adding bourbon at bottle stage

[Burtlake1985]

Hello All:


I'm about a week away from bottling my IIPA, and as I was reading some other threads, it sparked a question.

Instead of adding bourbon to my secondary and have the whole batch have bourbon in it, can I just add some bourbon to just the bottles I want bourbon in and then fill and cap (kind of like experimental bottles?)??

Any and all thoughts/suggestions are welcome!!!

 

[Grinder12000]

OR - just drink the bourbon and have a beer chaser

OH - you question. Why not - try it and let us know! YOu can experiment with how many drops of bourbon works best. They you would have an idea for 5 gallons

My homebrew club experimented with dry hopping.




Take a case of Spotted Cow (beer neutral) open each bottle, put one pellate of a different hop in each beer, recap and wait a week. Amazing results!

 

[aiptasia]

Hello All:


I'm about a week away from bottling my IIPA, and as I was reading some other threads, it sparked a question.

Instead of adding bourbon to my secondary and have the whole batch have bourbon in it, can I just add some bourbon to just the bottles I want bourbon in and then fill and cap (kind of like experimental bottles?)??

Any and all thoughts/suggestions are welcome!!!

Yes and no. Yes, you can do this but it's not always a good idea depending on the amount of bourbon you're adding. By putting pure bourbon in the beer, you will be boosting the ABV of the beer itself just like making a boiler maker. This can be ok if you're making a kegged beer but you have to be careful with bottle conditioning. Boosting up the ABV too high would stress and kill the yeast you'll depend on to condition and carbonate your bottled beers. I'd measure your ABV with a hydrometer and then be sure you have some space between the alcohol tolerance level for that yeast and the additional alcohol you are adding.

You could also add a little higher alcohol tolerant yeast to your bourbon beers (such as Lalvin EC-1118 or Pasteur Champagne yeast) and this would solve that problem. When you add the bourbon, pour yourself a 12 oz test batch and add measured amounts of bourbon to it (say 1/4 teaspoons) until it has just enough bourbon flavor where you like it. Then, add that amount of bourbon to each bottle you want to lace with it and then bottle fill/cap.

 

[Calder]

I've done it before and about to do it tomorrow on an IPA I have.

I have 6.5 gallons. I'm going to add normal priming sugar for the whole batch to the bottling bucket, an move all the beer on to it. I'll then bottle 4 gallons. Then I will add the bourbon to the bottling bucket, give a gentle stir, then bottle the remaining beer.

How much bourbon? That is your decision. I add about 10 ml to a 12 ozs bottle. That is 2 teaspoons if you want to try it in a beer. For 24 beers (which is my plan), that is 240 ml, or about 8.5 ozs.

My bourbon currently in a jar with oak, taking on some oak flavors.