Adding Rum, or other liquor, to beer.

[Yesfan]

I made a Rum Runner Stout last night and the directions say you could add the rum pre or post bottling. It's an Imperial Stout, so what would be a good rum to add?. The OG I got was 1.088. Northern Brewer's instructions for their one gallon kits never list the starting gravity for some reason.


I'm leaning toward adding some Kraken spiced rum. I do like that rum, but am open for suggestions. I may leave it as is.

Since it's an imperial, how long should I bottle condition? Instructions say 2 weeks fermentation, two weeks bottle condition. Seems a bit short for a big beer. I thought about going to leave it in primary for about 3 weeks (I do 3 week primaries for all my beers). Once I bottle, I thought about leaving them in bottles for another 1-2 months. Thoughts?

 

[BGBC]

2 weeks is probably too short. You should at least check gravity to make sure it's stable before bottling, but an extra several weeks in primary wouldn't hurt a big beer like this.

Are you adding any oak? Or just the rum? You could soak some oak cubes (med toast maybe) in the rum to get more of the 'rum barrel' experience. Kraken would probably be fine. I'd say just use a rum that you like to drink.

I made a barleywine that I added oak and some nice XO Bajan rum to. The rum had already spent time in sherry barrels, so it was really smooth. The beer will change over time in the bottles - even if it only takes a few weeks to carb up, it will probably smooth out and improve with more time (assuming no infection or other issues, etc).

 

[Yesfan]

If I go the oak cubes or chips route, could I add that to primary? I don't have a secondary gallon sized vessel. I could order a one gallon jug when I order the cubes I guess.

I'm thinking:
three weeks in primary
soak some rum in oak chips or cubes for two weeks while beer continues fermentation
dump rum and chips into primary with the beer, let it set for a week
bottle and let condition for a month.

I have a couple of one gallon plastic jugs that my son's apple juice came in. They still smell like apples even after I cleaned them. I could use those, but worry about the beer picking up an apple residue/flavoring.

 

[BGBC]

If I go the oak cubes or chips route, could I add that to primary? I don't have a secondary gallon sized vessel. I could order a one gallon jug when I order the cubes I guess.

I'm thinking:
three weeks in primary
soak some rum in oak chips or cubes for two weeks while beer continues fermentation
dump rum and chips into primary with the beer, let it set for a week
bottle and let condition for a month.

I have a couple of one gallon plastic jugs that my son's apple juice came in. They still smell like apples even after I cleaned them. I could use those, but worry about the beer picking up an apple residue/flavoring.

A separate secondary jug would be ideal, but not required. I've used cubes before and chose to do so because you can get a little more character than with chips I think. Once you add the rum/oak, you probably want to taste a couple times to determine when it's ready to bottle.

You can also add the oak in a small muslin hop sack, weighted down with some stainless nuts or glass marbles or something. That will make it easy to pull out before racking at bottling.

 

[tayclem]

I've never had Kraken rum. My personal favorite is Capt. Morgan Private Stock; really nice vanilla/caramel profile with cinnamon, clove and molasses notes. It's really smooth too.

 

[LLBeanJ]

As far as the choice of rum, just use any mid-grade. Anything high-end would be a waste of money, but don't go cheap either. If you can tell what brand of rum was used, you probably used too much. The rum flavor in the brew should be noticeable, but subtle. That is, unless you are going for a rum bomb, then in that case feel free to go all out with your favorite variety.

As far as the oak, I'd just soak the chips or cubes in about 8 oz. rum for a 2-4 weeks, then strain out the oak and dump the oaked rum into the bottling bucket or keg at time of packaging. At that point, you taste it and add more rum if needed. In my experience, I've found that it's not necessary to oak the entire brew when using in conjunction with hard liquor (rum, bourbon, whatever), as the liquor will do a nice job of pulling the oak flavor from the wood. My goal when brewing is to keep things as less-complicated as possible, while still achieving the desired results. Keeping the oak out of the fermentor is one way of doing that. YMMV

 

[Yesfan]

^^^ So you would just dump the rum only into the fermenter after a 2 week soak on oak. I may go that route.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Yes. I currently have a bourbon vanilla porter on tap in which I utilized that technique and it came out very good. Both the oak and the bourbon came through nicely. I used an ounce of medium toast oak chips and 8 oz. of bourbon for a 5g batch.

