Bourbon County Stout clone attempt

[AMessenger]

I brewed one of these up last weekend using the following grainbill:

• 24 lb 2 Row

• 8 lb Light Munich

• 1.5 lb Chocolate Malt

• 1.5 lb Crystal 60L

• 1.5 lb Roasted Barley

• 12 oz Debittered Black Malt

• 2 oz Acid Malt

This was for a 6 gal batch that I assumed 58% efficiency on. I based this on the Grit and Grain video on the Making of BCBS (see min 27:58). I had to do 2 mashes and a 4 hr boil to reach the desired OG. I ended up getting better than expected efficiency and overshot the target OG to 1.140 - I added some spring water to get down to 1.130. It is still bubbling away in the fermenter 6 days later. You can read about my 8+ hr brew day on my blog if interested.

I've aged a number of beers on bourbon soaked medium toast oak cubes and have consistently gotten oak flavors much more reminiscent of a wine than a proper bourbon barrel stout. For this batch I've made up some DIY charred oak which I'm very excited about (having control of the level of toast and the dimensions/end grain of the oak cubes seems like a potential advantage for this approach):

• Bought a couple board feet of white oak from a local wood working shop

• Cut this into 6x0.75x0.75 inch pieces

• Toasted these in the oven at 450 F for 2 hours wrapped in foil (based on some research into the flavor contributions). The oak really gave off a wonderful vanilla aroma during this toasting

Toasted vs Untoasted

• Charred these with a propane torch. Put the fire out with a spray bottle

• Put the wood into a jar of Makers Mark Bourbon to take on some whiskey character and soften the wood character. Let this age for several months prior to brewday

I will let the beer primary for 4 weeks and then I will cold crash it to drop the yeast. I'm going to age this in a secondary fermenter (likely a bucket) with 1 or 2 sticks of oak for 6-8 months

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I brewed one of these up last weekend using the following grainbill:

• 24 lb 2 Row

• 8 lb Light Munich

• 1.5 lb Chocolate Malt

• 1.5 lb Crystal 60L

• 1.5 lb Roasted Barley

• 12 oz Debittered Black Malt

• 2 oz Acid Malt

This was for a 6 gal batch that I assumed 58% efficiency on. I based this on the Grit and Grain video on the Making of BCBS (see min 27:58). I had to do 2 mashes and a 4 hr boil to reach the desired OG. I ended up getting better than expected efficiency and overshot the target OG to 1.140 - I added some spring water to get down to 1.130. It is still bubbling away in the fermenter 6 days later. You can read about my 8+ hr brew day on my blog if interested.

I've aged a number of beers on bourbon soaked medium toast oak cubes and have consistently gotten oak flavors much more reminiscent of a wine than a proper bourbon barrel stout. For this batch I've made up some DIY charred oak which I'm very excited about (having control of the level of toast and the dimensions/end grain of the oak cubes seems like a potential advantage for this approach):

• Bought a couple board feet of white oak from a local wood working shop

• Cut this into 6x0.75x0.75 inch pieces

• Toasted these in the oven at 450 F for 2 hours wrapped in foil (based on some research into the flavor contributions). The oak really gave off a wonderful vanilla aroma during this toasting

Toasted vs Untoasted

• Charred these with a propane torch. Put the fire out with a spray bottle

• Put the wood into a jar of Makers Mark Bourbon to take on some whiskey character and soften the wood character. Let this age for several months prior to brewday

I will let the beer primary for 4 weeks and then I will cold crash it to drop the yeast. I'm going to age this in a secondary fermenter (likely a bucket) with 1 or 2 sticks of oak for 6-8 months

I like your approach with the wood. I've got a BCBS clone in the primary now. It was 1.128 OG and down to 1.036 and holding in about 5 days (I had a huge multi step starter). I've been trying to decide what to do about oak. I like your answer....I wish you were bout 8 months ahead of me!

Oh, and for "barrel" aging, I've had great luck using a corny keg. It's got little to no headspace with a 5 gallon batch, you can purge with CO2 and, to get samples, just connect a picnic tap and draw off a sample. This worked great for my bourbon barrel aged porter last summer/fall.

Got any extra charred oak you want to sell?

