Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Bourbon Vanilla Porter (AG)

[Butterball]

I did not adjust the priming sugar to account for the Bourbon. I added 16oz/5g. However, I also add the MM and Vanilla to the secondary then rack the beer on top of it and let it sit for at least 3 weeks. It did take roughly 6 weeks to fully carb. I got a bit concerned after a month and no carbonation. So I RDWHAHB and waited so more and it turned out all good.

16 oz priming sugar for 5 gal seems high. Shouldn't it be more like 3/4 cup?

 

[slothorentropy]

16oz bourbon, I think he means.

 

[slothorentropy]

Also is there any reason to expect this will carbonate more slowly than other beers?

 

[maconmatt]

This is going to be my next beer. Can't wait!

I am, however, making one significant modification:

Instead of using bourbon, I plan on using my favorite after-dinner liqueur, B&B. B&B is a 50/50 combination of Benectine and Brandy. It is 43% alcohol. It's similar to Grand Marnier, but not nearly as sweet..with more of a cinnamon taste to it.

Can't wait to see how this turns out!

 

[McBrewskie]

I don't normally do these conversions. This is how Beersmith did it.

Anyone like to verify?

9 lbs 13.9 ozPale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM)
1 lbs 10.4 ozAmber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM)
1 lbs 4.2 ozCaramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)
14.2 ozCaramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)
7.1 ozCaramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
7.1 ozChocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)Grain3.05 %

I'm definately doing this. I'm gonna use Wild Turkey as the bourbon just because to me it still has the best flavor of any reasonably priced bourbon.

 

[bill42]

is there any disadvantage of adding the bourbon to the secondary instead of at bottling?

 

[McBrewskie]

Yeah couple questions. Do I need to rack to a secondary on this? Can I add the bourbon after initial fermentation? With the addition of bourbon to other similiar beers would I need to add more priming sugar when bottling?

 

[Lil' Sparky]

I'd definitely secondary this one. Don't know on Q2 - why would you want to vs bottling/kegging? You don't need extra priming sugar.

 

[seabass07]

So after a week in primary, it's at an FG of 1.012. I lost a lot of heat during the mash resulting in the low FG. I effectively mashed at 145 if you average out the temps. It tastes amazing already though...just with a slight alcohol kick. It's obviously a little stronger than anticipated at around 8.5ABV.

I'll be adding the vanilla beans to the primary tomorrow and I'll bottle in 2 weeks. I'm going to skip secondary and see how it works out.

 

[Butterball]

Any harm in adding the bourbon to secondary with oak chips. Just thought I would soak chips in bourbon and add together instead of boiling chips and adding chips at secondary and bourbon at bottling.

 

[usafsoc]

Just tried some Vanilla Porter I picked up from Whole Foods...think its called Breckenridge Brewery from Colorado. I loved the stuff so I started searching for something similar and found this chain and sounds like everyone is very happy with it. Will be trying this as my first out of box batch. Only have to Brewer's Best kits under my belt so far. Hopefully this will be ready to drink by the new year if I get on it soon.

 

[wegz15]

Crazy. I just bought it yesterday too. Brewing this tomorrow.

EDIT: brewed this today. I had an SG of 1.092

 

[Bewbzout]

Going to brew this very soon. Instead of makers mark i will be using Blantons. Blantons has got to be the best whiskey under $50 if you have never tried it.

 

[mcberry]

I brewed this last Saturday. Everything went great. I did a 90 minute boil and ended up at 1.080, ~70% efficiency

The color looks great. I used 17 grams of S-05 dry yeast.

I'll let this one ferment for a few weeks, then transfer to a 5 gallon bourbon barrel that I just got, along with 2oz. pure vanilla extract.

I'm really looking forward to trying this one.

 

[Moose777]

I brewed this 2 weeks ago. OG was 1.75, just took hydro sample n it's 1.025..I pitched two starters on this...one 1056, the other Denny's favorite yeast.
Hydro sample tasted good, going to let it sit on the yeast another week or two.

 

[jigidyjim]

Just brewed this for my 2011 xmas ale - hoping to break a bad streak of bad xmas ales with it. Did a partial mash (10 lbs grain, 4lbs dme) - 1.080 OG, used us-05. Fermenter set to 62-64... now we wait and see!

