Bourbon Porter far too strong

peterpasha · Oct 4, 2017

I brewed a batch of 5 gallon Brown Porter and added a quart of bourbon into the secondary and let it condition for a few months. I force carbed it and tasted it and it's far too strong, all I can taste is bourbon. It's actually like drinking straight bourbon, except it's only about 5.2%. I was wondering if I can rack about 1/3 of it back to the carboy and add another beer on top of it to even out the flavour? I've got a stout just about to come out of primary that would work well. Has anyone done this before?

kev211 · Oct 4, 2017

Holy crap thats a lot of bourbon! I think you may have added .95 quarts too much haha. Ive never done it, but you can definitely rack that other stout over it. Either that or age it for a bunch of years and hope it mellows.

OR you could just serve it to people as is and tell them its a porter flavored whiskey

TheMadKing · Oct 4, 2017

Just drink it in slightly smaller glasses and call it an apertif

flars · Oct 4, 2017

A quart is about half a quart too much. Try a blend with the stout to see how it may work out. Blend by the glass after the stout is fully conditioned and ready to drink to get an approximate ratio.

Timberline · Oct 10, 2017

A quart sounds like a lot to me too. I just made a Bourbon Porter and used a pint of Makers Mark. The recipe called for 10-12 oz but most reviews said it needs a bit more, but also more time to blend and mellow. Mine has been bottle conditioning for 3 months now and I'm going to give it another month before I open a test bottle.

rlmiller10 · Oct 10, 2017

No you can't blend. There is nothing to be done and the only option it to package and ship directly to me for proper disposal.

But if that is not going to happen, I would recommend you test to get a mixture you like. Pull a sample of your stout, say 10 oz and measure. Then add your porter a tablespoon or so at a time until you hit the right amount. If you are taking small sips you can ignore the fact you are loosing a bit with each sip for testing unless this goes on for more than 4 or 5 tests. You are essentially doing a feed and bleed problem and the math will start to get complex eventually if you try to take that into account. See basic room purge calculation

Once you get the ratio of porter to stout you like at the glass level you can scale up, mix and enjoy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilution_(equation)