Brewing a Stout to age in a whiskey barrel, need some advice

[sd_brewbie]

Hello, I have ordered a 5g whiskey barrel from a distillery and plan on brewing a big stout to put in it. Need some help with a recipe.

Looking to make something over 10% and counting on efficiency in the mid 60s. I figure no reason to go crazy with the grain bill or yeast as the whiskey will take center stage.

Batch Size:*5.50 gal
Bitterness:*74.9 IBUs
Est OG:*1.103
Est FG:*1.022
ABV:*10.8%

25 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row)
1 lbs 12.00 oz Roasted Barley
1 lbs Chocolate Malt
8.00 oz Cara-Pils
1 lbs Carafa Special III
2.00 oz Magnum - Boil 60 min
2.00 oz East Kent Goldings - Boil 30 min
2 pkgs US-05

Mash 152.

I also plan to add a couple vanilla beans and coffee beans while in the barrel. Hoping it plays nice with the whiskey flavors. Will sample regularly to get a good idea of when to pull from the barrel. Plan on force carbing in a keg, aging and bottling off the keg.

Also hoping to collect additional runnings to make a porter or something from the same mash (maybe with some DME).

Thoughts?

 

[hottpeper13]

I put 6 gal in mine and it still was a ways from the top. My 15 gal one holds 23.5 gal.
It's a drummers choice but I think that's a lot of roasted barley. I get my color from midnite wheat, so as not to get bitter coffee out of it, you are adding coffee so I would do something like Special B or dark crystal or C-120. Go to the HB store and taste the grains. I like the dark fruit character these malts add. Love the hops choice! I also do a parti gyle on mine and find that capping with a flaked grain helps with mouth feel(they can be very thin) My last one I did BIAB and squeezed the piss out of it (no parti gyle) collected 9 gal, and did a 3 hr boil......a 3 hr boil, finally got 1.100.
Oh ya, you should taste special roast also,I use 2 lbs in my 6 gal batch.

 

[porterpounder]

I'd cut the roasted barley and carafa III in half and add some dark crystal malt to balance out the roast. Maybe .5 to 1 lb of 80 L.

 

[sd_brewbie]

Thanks for the feedback. I was increasing my base malt to account for expected low efficiency, and scaled my other grains accordingly. I will take the suggestion to cut the roasted barley and Carafa special in half with some crystal addition. Will check out special roast, maybe a lb?

 

[Wahoo]

Barrel aging tends to round out a lot of the harsh corners of a beer so my personal opinion is that you are probably fine with your original recipe-- it's huge and will be harsh and probably not what you'd want in a non-BA beer but probably would turn out fine in a huge BA stout that you won't drink all of in a matter of weeks.

 

[sd_brewbie]

Brewed this today. Ended up with
25lb 2-row
1 lb roasted barley
1lb chocolate malt
1lb special roast
.5lb Carafa special III
.5 crystal 80
.5lb carapils

My preboil ended up at 1.072, so add 3lb of golden light DME. Ended up with an OG at 1.111. I think I will call this beer elevensies.

Pitched on a US-05 yeast cake from a beer I kegged while brewing and aerated with pure oxygen.

I have my carboy really full so I am a bit worried about that. Have a blow off in place but I might put some Fermcap in there.

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[Bosh]

Be careful with vanilla. Stuff can be overpowering in even really big beers.

 

[homebrewdude76]

We used 3 full pods in a 15gal barrel. Perfect hint of vanilla. 6 months in barrel. Was a 12% RIS

 

[m1k3]

Wow! That is a full carboy!

In those situations, I'll use two buckets and pitch one pack of US-05 into each.

Well, at least you have the blow off ready... you'll need it!

 

[Jwin]

Holy cow! get that thing off the carpet. $5 on that little blow-off clogging and staining everything in a 7 ft radius.
Do you have another fermenter you could split that into. Even just put a gallon in a few sanitized growlers then recombine once primary has passed in a couple days.

 

[sd_brewbie]

That's not carpet, it is in a chest freezer. It has already taken off and pushing foam through my blow off tube like mad.

I could try to rack some to a 1g glass jug... But it is a foamy monster right now. I did add some Fermcap to it...

 

[sd_brewbie]

Will probably swap out the blow off tube tomorrow

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[sd_brewbie]

An update the beer fermented and finished at 1.025 (for 11.5%). Nice roasted coffee flavor with a hint of chocolate. Let it sit on the yeast for 4 weeks. Transferred to my barrel yesterday. Now to wait.

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[homebrewdude76]

How long you plan on keeping in barrel?

 

[sd_brewbie]

How long you plan on keeping in barrel?

Not 100% sure. Probably 1 or 2 months. I will be taking samples and pull it when I think I have the right flavor. Will then age in a keg a few more months. Will bottle off of the keg.

Crossing my fingers nothing gets infected in the barrel. I did give it a soak with ~170 water for a couple hours before racking to the barrel.