Will add vanilla bean to primary around week 3, probably bottle around week 4 and add bourbon then.

 

[HardHearinHeisey]

Just brewed an extract version of this yesterday. I 'm hoping that it'll be ready for Christmas. I used 6 lbs Light LME and 3.3 lb Munich LME, then just the recommended grains from Denny's recipe and Magnum for bittering. When I steeped the grains, I added 1.0 lb of the Munich and steeped at around 150F. Oh and I used two packets of Safale S-05.

Anyway, I'm planning to primary for two weeks, rack to secondary with the Maker's Mark and Vanilla beans for two weeks, then bottle and age til Christmas Eve.

I'll update when I taste the wort when I transfer to the carboy and have added the vanilla bourbon...

 

[NevermoreBrew]

Ok so i was too lazy to read through all 26 pages of this recipe so if somebody tried/asked about this sorry, but thoughts on doing bourbon soaked oak chips in the secondary? would that be too much flavors going on? vanilla, oak and bourbon?

 

[vicratlhead51]

Ok so i was too lazy to read through all 26 pages of this recipe so if somebody tried/asked about this sorry, but thoughts on doing bourbon soaked oak chips in the secondary? would that be too much flavors going on? vanilla, oak and bourbon?

I did it in mine, it was pretty good. Oak tastes a little like vanilla so it really seemed to emphasize the vanilla flavor. As long as that's what you're looking for I'd say go for it. I liked it

 

[defenestrate]

going to pop my barrel cherry with this and toss it into a rum barrel i just got... should be yummy.

 

[SenorPepe]

Just when I thought I tracked down all the info this thread has me confused again. In some of the iterations of this recipe floating around I see mash temps as high as 155, some are at 153 and in this thread the mash temp is listed as 150, with posters saying that you don't want to go much over that. I plan on using 05 so I was going to mash around 153-155 but now I'm torn. I'd much rather have it slightly overattenuated than under. Has anyone mashed in that range and been satisfied/dissatisfied with the results?

 

[4stringed]

Any harm in adding the bourbon to secondary with oak chips. Just thought I would soak chips in bourbon and add together instead of boiling chips and adding chips at secondary and bourbon at bottling.

I did this in an IPA I did once, I used Canadian rye and let the chips soak in it for two weeks in tupperware. Then I drained off excess rye and added the chips in secondary. My plan was to let it sit in secondary for 3 weeks but my little bro knocked my airlock off and didn't tell me about it so I ended up getting freaked out that there was mold growing on it so I bottled after 1.5 weeks. No mold, just thin layer of krausen... such a noob then. Took a bit longer for flavours to balance in the bottle than my other beers but after about 2 months it was good.

This brew is sooo gonna be a xmas brew for me, maybe I'll surprise the SWMBO with it under the tree (loves porters)

 

[slightlyoffbeat]

I brewed this two weeks ago and hit my OG...but I just racked to secondary and it is sitting about about 1.043.......yikes. Is this to be expected? Any suggestions?

Dan

 

[Lil' Sparky]

That's too high. I'd get a good yeast starter going and repitch.

 

[kosmokramer]

Denny said 1.02 ish was what he gets it down too... i oaked mine and will keg in am hour or two .... will post back once its carbed

 

[slightlyoffbeat]

Hmm...I made a yeast starter and had it fermenting quite well within 6 hours...bummed that it stopped so early. I've never pitched yeast this long in to the fermenting stages...anything I should be careful of?

 

[slightlyoffbeat]

Also, I used a yeast starter with White Labs American yeast blend (006 i think?) instead of wyeast.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

I'd probably go w/ a couple pkts of dry yeast (maybe Notty?) instead of more liquid yeast. Yeast count should be higher that way. I'd also suggest keeping the fermenter agitated - swirl, not aerate - to help keep the yeast suspended and active.

 

[kosmokramer]

check out this thread. he said whatever you do, please do not use notty...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/denny-conns-bourbon-vanilla-imperial-porter-144612/

 

[slightlyoffbeat]

Thanks for pointing that out. I have a packet of S05 lying around. I think i'll give it a shot.