 

[Vintage Iron]

If you drink that bottle of Maker's Mark when you're done soaking that oak, you certainly won't need a cigar to go with it!

 

[smagic14]

My brew scored a 37.5 in a competition, didn't medal and still waiting on my score sheet to see the comments. Pretty happy with that score

 

[jturman35]

How long did you oak in the keg? Can you serve with the spirals still in? I have two spirals soaking in 8 ounces of JB Devils Cut for a month now. I plan to throw in the spirals along with the 8 oz of Bourbon.

Can I leave them in the keg the entire time I’m serving? I’d like to try and age this beer as long as possible at least a year. I guess I’m trying to figure out if leaving them in for up to 6 months at room temp and leaving them in will be too much?

 

[smagic14]

How long did you oak in the keg? Can you serve with the spirals still in? I have two spirals soaking in 8 ounces of JB Devils Cut for a month now. I plan to throw in the spirals along with the 8 oz of Bourbon.

Can I leave them in the keg the entire time I’m serving? I’d like to try and age this beer as long as possible at least a year. I guess I’m trying to figure out if leaving them in for up to 6 months at room temp and leaving them in will be too much?

I left mine in the keg, while on tap, and after about 1/2 of the keg the oak flavor was you much to handle. Just keep tasting the beer and find the point where you have enough oak for your liking. Luckily I caught the over oak and the beer was drinkable after a month of aging

 

[paarman]

I brewed one of these up last weekend using the following grainbill:

• 24 lb 2 Row

• 8 lb Light Munich

• 1.5 lb Chocolate Malt

• 1.5 lb Crystal 60L

• 1.5 lb Roasted Barley

• 12 oz Debittered Black Malt

• 2 oz Acid Malt

This was for a 6 gal batch that I assumed 58% efficiency on. I based this on the Grit and Grain video on the Making of BCBS (see min 27:58). I had to do 2 mashes and a 4 hr boil to reach the desired OG. I ended up getting better than expected efficiency and overshot the target OG to 1.140 - I added some spring water to get down to 1.130. It is still bubbling away in the fermenter 6 days later. You can read about my 8+ hr brew day on my blog if interested.

I've aged a number of beers on bourbon soaked medium toast oak cubes and have consistently gotten oak flavors much more reminiscent of a wine than a proper bourbon barrel stout. For this batch I've made up some DIY charred oak which I'm very excited about (having control of the level of toast and the dimensions/end grain of the oak cubes seems like a potential advantage for this approach):

• Bought a couple board feet of white oak from a local wood working shop

• Cut this into 6x0.75x0.75 inch pieces

• Toasted these in the oven at 450 F for 2 hours wrapped in foil (based on some research into the flavor contributions). The oak really gave off a wonderful vanilla aroma during this toasting

Toasted vs Untoasted

• Charred these with a propane torch. Put the fire out with a spray bottle

• Put the wood into a jar of Makers Mark Bourbon to take on some whiskey character and soften the wood character. Let this age for several months prior to brewday

I will let the beer primary for 4 weeks and then I will cold crash it to drop the yeast. I'm going to age this in a secondary fermenter (likely a bucket) with 1 or 2 sticks of oak for 6-8 months

That's awesome! I'd love to hear how this turns out.

 

[Comfort_Zone]

Just throwing my hat in the ring here. I know a couple of the guys that used to make BC and from what they've told me it's a fairly simple recipe. The website tells you pretty much everything you need to know about ingredients and they usually use some variant of Chico. I believe I saw someone said that a high finishing gravity is expected and indeed from what I've been told it's usually around 10 plato. For what it's worth, they primarily use Heaven Hill. Personally I'm not a huge fan and the yeasts I use attenuate waaaaaay to much to ever hit a FG that high but I can certainly appreciate the challenge.

 

[jturman35]

I left mine in the keg, while on tap, and after about 1/2 of the keg the oak flavor was you much to handle. Just keep tasting the beer and find the point where you have enough oak for your liking. Luckily I caught the over oak and the beer was drinkable after a month of aging

So did you pull the oak out of the keg? The question I have is if you oak in the keg do you simply remove the oak once you reach the desired amount ? I usually don’t open my kegs once carbed.

