I'm planning on brewing up a batch of Denny Conn's Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter, but I've never made anything this big or complex, and I wanted to get some feedback on my process.
I want to oak it, and I was thinking 3 months on cubes. I was going to soak 2 ounces of oak cubes in 12 ounces of Maker's Mark bourbon for a few days, and then racking onto the whole mess in the secondary. I've read on here that cubes take a long time to shine, so I figured 3 months in the secondary to get the flavors to meld? I know Denny advocates drinking it a month after fermentation, but I want to try cubes. What do you guys think?
Also, I'd prefer to rack only once, and so I was thinking about using a single vanilla bean (instead of two), and leaving it in the secondary for the whole 3 months of aging. OR, if that's a bad idea, using 2 beans for 2-3 weeks in the primary, and then racking off the vanilla beans and onto the bourbon and oak. Which is a better method?
And finally, I've got a nice cake of Pacman sitting under my Dead Guy clone, and I was planning on pitching right onto the cake. Is Pacman a good choice for the BVIP?
Finally, since I can only do partial mashes I am going to mash only the specialty grains (6.75 lbs) and use 8 lbs LME instead of the 11 lbs. of 2-row. I'm assuming I'll get a decent conversion without any 2-row in the mash since most of the specialty grains are malted. I threw together a hopville page for the partial mash recipe here: http://hopville.com/recipe/278175/s...onns-bourbon-vanilla-imperial-porter-pm-oaked
malt & fermentables
% LB OZ Malt or Fermentable
54% 8 0 Light/Pale Malt Extract Syrup
17% 2 8 American Munich
10% 1 8 Brown Malt
8% 1 4 Chocolate Malt (US)
7% 1 0 Crystal 120L
3% 0 8 Crystal 40L
Batch size: 5.0 gallons
Original Gravity
1.091
(1.082 to 1.095)
Final Gravity
1.021
(1.018 to 1.023)
Color
46° SRM / 91° EBC
(Black)
Mash Efficiency
75%
hops
use time oz variety form aa
boil 60 mins 1.0 Magnum info pellet 13.0
boil 10 mins 0.5 East Kent Goldings info pellet 5.0
Boil: 5.0 avg gallons for 60 minutes
Bitterness
36.5 IBU / 13 HBU
ƒ: Tinseth
BU:GU
0.40
yeast
Rogue Pacman Ale Yeast info
ale yeast in liquid form with high flocculation
Alcohol
9.3% ABV / 7% ABW
Calories
299 per 12 oz.
misc
use time amount ingredient
secondary 90 days 12.0 liquid ozs Bourbon
secondary 90 days 2 ounces Oak Cubes
secondary 90 days 1 Vanilla Bean
I want to oak it, and I was thinking 3 months on cubes. I was going to soak 2 ounces of oak cubes in 12 ounces of Maker's Mark bourbon for a few days, and then racking onto the whole mess in the secondary. I've read on here that cubes take a long time to shine, so I figured 3 months in the secondary to get the flavors to meld? I know Denny advocates drinking it a month after fermentation, but I want to try cubes. What do you guys think?
Also, I'd prefer to rack only once, and so I was thinking about using a single vanilla bean (instead of two), and leaving it in the secondary for the whole 3 months of aging. OR, if that's a bad idea, using 2 beans for 2-3 weeks in the primary, and then racking off the vanilla beans and onto the bourbon and oak. Which is a better method?
And finally, I've got a nice cake of Pacman sitting under my Dead Guy clone, and I was planning on pitching right onto the cake. Is Pacman a good choice for the BVIP?
Finally, since I can only do partial mashes I am going to mash only the specialty grains (6.75 lbs) and use 8 lbs LME instead of the 11 lbs. of 2-row. I'm assuming I'll get a decent conversion without any 2-row in the mash since most of the specialty grains are malted. I threw together a hopville page for the partial mash recipe here: http://hopville.com/recipe/278175/s...onns-bourbon-vanilla-imperial-porter-pm-oaked
malt & fermentables
% LB OZ Malt or Fermentable
54% 8 0 Light/Pale Malt Extract Syrup
17% 2 8 American Munich
10% 1 8 Brown Malt
8% 1 4 Chocolate Malt (US)
7% 1 0 Crystal 120L
3% 0 8 Crystal 40L
Batch size: 5.0 gallons
Original Gravity
1.091
(1.082 to 1.095)
Final Gravity
1.021
(1.018 to 1.023)
Color
46° SRM / 91° EBC
(Black)
Mash Efficiency
75%
hops
use time oz variety form aa
boil 60 mins 1.0 Magnum info pellet 13.0
boil 10 mins 0.5 East Kent Goldings info pellet 5.0
Boil: 5.0 avg gallons for 60 minutes
Bitterness
36.5 IBU / 13 HBU
ƒ: Tinseth
BU:GU
0.40
yeast
Rogue Pacman Ale Yeast info
ale yeast in liquid form with high flocculation
Alcohol
9.3% ABV / 7% ABW
Calories
299 per 12 oz.
misc
use time amount ingredient
secondary 90 days 12.0 liquid ozs Bourbon
secondary 90 days 2 ounces Oak Cubes
secondary 90 days 1 Vanilla Bean