 

[kosmokramer]

I used 1056 and added a pack of 05 because i didnt have time to make a starter. I messed up on mine and added an extra pound of dme into a mini mash versiin and ended. Og with an extra og about 1.1. Checked yesterday and it got down to about 1.024. I used vanilla extract and let it sit on medium char american oak cubes. Tasted the hydrometer sample yesteeday and it was amazing. Cant wait till its carbed

 

[bcrderrick]

So I brewed this about a month ago and used crown royal black instead of makers. It tastes great but doesn't have a thick mouth feel like I was hoping for. Any suggestions for the next time I brew it to get a thicker mouth feel?

Thanks

 

[jdd12364]

I made this recipe on 11/3 hit all my numbers , made a vanilla extract with 6 oz. of Makers Mark & 2 oz.'s of oak cubes on 11/19 , racked to keg today 11/22 @ 30 psi room temp 68*, added the vanilla beans & oak cubes to keg in a hop bag , looking to leave hop bag in keg for a week .

Just wondering thoughts on time to leave vanilla & oak in keg ?

 

[kosmokramer]

I left about 2to ounces of cubes for about 3to weeks and it is good... just keep tasting it till u gett it where u like it

 

[jtkratzer]

Giving this a shot as a partial mash, HBS subbed 3 lbs of DME for 9 lbs of 2-row. That seems low for the amount of DME. Shouldn't it be closer to 5.5 lbs of DME?

 

[Riseabovebb]

I plan on brewing this on Friday or Saturday (first all grain beer!) and using the BIAB method. I've previously brewed 2 extract kits.

I have an 11 gallon kettle and was considering doing a no-sparge method. After reading about BIAB, would I be correct in assuming I would need to increase the grain bill if I chose not to sparge? If so, I suppose I will sparge since I already bought all the ingredients (I have an extra 5.5 gallon kettle for sparging).

If I understand the recipe from the first page, I will mash in my grains for 75 minutes. The strike temperature is 161.4. After adding the grains it should reduce to around 150 degrees and steep for 75 minutes, correct? Do I have to raise the temperate to do a mash out? If so, what temperature?

How long do you sparge for? I understand I will bring 3.6 gallons of water up to 168 degrees and then drop my bag of grain in the water some amount of time. Then I take this and add it to the main kettle and begin my boil.

Any help? Sorry for so many questions!

 

[jtkratzer]

Should I get more DME or more 2-row to get the target OG?

 

[Lil' Sparky]

I'm not an extract brewer, but Beersmith converts 9 lbs of 2-row (65% eff) to 5 lbs of DME, so I think you definitely need more fermentables. I'd recommend more 2-row, but it depends on if you have the capacity to mash that much.

If you don't have a brewing program, I highly recommend it. It'll help out a lot when you're trying to figure out estimated OG based on a recipe and your typical efficiency, not to mention water amounts, IBUs, color, etc.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

I plan on brewing this on Friday or Saturday (first all grain beer!) and using the BIAB method. I've previously brewed 2 extract kits.

I have an 11 gallon kettle and was considering doing a no-sparge method. After reading about BIAB, would I be correct in assuming I would need to increase the grain bill if I chose not to sparge? If so, I suppose I will sparge since I already bought all the ingredients (I have an extra 5.5 gallon kettle for sparging).

If I understand the recipe from the first page, I will mash in my grains for 75 minutes. The strike temperature is 161.4. After adding the grains it should reduce to around 150 degrees and steep for 75 minutes, correct? Do I have to raise the temperate to do a mash out? If so, what temperature?

How long do you sparge for? I understand I will bring 3.6 gallons of water up to 168 degrees and then drop my bag of grain in the water some amount of time. Then I take this and add it to the main kettle and begin my boil.

Any help? Sorry for so many questions!

Sounds like you have things about right, although I've never sparged by moving grains in a bag from one pot to another. I think your OG would definitely be low if you did a no-sparge. What is your typically efficiency mashing with that technique? I wouldn't worry about doing a mashout, it'll just make things more complicated - save it for another time.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

So I brewed this about a month ago and used crown royal black instead of makers. It tastes great but doesn't have a thick mouth feel like I was hoping for. Any suggestions for the next time I brew it to get a thicker mouth feel?

Thanks

raise your mash temp 2 degrees