Bourbon Barrel Old Ale

[Brad]

I am getting ready to start to brew a bourbon barrel old ale extract kit from Midwest Supplies. I am just curious as to if anyone has made this kit before? What bourbon you used? It says on the box with vanilla notes do you get those from the oak cubes that the kit comes with or do you add some vanilla to the batch? Here are the ingredients in the kit.

6 lb. Amber liquid malt extract
3.3 lb. Gold liquid malt extract
8 oz. Brown Malt
8 oz. Crystal 50-60L
8 oz. Wheat
4 oz. Aromatic
4 oz. Chocolate specialty grains
1 oz. Northern Brewer
2 oz. Willamette
2 oz. Fuggle hops
2 oz. American Oak Cubes

I just want to learn as much about this kit as possible to make the end result come out great. I plan on aging around 8-12 months like recomended. I drink bourbon rarely so I dont know what the best to use would be.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I typically use Maker's Mark or Basil Haydens for my beer. You will definately taste it, so it needs to be something worth drinking. Don't buy something cheap like grand dads and expect it to come out well. It still might, but I prefer the better whiskey.

The vanilla flavors will be coming from the oak and the bourbon mostly. Oak imparts a vanilla-like flavor, but I can barely detect it's there most time. If you want a stand out vanilla flavor, I'd add it.

 

[Nurmey]

That kits comes out really nice. We soaked the oak in Woodford Reserve for several weeks while the beer was fermenting. I can't remember how long we kept it in secondary with the oak but knowing us it was at least a month.

 

[Brad]

Thanks for the info I am really looking forward to making this kit. One more thing when adding your hops it says for the last 2 min add the aroma hops do you add it with your bittering hops? Or remove the bittering hops then add the aroma hops? This has been something I have questioned since I started brewing and never heard the answer? Or would it not really make a difference either way?

 

[Nurmey]

No need to remove the first hop additions, just keep adding per the recipe.

 

[Brad]

Thanks for the answers!

 

[jessup]

use good bourbon like makers mark. i used a lot of jim beam in my whee heavy and it tastes fine so it's doable. def soak a vanilla bean in the bourbon with the oak cubes prior to adding and the liquor will extract the vanilla flavor better than boiling ever could. soak for a few days at least, the longer the better. don't worry about removing any hops. you can even leave them in for fermentation if you really wanted to! sounds like a promising recipe what kind of yeast are you using. 6 months aging will prob be fine for this recipe, 1 year might be over kill. 6 months in the bottle will be your best best; 6&6

 

[Brad]

I will probably White labs english ale 002 Yeast as that is one that midwest pairs with there kits is there a better yeast that I should use?

 

[TheWeeb]

Brad, I just made this on Thursday June 10th! I added one extra pound of DME which brough the OG up to 1.076; WL002. Pitched at 70 degrees and brought the water in the tub around the primary down to 60. Fermentation started overnight, and has been going steady ever since. Out of curiosity I just took a gravity reading, it is now at 1.018 which is the expected FG according to the kit. Since it is still active, I am going to leave it alone for a few more days before racking it off to the secondary; though I don't expect it to get much lower than where it is now. I am more than happy with 7-8% ABV.

As for the oak cubes, they have been soaking for two weeks now in Wild Turkey. I am going to add a vanilla bean as Jessup suggested.

I think this will be most delicious around Christmas!

Let's keep each other up to date on the progress!

EDIT: I just tasted the sample that I pulled for the gravity reading and even though this is a four day old brew it is better than my first brew!

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

With some slight modifications, I took first place in last year's NHC for the northeast region preliminary round with this kit. I added some cinnamon, vanilla beans soaked with the oak in glenfiddich single malt scotch, and a ton of honey to secondary.

After 7-8 months of secondary (still on the oak and vanilla beans), I bottled and it was spectacular.

Since then, I've converted the recipe to all-grain and tinkered with certain quantities of the off-recipe additions. It's still good, but will keep getting better as I dial it in...

 

[TheWeeb]

Drat, please describe the honey addition to the secondary, and how it affected the flavor profile. How much did you add, and didn't it stimulate more vigorous fermentation than is normal in a secondary?

Also, how many vanilla beans did you add?

Many thanks!

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

Did I say honey addition to secondary? I must not have been awake this morning. I add honey to most of my beers during the chilling process. I use the icebath method and when I can safely touch the lid without burning my hand I make my addition (my guess is that the wort is down to around 110 degrees or so). For the old ale, I stir in with a sanitized spoon 3lbs of wildflower honey.

I use two vanilla beans split down the middle soaked in good scotch for the duration of the primary. Those get added to the secondary and the beer racked on top.

I'm going to experiment with my next brew adding the honey in at the same time as the oak and vanilla. I know it'll start fermentation back up and I'll probably rack it again after a month to get it off the sediment, but I'm trying to preserve as much of the subtle flavors from the raw honey as possible...