 

[smagic14]

Yeah pretty much whenever you reach the amount of oak you want open it up and take the oak out then reseal and bleed to get the oxygen out

 

[jturman35]

I have my keg aging at room temp 68-78deg. Gets hot in MS in the summer and we cut the air up when not home. My version came in at 10.5%. Would this beer be better stored at cooler temps?

 

[arnobg]

I brewed this 8 days ago and had a pretty good brew day. Don't have any photos but still wanted to participate and add to the post for future brewers. Took a gravity reading on day 7 and I was already at 1.034!!! This puts me around 10.3% ABV already and I suspect I'll get a couple more points still

Went with the following numbers:

Boiled for 120 minutes to get 4 gallons into the fermenter, hoping for at least 3 gallons to keg. I did this due to volume limitations. I had to add DME at flameout to hit my OG of 1.112

12 lbs 3.0 oz Pale 2-Row (Great Western) (2.0 SRM) 61.1 %
3 lbs 14.0 oz Munich II (Weyermann) (9.0 SRM) 19.4 %
13.0 oz Caramel Malt - 60L (Briess) (60.0 SRM) 4.1 %
13.0 oz Chocolate (Briess) (350.0 SRM) 4.1 %
13.0 oz Roasted Barley (Briess) (300.0 SRM) 4.1 %
7.0 oz De-Bittered Black Malt (Dingemans) (550.0 SRM) 2.2 %

1 lbs DME Golden Light (Briess) [Boil for 0 min](4.0 SRM) Dry Extract 10 5.0 %

4.00 oz Willamette (3.6)(2016) [3.60 %] - Boil 60.0 min 57.3 IBUs
1.00 oz Willamette (3.6)(2016) [3.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min 5.5 IBUs

3.0 pkg Safale American Ale (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) pitched after aerating with pure oxygen for 120 seconds.

For the oak/bourbon, I've had 16 ounces of Buffalo Trace sitting on 1.5 oz charred Jack Daniels oak chips for two months. I'll throw a percentage of the oak/bourbon into the keg when I secondary this in the keg.

Haven't decided yet if I will bottle condition or Keg this to serve.

 

[jturman35]

I brewed this 8 days ago and had a pretty good brew day. Don't have any photos but still wanted to participate and add to the post for future brewers. Took a gravity reading on day 7 and I was already at 1.034!!! This puts me around 10.3% ABV already and I suspect I'll get a couple more points still

Went with the following numbers:

Boiled for 120 minutes to get 4 gallons into the fermenter, hoping for at least 3 gallons to keg. I did this due to volume limitations. I had to add DME at flameout to hit my OG of 1.112

12 lbs 3.0 oz Pale 2-Row (Great Western) (2.0 SRM) 61.1 %
3 lbs 14.0 oz Munich II (Weyermann) (9.0 SRM) 19.4 %
13.0 oz Caramel Malt - 60L (Briess) (60.0 SRM) 4.1 %
13.0 oz Chocolate (Briess) (350.0 SRM) 4.1 %
13.0 oz Roasted Barley (Briess) (300.0 SRM) 4.1 %
7.0 oz De-Bittered Black Malt (Dingemans) (550.0 SRM) 2.2 %

1 lbs DME Golden Light (Briess) [Boil for 0 min](4.0 SRM) Dry Extract 10 5.0 %

4.00 oz Willamette (3.6)(2016) [3.60 %] - Boil 60.0 min 57.3 IBUs
1.00 oz Willamette (3.6)(2016) [3.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min 5.5 IBUs

3.0 pkg Safale American Ale (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) pitched after aerating with pure oxygen for 120 seconds.

For the oak/bourbon, I've had 16 ounces of Buffalo Trace sitting on 1.5 oz charred Jack Daniels oak chips for two months. I'll throw a percentage of the oak/bourbon into the keg when I secondary this in the keg.

Haven't decided yet if I will bottle condition or Keg this to serve.

I used three packs of US-05 and mine went from 1.110 - 1.030 after a month in the primary. I have mine in the keg at room temp with two oak spirals that soaked in 8oz of Jim Beam Devils cut for a month. The hydro sample tasted pretty strong charred wood flavor. I’m planning on letting this beer age in the keg until Oct/Nov (6 months) before tapping.

