Bourbon Oak Chips in my beer

[cbrei2310]

Pretty simple question here I think. We are brewing a Russian Imperial Stout. Based off the brewers best kit but a little different. Here is the recipe.

8 oz Roasted Barley
8 oz Dark Crystal
8 oz Carmel 60L
6.6 lbs Dark LME
2 lbs Dark DME
1 lbs Corn Sugar

1 vial of White Labs WLP011 - European Ale

We had an OG of 1.082, and yeast was pitched around 74 degrees F. When we rack to secondary we are going to add 2 oz of oak chips soaked in bourbon for a week or 2 (started soaking on brew day). I am worried that the yeast might not have what it takes to carbonate. Should I look at using carbonation tablets instead, or could I pitch more yeast to help when it comes time?

 

[TyTanium]

There will still be plenty of yeast. Bottle as normal.

 

[emmdubb23]

I just did the same thing with scotch and had no problem getting great carbonation when bottling off the chips hell of a good flavor too.

 

[peterj]

Why would the yeast not have what it takes? How long are you going to age it? I would only start worrying about repitching yeast for bottling if the beer has been aging for longer than about 3 months or so. Also, carbonation tablets are just priming sugar that you add to each bottle instead of to the whole batch at once. You still need yeast to create the carbonation.

 

[dcp27]

the yeast will be fine to carbonate, but for the future, you really should have pitched more than 1vial of yeast into this and definitely pitched at a lower temp. by underpitching at a high temp you potentially set yourself up for some extra esters & fusels. use mrmalty.com or yeastcalc.com in the future to figure out proper pitching rates

also, if you're going to be adding specialty grains, you really should start using pale or extra light extract to get better control over whats actually in your beer (makes it alot easier to convert to PM or AG)

 

[cbrei2310]

I've heard that yeast will only ferment to a certain point until it is cultured to Handel higher ABV. Is this inaccurate?

 

[dcp27]

I've heard that yeast will only ferment to a certain point until it is cultured to Handel higher ABV. Is this inaccurate?

No, that is correct, but there isn't a yeast out there that can't handle an OG of 1.082. Generally you won't run into an issue until over 10-12%.

 

[cbrei2310]

No, that is correct, but there isn't a yeast out there that can't handle an OG of 1.082. Generally you won't run into an issue until over 10-12%.

Could the extra alcohol from the bourbon push it over that for priming?

 

[peterj]

No. If you get the FG down to 1.018 then the ABV will be about 8.5%. It would take 1 quart of 40% bourbon to even bring it to 10% which probably wouldn't even be too high. So unless you're adding an entire handle of bourbon (which would actually only take it to ~11.2%) it'll be fine.

EDIT: Here's the calculator I used in case you ever need to use it: http://primerdigital.com/tools/UniDilution.html.

 

[cbrei2310]

Thanks Peterj. I wasn't sure how much the bourbon would affect the ABV. Thanks for the info.