Need help finding a good recipe for a bourbon beer

[Ducky]

I want to start on a good winter brew now. I want it to be something warm, heavy, and high alcohol (around 10%). I was thinking I would try a bourbon stout, maybe add a small hint of chocolate to it. But I dont know where to begin. I looked through the recipe database here, but everything was all-grain, and I dont know how to convert. I would also like to get some advice on the best way to get the bourbon flavor into the beer. I searched around some and it looks like I need to soak roasted oak chips in cheap bourbon while the beer is in the primary. Do I roast them in the oven? BBQ? Fire Pit?

 

[TechyDork]

download a free trial of beersmith and then you can use it to convert any all grain or partial mash recipe to extract or vice versa. as for the bourbon flavor i am have not tried it yet so i can not offer any advice.

 

[Ducky]

download a free trial of beersmith and then you can use it to convert any all grain or partial mash recipe to extract or vice versa. as for the bourbon flavor i am have not tried it yet so i can not offer any advice.

I already have beer smith. But I have no idea how to use it lol

 

[Coastarine]

I did a bourbon barrel porter and I think I can help you out a bit. If you just want the bourbon flavor (which has a good bit of oak flavor with it) you can just add the bourbon directly to the beer as late as possible (bottling/kegging). I used 6oz and got a very pronounced bourbon flavor. I wanted an additional oak flavor so I soaked 4oz of light toast american oak in 6oz of bourbon, added it to secondary and waited about a week. I added this to a porter recipe from brewing classic styles. The bourbon flavor mellows with time. To answer a few of your other questions:

The oak chips can be bought with different levels of toast already on them so that you don't have to do it yourself. Most homebrew supply stores have both french and american oak at different levels of toast.

I don't think you really need to tailor a recipe specifically to work with the bourbon. You can just pick a style/recipe that you think would go well with it.

You should be able to find plenty of good extract recipes until you figure out how to convert all grain to extract and how to use beersmith.

 

[SevenFields]

Im going to do this one next week to have in time for Xmas

Bourbon Barrel Porter Extract Kit - Extract Ale Kits - Extract Kits - Recipe Kits

 

[Ducky]

I did a bourbon barrel porter and I think I can help you out a bit. If you just want the bourbon flavor (which has a good bit of oak flavor with it) you can just add the bourbon directly to the beer as late as possible (bottling/kegging). I used 6oz and got a very pronounced bourbon flavor. I wanted an additional oak flavor so I soaked 4oz of light toast american oak in 6oz of bourbon, added it to secondary and waited about a week. I added this to a porter recipe from brewing classic styles. The bourbon flavor mellows with time. To answer a few of your other questions:

The oak chips can be bought with different levels of toast already on them so that you don't have to do it yourself. Most homebrew supply stores have both french and american oak at different levels of toast.

I don't think you really need to tailor a recipe specifically to work with the bourbon. You can just pick a style/recipe that you think would go well with it.

You should be able to find plenty of good extract recipes until you figure out how to convert all grain to extract and how to use beersmith.

Thanks for your help. I would rather do the oak chips over just pouring in bourbon, I think the flavor will be more what I am looking for. I'll go to my LHBS on monday and see what he has available.

 

[Coastarine]

My procedure of 6oz bourbon + 4oz oak chips in a tupperware for two weeks added to porter in secondary for one week resulted in more bourbon and less oak than I was looking for. The process and all of the tasting along the way is outlined in this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/question-oak-wood-chips-105682/ along with a lot of other good info. I think I decided that if I did it again I would only soak the chips for one week and I would also not add the excess bourbon.

 

[Ducky]

My procedure of 6oz bourbon + 4oz oak chips in a tupperware for two weeks added to porter in secondary for one week resulted in more bourbon and less oak than I was looking for. The process and all of the tasting along the way is outlined in this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/question-oak-wood-chips-105682/ along with a lot of other good info. I think I decided that if I did it again I would only soak the chips for one week and I would also not add the excess bourbon.

Good to know. I am looking for the underlying bourbon flavors, not just bourbon liquor, in the beer.

 

[SMOKEU]

Add some bourbon flavour to it.