 

[arnobg]

I used three packs of US-05 and mine went from 1.110 - 1.030 after a month in the primary. I have mine in the keg at room temp with two oak spirals that soaked in 8oz of Jim Beam Devils cut for a month. The hydro sample tasted pretty strong charred wood flavor. I’m planning on letting this beer age in the keg until Oct/Nov (6 months) before tapping.

Is it aging in the oak spiral or did you remove that?

 

[jturman35]

I added two oak spirals along with 8oz Jim Beam in the keg. I have floss tied to them for when I get ready to remove.

 

[AMessenger]

I have my keg aging at room temp 68-78deg. Gets hot in MS in the summer and we cut the air up when not home. My version came in at 10.5%. Would this beer be better stored at cooler temps?

That is a question I've been asking myself as well. After two months of aging with 2 oz of oak at cellar temps (low 60s) the beer has extracted little oak/bourbon character (follow-on to my previous post #271).

I also opted to move the beer to a 70-80 F room. I'm hoping a bit more heat will drive more beer/oak exchange of flavor (as is the case in the non-climate controlled bourbon warehouses).

I recently had Founders KBS again after a long time. It is a nice beer but the bourbon character is a bit mild compared with BCBS - much prefer BCBS. I understand that Goose Island ages their beers in an unclimate controlled warehouse while Founders ages theirs at a constant, relatively cool temperature, down in some caves. Seems like temperature could be a big part of the secret sauce for recreating the BCBS flavor.

 

[jturman35]

I believe Goose Island stores there Oak barrels in a warehouse with no temp control according to the video I saw somewhere.

Amessenger I pretty much did exact recipe and process as you. I also did a 4 hour boil but had some mash issues. My grain mill moved on my second mash and I accidentally crushed to fine. Clogged my recirculating system (BrewBoss). Anyway I missed my OG by 8 points, but still managed to hit 1.110 OG.

 

[jturman35]

Hey guys my beer went from 1.110 down to 1.030 = 10.5% abv using 3 packs of US-05.

BS estimated it should have finished at 1.023. I have the beer aging in a keg at room temp approx 75deg for a month now. Should I bother to add any yeast to dry it out a little or am I nick picking at this point?

Edit: I went back and read some earlier post from 2015 and someone posted the Original finished around 1.040. Gonna leave mine alone!

 

[imperialstoutfan]

I am in the middle of my first attempt to brew this beer.

I have tried to use / apply all of the wisdom and experience that you all have shared on this site in our attempt to brew this beer. I will give some background on our attempt at this beer and then I have some questions.

As the starting point, we used the C.H.A.O.S County recipe that many of you have referred to and entered it into Beersmith. We scaled the recipe up to 6 gallons because we knew we would want to sample some while it was still immature. We thought our brew day went well as we ended up with a pre-boil volume of 11.5 gallons. We boiled for 2 hours and ended with a post boil volume of 8 gallons. We could have boiled longer but we were all for getting more beer.

Our brew day was 4/22/2018:

Brewing Notes:

1. Our pre-boil volume ended up being 11.5 gallons.
2. Our end of boil volume was almost 8 gallons.
3. OG was 1.125 or 29.5 Brix
4. We added 1 lb 6 oz of DME to get to the 1.125.

Fermentation Notes beginning on 4/22/2018:
Fermentation was done in a fermentation chamber.

1. We started fermentation @ 68 F.
2. Bubbling in primary had stopped on 04-30-2018. Gravity reading was approximately 1.050.
3. On 05-02-2018 Krausen head had fallen. Took gravity reading on 05-02-2018 19 Brix corrected to (1.050). Added 2 packets of US-05 yeast and raised temperature to 70 F.
4. Took gravity reading on 05-05-2018 18.2 brix corrected to (1.044).
5. Took gravity reading on 05-08-2018 (17.4 brix corrected to (1.038).
6. Took gravity reading on 05-19-2018 (17.0 brix corrected to (1.036). Currently ABV @ 12.04%
7. Transferred to secondary on 05-19-2018. Total volume in secondary is now 7.75 gallons.
8. At this point the oak cubes (4 oz) have been soaking in Bulleit Bourbon since March 31, 2018. The oak was weighed and it weighed 8.1 ounces so the oak has taken on 4.1 ounces of bourbon.
9. We proportionally / linearly divided the bourbon soaked oak cubes and added the cubes to each of the carboys. Two packets of rehydrated Lallemand CBC-1 yeast were proportionally / linearly divided and added to the carboys.
10. Racked the beer off the oak cubes on 06-29-2018. Took a taste, the beer seemed to have lost some of its booziness, seemed dryer, (probably due to the Lallemand CBC-1 yeast)? Could definitely taste the oak at this point. (At this point, the beer had been on oak for 1 day short of 6 weeks).