 

[Yesfan]

Ok, thanks. That's what I'll do. I like to keep it simple, so you're way of doing it should be perfect for me.

 

[Tbattisti]

Similar situation for me. I have a scotch ale that's been sitting in the primary for 2 weeks. My recipe has me adding whiskey soaked oak chips and American Oak Cubes (heavy toast) when I transfer to the secondary this weekend. I was going to start soaking some Jack Daniels smoking chips tonight for it. Should I microwave the chips first to sanitize them before putting them in a ziplock with the whiskey? Should I just add the strained whiskey or add the chips as well? Should I sanitize the cubes before racking on top of them? Also, when I go to bottle, I plan to transfer the beer on top of a pint of Jameson. I have high hopes for this beer!

 

[wildactbrewer]

Similar situation for me. I have a scotch ale that's been sitting in the primary for 2 weeks. My recipe has me adding whiskey soaked oak chips and American Oak Cubes (heavy toast) when I transfer to the secondary this weekend. I was going to start soaking some Jack Daniels smoking chips tonight for it. Should I microwave the chips first to sanitize them before putting them in a ziplock with the whiskey? Should I just add the strained whiskey or add the chips as well? Should I sanitize the cubes before racking on top of them? Also, when I go to bottle, I plan to transfer the beer on top of a pint of Jameson. I have high hopes for this beer!

The whiskey should do the job of killing any infection in the wood. Assuming you give it time to soak. As far as adding the whiskey, wood, or both that's more of a personal preference than anything I think.

 

[LLBeanJ]

+1

One of the benefits of soaking the oak in hard liquor is that it effectively sanitizes the wood for you.

 

[Tbattisti]

I had reason to believe that, but ya know, one can never be too clean!

Also, and sorry to hijack the thread but, should I choose to add the chips, should I put them in a bag before adding to the secondary?

 

[Yesfan]

I had reason to believe that, but ya know, one can never be too clean!

Also, and sorry to hijack the thread but, should I choose to add the chips, should I put them in a bag before adding to the secondary?

No need to apologize about the thread-jacking.

I would. It will make everything easier to retrieve once you keg or bottle. For me though, I'm just going to discard the oak after soaking and dump the rum only. It's just easier like LL posted.

 

[mrphillips]

I just stumbled on this thread. I'm doing a strong ale with black rum and oak, and was happy to find some good information here.

How did this brew turn out? How much oak/rum did you end up using?

 

[Litoris]

I hate to be a necromancer, but this is EXACTLY what we're doing this weekend (even down to the brand of rum!) so I was curious how it turned out and how much you added to the gallon. We're using oak essence and have mixed it with the Kraken to determine how much we need to add just the hint of oak without overpowering the rum and were just going to add and taste it before we bottle to be sure how we feel about the taste.

 

[Yesfan]

I hate to be a necromancer, but this is EXACTLY what we're doing this weekend (even down to the brand of rum!) so I was curious how it turned out and how much you added to the gallon. We're using oak essence and have mixed it with the Kraken to determine how much we need to add just the hint of oak without overpowering the rum and were just going to add and taste it before we bottle to be sure how we feel about the taste.

My apologies for not following through.

If I remember correctly, I think I added 1 oz of cubes. I thought I had it logged in my notes, but apparently I didn't. I remember buying the 2oz pack of medium oak chips, and using about half. I put the chips in a small container, then pour the rum just enough to cover them. They soaked in the rum for about a week. I discarded the chips and poured the rum into the secondary where it set for a couple more weeks, then kegged it. After it carbed up another week, I bottled it.


Two weeks after bottling I tasted it. It had that hot alcohol bite to it, that I didn't like. I put two bottles back and forgot about them, until a couple of months ago. at that point, the beer was almost 1.5 years old. Man, it tasted so freaking smoooth.

If you brew (or have already brewed it), put a few back. It's a totally different beer after a few months. I plan on doing a 5 gallon batch of this beer. A rep at Northern, converted the recipe for me since this particular beer is only available as a 1 gallon extract. I can post it, if you guys want

 

[Litoris]

we also thought it was a little hot tasting when we bottled it. The reviews all recommended 3+ weeks bottle conditioning, so we plan on letting them sit at least that long, maybe more. We went with about 2 oz of Kraken and used oak essence -- just enough to add a hint of the smokiness to the rum, we figure it should be very nice diluted in the beer like that.