Adding bourbon, American oak cubes and a vanilla bean to a RIS

[bcmeyer]

Hey all. I have 5 gallons of RIS that has been sitting since I brewed it in December. I want to add American medium toast cubes soaked in bourbon into the beer (and some into a cherry mead), as well as the vanilla bean into the beer. Looking for advice from people who have worked with oak and spirits.

1. How much oak? 2 oz. for 5 gallons enough? I was thinking of trying to steam them some how and then soaking them in a jar with some Jack Daniels.

2. Do you add the bourbon or just the soaked cubes?

3. How many vanilla beans for a 5 gallon batch?

Any stories or experiences would be helpful.




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[LLBeanJ]

I've done this a couple of ways and I've found that it's easiest to soak the oak in the spirits for about 2-3 weeks, then add just the liquid to the beer at bottling/kegging. The whiskey will extract the flavor from the oak.

For a 5g batch, I've found that 8 oz of bourbon gives a nice balance. If I'm doing both bourbon and vanilla, I usually take about 6.5 oz bourbon and put the oak in that and let it soak in a plastic storage container with a lid for a few weeks. In another smaller container, I combine 1.5 oz of bourbon and 2 entire vanilla beans (split & scraped, pods cut into 1" long pieces) and let it all soak for a few weeks. Once the beer is ready to package, I filter the bourbon from the oak and vanilla and just add the oak and vanilla flavored bourbon to the beer. This eliminates any need for transferring the beer to secondary for oaking.

I have never used cubes, only chips and 1 oz of med toast chips is about right for my taste. If using cubes, you'll need more, so I would guestimate that 2 oz of cubes would give you about the same oak flavor as 1 oz of chips, though I can't say for sure.

 

[bcmeyer]

I've done this a couple of ways and I've found that it's easiest to soak the oak in the spirits for about 2-3 weeks, then add just the liquid to the beer at bottling/kegging. The whiskey will extract the flavor from the oak.

For a 5g batch, I've found that 8 oz of bourbon gives a nice balance. If I'm doing both bourbon and vanilla, I usually take about 6.5 oz bourbon and put the oak in that and let it soak in a plastic storage container with a lid for a few weeks. In another smaller container, I combine 1.5 oz of bourbon and 2 entire vanilla beans (split & scraped, pods cut into 1" long pieces) and let it all soak for a few weeks. Once the beer is ready to package, I filter the bourbon from the oak and vanilla and just add the oak and vanilla flavored bourbon to the beer. This eliminates any need for transferring the beer to secondary for oaking.

I have never used cubes, only chips and 1 oz of med toast chips is about right for my taste. If using cubes, you'll need more, so I would guestimate that 2 oz of cubes would give you about the same oak flavor as 1 oz of chips, though I can't say for sure.

Thanks for the advice! I may end up just doing that. Anyone do something a little different?