I had hoped originally to complete this beer before I shared our post on our attempt at this beer but I have question that I would like others opinions on as opinions seem to vary a lot on the next steps. We will be bottling so this is where my questions are going.

My Questions:

1. I read after racking off the oak it should age another 6 months in the carboys. I am thinking if I am bottling (other than further clarifying an extremely dark beer) what difference is there between leaving it in the carboy for 6 months or if I were to bottle it now?
   
2. If I were to bottle now it is my assumption the Lallemand CBC-1 yeast that we put in secondary should be suitable for carbonation.
   a. But I also read where some brewers put champagne yeast in at bottling anyway.
   b. I have also read if you do go the route of 6 months additional carboy time it is implied that addition of champagne yeast is necessary for carbonation.
   c. I do not want to create any bottle bombs.
   d. Once in the bottle, I have read we should allow the beer to carbonate at 70° F for 1 month. Once carbonated, store the beer at 40° F for 1 to 3 years before drinking.
   e. Does the beer really have to be stored at 40° F? Is that to prevent bottle bombs?
3. In summary, I am trying to determine how long we should be in the carboy after getting the beer off the oak.
   Do I need to use champagne yeast at bottling to get carbonation?
   Do I really need to store all the beer at 40 F after it is finished?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I'm no guru, but here are my thoughts (more eperienced brewers feel free to correct me).

1. Beers like this benefit from aging, and some say bulk aging is better. In our pseudo barrel aging world, they can take on oak flavors much more quickly than sitting in a huge bourbon barrel. Knowing this, I bulk aged mine for 6 months before putting it on oak. I also age mine in a keg because it's easy to draw samples, it's easy to purge with CO2 and it's easily protected from light. It sounds like you plan to bottle condition. I would have waited to add the CBC-1 until I was ready to bottle. I'm not sure what the best plan of action is now.
2. CBC-1 should be fine for carbonating. Not sure what it will be like if you age for 6 months before bottling. Bottle bombs come from too much fermentable sugars, not from too much yeast. You add the CBC-1 because it's alcohol tolerance is higher, not necessarily because you need more yeast.
3. You shouldn't need champagne yeast if you bottle soon. If you wait 6 months...I'm not sure. I have some concern about oxidation if you've racked off the oak cubes into another carboy. How much headspace is there? With no active fermentation, that open space above the beer has oxygen and will oxidize your beer.

At this point, if it were me, I'd bottle now and plan on bottle aging the beer. You don't need to store at 40 IMO. Most people who bottle age do so around 55. I don't have that option, so I store mine in the basement where temps are about 63. Assuming you don't have a bunch of residual fermentable sugar and don't add too much priming sugar, bottle bombs shouldn't be an issue.

If any experts see where I've given bad advice (especially dangerous advice) please let me know and I'll edit my post.

 

[imperialstoutfan]

Thank You for the reply.
You make some great points. I am hoping others will weigh in as well.

 

[jturman35]

I’m a Newb here also!

On a beer this big that you plan to age for a few years, always remember every gravity check is introducing oxygen! My thought when I read your post is damn you bugged the hell out of this beer. I personally wouldn’t check gravity until 3-4 weeks.

I let mine go a month in the carboy before racking into a keg for aging. Once in a keg I put at room temp for another 30 days before moving to the keeper until Oct/Nov.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I’m a Newb here also!

On a beer this big that you plan to age for a few years, always remember every gravity check is introducing oxygen! My thought when I read your post is damn you bugged the hell out of this beer. I personally wouldn’t check gravity until 3-4 weeks.

