Help: Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout

[TastyAdventure]

My friend wants me to make him a "bourbon barrel aged" stout (5 gal.) I already have plenty of oak chips.
I have never made a barrel aged anything, so I am looking for advice, particularly amounts of ingredients and when to add them.
We are going to have a stout tasting soon, just go into the store and grab any stouts we see, barrel aged or not (the barrel aged anything beers seem a little sparse.) I'm going to have him take notes on what he likes and doesnt like.

He has already said that he doesn't mind A LOT of bourbon flavor, and while I want to get close to what he wants, he also likes stouts in general, and I don't want to end up with something that just tastes like a stout with 2 shots of bourbon in it.

Advice please?

Cheers!

 

[Jipper]

Could soak the chips in bourbon first - that seems to work fairly well. There are also these if you were looking to get a different solution: http://morebeer.com/products/bourbon-chunks-2oz.html

Good luck, and let us know what you end up doing!

 

[8dannyB2]

Jipper, that's awesome! I'd never seen the bourbon chunks before. They'd probably work really well.
Tasty, soaking the chips in bourbon is a good start. Just soak them for a couple days in the bourbon to sanitize them and allow them to soak it the flavors. Then you can just add everything into your secondary. I have also heard of people adding a cup of bourbon to their secondary. Not sure how that would turn out though. But the one thing that will lend itself best to your brew is age. Aging that brew will allow everything to mellow together.

 

[8dannyB2]

Also, you could always add a little bit of bourbon, let it sit for a week or two, taste it, and add more if you'd like. Either way you decide, I still think age will help that brew best.

 

[BradleyBrew]

Have you thought about using oak cubes. They give you a more rounded oak flavor and the contact time is less "touchy" compared to chips... Meaning oak cube timelines are more forgiving because they require more time in general so its much harder to over oak a beer. Also why not split the batch and oak one half and then use bourbon oak on the other half. Just my two pennies!

 

[8dannyB2]

Have you thought about using oak cubes.

I'm actually getting ready to rack a chocolate stout to secondary and I'm using the cubes. I've had them soaking in bourbon for about 3 weeks now. I only want a subtle hint of oak in my brew so my plan was to let it sit on the oak for 2 weeks then rack off of them. I've never used them before though. Is 2 weeks sufficient time to get a bit of the flavor? After I rack off the cubes I plan to let the stout age for a few months before kegging.

 

[BradleyBrew]

Just taste it and see. I wouldn't put anytime line on it. I had a old ale sitting on oak cubes for 6 months. It won its category last year at the Ohio Beer Festival!