American Barleywine/Rum/Oak thing

[mrphillips]

To quote a great American actor, "I've got myself a plan!"...albeit a fairly ill-conceived one. I used the Pirate Strong Ale recipe on THR as a base, and sorta went a little coo-coo from there.

I plan on aging it for a year, and enjoying it next Christmas...so keep that in mind when you see what I'm planning on tossing in this monster. The one thing (maybe the only thing) I don't have in this recipe is Crystal/Carapils malt. While it's not true to style, I prefer a beer that doesn't taste like a sugar cube. Hell, this might even be a IIPA. I need some education with these higher % beers.

I plan to brew in 2 weeks.


FERMENTABLES
8 lbs. extra light DME
2 lbs. 2-Row
1 lb. flaked oats
1 lb. dark brown sugar
10 oz. fresh pineapple

OTHER
2 oz. vanilla extract
2 oz french oak chips/16 oz Goslings Black Rum
- Soak for 2 weeks, strain off oak chips and add liquid to secondary

HOPS
1 oz. Chinook @ FWH
1 oz. Chinook @ 30
2 oz. Citra @ 20
2 oz. Citra @ 10

YEAST
S-05

5.5 Gallons - 60 min. mash @ 152-154 - Boil 90 min.

Predicted OG - 1.084 (before the Rum)
Predicted FG - 1.010
Predicted ABV - ~9.4% (before the Rum)

 

[ruger988]

Why are you only adding the Rum to Secondary and not the chips?

 

[Calder]

1 lb of oats seems high, but if that is what you want. I can't say it is a problem.

I assume you are mashing, since you are using 2-row. I understand your dislike for 'sugar'. I like drier beers. Moving to grain away from extract will help that. I'd add a pound of Special B for some depth of flavor, or other dark crystal.

Maximize the amount of grains that you are able to mash, and reduce the extract. Mash low, ~148 F, and it will help reduce the sweetness of the beer.

Use oak cubes for more complex flavor. Add the rum to he cubes as soon as possible, and leave it until bottling, then add the liquor to the bottling bucket.

 

[mrphillips]

Thanks for the pointers.

Ruger (1st off...great name) - I was hoping the Rum would take on a lot of the oak character. I'm a little afraid of the oak taking over, so I didn't want to leave the chips in for too long. My LHBS doesn't carry cubes.

I've never used Rum before. Anyone ever try it?
I'm unsure what hopes would go well with the carmally flavor of Black Rum.

 

[ruger988]

Thanks for the pointers.

Ruger (1st off...great name) - I was hoping the Rum would take on a lot of the oak character. I'm a little afraid of the oak taking over, so I didn't want to leave the chips in for too long. My LHBS doesn't carry cubes.

I've never used Rum before. Anyone ever try it?
I'm unsure what hopes would go well with the carmally flavor of Black Rum.

I'm not a huge oak fan. I did the Pirate Ale (4oz of chips soaked in Kraken for about three weeks) dumped the whole thing in the secondary for about 14 days and it was absolutely perfect. Good rum notes, just enough oak. I don't think you're going to get a whole lot by just adding the rum itself. I'd be more inclined to add it all in a sanitized hop bag and keep a turkey baster handy to take samples every few days. Wait til its where you want it and pull the bag. (This all coming from someone who hasn't tried just adding rum so I may be totally wrong, just my .02.)

 

[mrphillips]

Did you use the Rum from the oak chips, or did you just toss in the oak chips after soaking?

I was gunna age this beast for a whole year, so I'm trying to go a little overboard on everything so it will have time to mellow...but still have a solid taste 365 days from now.

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

Took the Northern Brewer Rebel Rye Porter, soaked the oak cubes in dark spiced rum instead of rye for a week. After 1st 2 weeks of primary, dumped the rum and oak into the primary for another week. Kegged the beer with a pound of toasted shredded coconut, dry hop style. After 2 weeks carbonating, the beer has developed a nice balance between the porter and the coconut/rum/oak.

 

[mrphillips]

If you don't mind me asking...how much Rum did you use? I planned on putting 2 oz oak chips/16 oz rum, but now I'm thinking 4 oz oak chips/16 oz. rum. I know it's quite a bit of rum, but I'm looking for something that takes a while to tame, so why the hell not?

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

Was that question for me, mrphillips? Well anyway ☺, I used 16 oz of Ron de Jeremy rum and 2 oz of oak cubes. Just a hint of rum on the finish rather than overwhelming the beer.

 

[ruger988]

In case it was directed at me.... I put 4 oz oak chips (french) in a mason jar and filled it with Kraken until the chips were covered. Shook it up every day or two just to make sure everything was getting good coverage. Probably used 5 oz or so of rum, but thats purely a guess. I don't think you're going to be as happy taking flavor from the rum itself as you would be from the rum soaked chips, but again thats purely my guess.

Try splitting into two batches and oak/rum them differently? See which way you prefer.