I let mine go a month in the carboy before racking into a keg for aging. Once in a keg I put at room temp for another 30 days before moving to the keeper until Oct/Nov.

This is true if you're opening things up and using a thief. I left mine in the primary for 4 weeks, then racked to a corny keg and checked gravity at that time. From then on you can easily draw off a sample to check gravity or just a taste test anytime you want with zero O2 exposure. Frankly, I'm amazed more people don't do it this way.

 

[Stu Alp]

Attempting this beer on Monday.

I have a 10gal mash tun and an 8 gal kettle.

using 38lbs of grain and plan to split it up into two portions. I'll heat up strike water and transfer to MLT. Then i'll heat up more strike water and keep in kettle. Going to mash in the MLT with 6.6gal water/19lbs of grain and then at the same time, do BIAB with the same amount of water and grain in my kettle. Doing a 60min mash, I'll pull the bag and start the boil the vorlauf the MLT and transfer some to the kettle and the excess to the HLT. I'll add from the HLT as volume in the kettle allows.

Planning on doing a 4 hour boil. (Maybe less, should have decent efficiency since the mash thickness isn't too over the top).

Going to oxygenate, and pitch a big starter of WLP007 and then once the gravity drops a bit I'll add two packs of Safale US-05 (might oxygenate after the first 12 hours of fermentation)

Definitely like the idea of aging in a corny. Makes it easy for oak and other additions and since CO2 is heavier than air you should have protection from oxidation when you open it up as the CO2 won't dissipate out immediately.

Anything I'm doing make zero sense? Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[jturman35]

I’m curious why your adding dry yeast?

 

[Stu Alp]

I’m curious why your adding dry yeast?

My thoughts that the US 05 is slightly higher attenuating than the wlp007, I figured the fermentation will stall after a bit and I'll get a few extra gravity points adding the dry yeast...

 

[jturman35]

Update: Happy with my version! The smoke flavor was intense but seems to really be settling down. Still green but not really getting much bourbon flavor. Has been in the keg since 5/6/18.



Anyone add bourbon into keg?

 

[smagic14]

Update: Happy with my version! The smoke flavor was intense but seems to really be settling down. Still green but not really getting much bourbon flavor. Has been in the keg since 5/6/18.



Anyone add bourbon into keg?

View attachment 578399

To get the great bourbon flavor i aged 1 year in a corney keg with oak cubes (that were soaked in bourbon) AND added about 6 oz of bourbon.

Easily one i my best beers made and very similar to BCS

 

[bigdawg86]

I made a clone of this all grain... missed my numbers, even with some DME was at 1.118 OG. I used the Yeast Bay Dry Belgian and FG (including 16oz bourbon) hit 1.012. I secondaried it for 5 months and just kegged it about a month ago. At transfer to keg tasted great, but then tasted much more "green" when it was first chilled and carbed... but has improved with the cold conditioning and being on gas.

This bad boy was just shy of 14%

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

Attempting this beer on Monday.

I have a 10gal mash tun and an 8 gal kettle.

using 38lbs of grain and plan to split it up into two portions. I'll heat up strike water and transfer to MLT. Then i'll heat up more strike water and keep in kettle. Going to mash in the MLT with 6.6gal water/19lbs of grain and then at the same time, do BIAB with the same amount of water and grain in my kettle. Doing a 60min mash, I'll pull the bag and start the boil the vorlauf the MLT and transfer some to the kettle and the excess to the HLT. I'll add from the HLT as volume in the kettle allows.

Planning on doing a 4 hour boil. (Maybe less, should have decent efficiency since the mash thickness isn't too over the top).

Going to oxygenate, and pitch a big starter of WLP007 and then once the gravity drops a bit I'll add two packs of Safale US-05 (might oxygenate after the first 12 hours of fermentation)

Definitely like the idea of aging in a corny. Makes it easy for oak and other additions and since CO2 is heavier than air you should have protection from oxidation when you open it up as the CO2 won't dissipate out immediately.

Anything I'm doing make zero sense? Any advice would be appreciated!

I wouldn't count on CO2 being heavier than air to protect your precious brew. Gases will intermingle. Just hook up CO2 and purge after you've opened it to add oak/bourbon/cocoa nibs/vanilla beans or whatever.