

3. Type of bourbon? Buffalo Trace

4. Wood chip processing pre-bourbon (were wood chips soaked in anything before bourbon? Boiled in water? If so, how long?) none

5. How many oz chips were soaked in how much bourbon and for how long? .5 oz chips in 4tbls bourbon

6. When were the chips added to the beer (i.e. primary, beginning of secondary, end of secondary...)? secondary

7. Was the extra bourbon liquid that chips were soaking in also added to the beer? yes

8. How long did the chips sit in the beer? 3 days

9. After the chips were no longer in the beer, what temperature was the beer held at and for how long before consumption? 66F for 3 weeks was too soon. mid 30s for 2 more months and everything was much better melded.