 

[TheWeeb]

Well, took another reading, @ 1.016, so I went ahead and racked it off to the secondary with the bourbon soaked oak cubes. Only two natural foods stores in town, neither had whole vanilla beans, but one ordered some for me. I will add them when they come in. I tasted the SG sample; very good, best tasting "green" of the four that I have brewed so far. Now the long, long wait. . ..

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

Well, took another reading, @ 1.016, so I went ahead and racked it off to the secondary with the bourbon soaked oak cubes. Only two natural foods stores in town, neither had whole vanilla beans, but one ordered some for me. I will add them when they come in. I tasted the SG sample; very good, best tasting "green" of the four that I have brewed so far. Now the long, long wait. . ..

Good luck on the waiting. I've found that it helps to brew a lot of other crazy beers so you're not tempted to bottle too soon.

We drank my last 22oz bottle of this last month (approx. 2.5 years since brew day) and it was better than ever...

 

[Brad]

I will hopefully be brewing mine this weekend I dont know yet what I will attempt to change or add or how to go about it. Still pondering Bourbon, Vanilla and bring a higher abv to it. I am waiting for my belgain wit's Krausen monster to go back to the depths for my fermenting bucket to open. Or I will just have to make a trip to the LHBS and pick one up.

 

[TheWeeb]

well, I took this interesting shot looking into the carboy just before racking, to me, looks like heaven!

 

[TheWeeb]

Update 7/6/10: Vanilla beans in, soaked in bourbon and then added. While I had the top off, took a sample, down to 1.014 which put it at Big Beer status of 8%. I chilled the sample and tasted; bourbon up front, then burnt oak, a bit of hop bitterness at the end. Maybe some raisin or dark current notes in there. I may use lactose and sweeten this up at bottling. Very pleased so far!

 

[TowsonTiger22]

The bourbon gets added at bottling, right? I might whip this one up sometime soon.

 

[TheWeeb]

The bourbon gets added at bottling, right? I might whip this one up sometime soon.

I know some do this; however, the instructions, which mimic aging in bourbon barrels, state to soak the oak cubes in bourbon for a few weeks. You then drop them in the secondary (see picture above) and rack on top of them. The long aging time, in this case, six months, allows the beer to absorb the bourbon and charred oak flavors much like if the beer was in an oak barrel.

I am sure you could add a bourbon directly at bottling, but it would not taste the same as this aging process.

 

[Brad]

Just started this last night Sept 18th. This is the first batch I made a yeast starter. I used white labs English Ale yeast. Finished brewing and in the fermenter around 9:00 P.M. Woke up this morning with two inches of krausen. So all good so far.

 

[mixmasterob]

Thinking about using WLP002, how big a starter did you guys make?

 

[duckmanco]

what style of base beer does this fall into? RIS, porter ? I can't decide which kit to brew, the NB bourbon barrel porter or the Midwest Bourbon barrel old ale... decisions decisions.

 

[Brad]

In my readings of late out of The Brew-Masters Bible I think it would be classified under Old Ale due to the long secondary fermentation or aging. A real porters are just a combination of "the more costly old ale and the more affordable mild ale."

The starter that I made was 1/2 cup of Light DME with 2 cups water at the boil. Then I topped off my flask to 800ml

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

I've always been lazy about it and never get around to making starters. Probably the reason I've switched over to dry yeast...

 

[mixmasterob]

Just started to soak my oak cubes in Makers with a vanilla bean. Did you guys strain out your cubes before adding them to the secondary? What was your process?

 

[Brad]

You don't want to strain out the oak cubes they still have flavor and that oak essence to give to your beer. You just want to add the oak cubes the makers and the vanilla bean to the secondary and then rack ontop of that.

 

[Brad]

Has anyone used Jim Beam in the ale and how many vanilla beans would be too much for a five gallon batch? Dont know the potency on these things and am curious?

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

I've used two beans with great success. Not overpowering at all.

 

[mixmasterob]

If I were to add an additional pound of light DME and 22oz of honey I believe my OG would be around 1.090, maybe a bit higher. Could someone run this and lemme know for sure? Is WLP002 able to withstand this much alcohol?

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

If I were to add an additional pound of light DME and 22oz of honey I believe my OG would be around 1.090, maybe a bit higher. Could someone run this and lemme know for sure? Is WLP002 able to withstand this much alcohol?

You could go on http://www.beertools.com/html/recipes.php and put your recipe in and see what your OG will be. There are plenty more online tools out there to do the same thing (my extract old ale is on there with the name honilla old ale I think)

My first time brewing this I added extra DME and over a cup of honey and hit 1.105. The yeast handled it beautifully and my FG was 1.018.