too much bourbon in my vanilla porter?

[haulinoats]

So I recently brewed a spin-off of the popular Denny Conn's bourbon vanilla imperial porter as a partial extract/grain 5 gallon batch. It is currently in the primary fermentation bucket. I just made my vanilla bean / oak chip / bourbon concoction in a separate container to add to the beer when it is time for transfer to the secondary. My question is this: did I add too much bourbon? And, if so, how can I fix it?

Here's the deal: I used 2 whole vanilla beans (cut, sliced, and insides scraped), about 4 ounces of medium toast oak chips, and 5 oz of Corner Creek bourbon.
I am worried that I used too much bourbon and oak chips and my thoughts were this: do I 1) throw it all in the secondary anyway and hope it mellows out over time, 2) only use half of the vanilla/oak/bourbon combo, or 3) strain away the bourbon and only use the oak chips and vanilla beans? By reducing the amounts of all three components am I losing out on some of the vanilla flavor? Or if I just use the chips and beans am I losing out on all the vanilla flavor that was extracted into the bourbon?

On a side note, did I also use too much oak chips? I have heard from some sources that more than 2 ounces imparts some really strong oak tones. I am also assuming the the oak chips and vanilla beans are to be put into a mesh hop bag in the secondary?

Any help would be appreciated as I am a little confused with these potent additives.

Thanks!

 

[rlmiller10]

So I recently brewed a spin-off of the popular Denny Conn's bourbon vanilla imperial porter as a partial extract/grain 5 gallon batch. It is currently in the primary fermentation bucket. I just made my vanilla bean / oak chip / bourbon concoction in a separate container to add to the beer when it is time for transfer to the secondary. My question is this: did I add too much bourbon? And, if so, how can I fix it?

Here's the deal: I used 2 whole vanilla beans (cut, sliced, and insides scraped), about 4 ounces of medium toast oak chips, and 5 oz of Corner Creek bourbon.
I am worried that I used too much bourbon and oak chips and my thoughts were this: do I 1) throw it all in the secondary anyway and hope it mellows out over time, 2) only use half of the vanilla/oak/bourbon combo, or 3) strain away the bourbon and only use the oak chips and vanilla beans? By reducing the amounts of all three components am I losing out on some of the vanilla flavor? Or if I just use the chips and beans am I losing out on all the vanilla flavor that was extracted into the bourbon?

On a side note, did I also use too much oak chips? I have heard from some sources that more than 2 ounces imparts some really strong oak tones. I am also assuming the the oak chips and vanilla beans are to be put into a mesh hop bag in the secondary?

Any help would be appreciated as I am a little confused with these potent additives.

Thanks!

When I did mine I dumped the bean, chips and bourbon into the secondary, no bag.

As for amounts, I think you will be way over on oak. I used one oz med toast oak chips on a 3 gal batch and feel it was over done.

The vanilla is hard to say. Where the bean fresh and soft or old and hard, what size? I had a fresh bean and used it and was way too much vanilla.

For bourbon I put in 3 oz in 3 gallons and it was ok but if doing it again I would go to 2.25 oz.

I bottled back in Feb and it is just now getting drinkable. The vanilla was the main overbearing flavor but the oak was too harsh as well.

I would only put half of your bourbon, chip, vanilla mix into the secondary. then perhaps add a little more bourbon. If your vanilla was old and feel it will not be strong enough go get a new bean, soak it in an oz of bourbon and then add it to secondary to up the strength.

 

[Paps]

"too much bourbon"
That statement is a physical imposibility.

 

[BarleyStanding]

I'm not sure about the oak. I oaked 5 gal. of a rye beer a year ago with 2.5 oz of cubes for a few weeks and it tasted woody. I'm going to experiment with oak again on an RIS later this month.

As for the other two, last winter I put a porter on 2 beans for about 14 days and then added 350 ml of bourbon and it came out fantastic, although definitely vanilla forward for the first month or two.

Why not add the beans and oak, age, and then add the bourbon to taste?

 

[haulinoats]

Correction: I used 2 oz of oak chips- it was late last night and I was drinking the bourbon I used

Anyway, the beans were plump and juicy and smelled delicious. I think there should be some great flavor from that. Just worried about the volume of bourbon (5oz). My concern is that if I use the beans and chips but strain away half of the bourbon that I will lose out on some of the bourbon that soaked up the vanilla and therefore lose my vanilla

 

[rlmiller10]

Correction: I used 2 oz of oak chips- it was late last night and I was drinking the bourbon I used

Anyway, the beans were plump and juicy and smelled delicious. I think there should be some great flavor from that. Just worried about the volume of bourbon (5oz). My concern is that if I use the beans and chips but strain away half of the bourbon that I will lose out on some of the bourbon that soaked up the vanilla and therefore lose my vanilla

5 oz of bourbon in 5 gallons should be fine. At that level it is a mater of taste. Mine was 3 oz on 3 gal and I thought it should be backed off just a bit, would go to 2.25 or so next time but it was not overbearing. I think the oak is accentuating the bourbon.

If you beans were plump and juicy I would mostly worry about too much vanilla. I think if you put everything in you will end up with a very vanilla and oak forward beer. If you want one that lets a little more malt and sweetness come through I would add most of the bourbon (this assumes you have been soaking the vanilla and oak on bourbon for a week or more) leaving the chips and vanilla bean behind on the assumption that the bourbon had absorbed enough flavor already. Then sample at bottling time and if you feel you want a bit more bourbon flavor add an oz and sample again.

(don't do that too many samples though or you will end up with a 50/50 bourbon to porter mix)

 

[Beezer94]

You used the same amount of vanilla as denny's bourbon vanilla porter, but less bourbon. I think on the vanilla/bourbon part you are fine. The oak might be a little much, but I don't think horribly so.

 

[haulinoats]

Thanks for the advice! I think I am going to use all of the bourbon in the secondary and discard the used beans and chips. I'll let you all know how it turns out!

 

[mdbrewer1]

I used a full cup of bourbon in my vanilla bourbon stout and it was the dominanting flavor for the first couple months, and that was with 3 cut/scraped vanilla beans + 2 Tbsp of vanilla extract at bottling. Next time, I'll probably do half the bourbon since I was hoping for a stronger vanilla flavor.

It got really good reviews from others that tried it, so it was still a pretty good beer, just a little too much on the bourbon side for me.

I've never used oak, so I'm not going to be of any use there.

 

[MRixonKBC]

Thanks for the advice! I think I am going to use all of the bourbon in the secondary and discard the used beans and chips. I'll let you all know how it turns out!

So I'm in the process of trying a couple variations on a recently brewed porter myself, and am curious to hear what your results were.

I soaked 2.5 oz of oak chips in an 8 oz jelly jar filled with Jim Beam's Devils Cut for a week. I added 1.5 oz of the chips, 4 oz of the soaked bourbon and an additional 2 oz of bourbon to my secondary fermenter, then racked 2 gallons of the porter over it. It's been in secondary for 15 days ( after an 11 day primary).

When I did my transfer to secondary, I made another batch of bourbon and oak chips. I plan to add that to a third gallon of the porter, with some vanilla. Out of curiosity, I poured about a 1/3 oz of the new soaked bourbon into a finished porter. The ratio is the same as the original batch recipe. The bourbon flavor was fine, but the oak was, well, woody.

I anticipate the original 2 gallons to have the same strong oak flavor, and plan to dilute it by adding porter to it. I may need to also add straight bourbon as well to keep the balance. I will add only 2 oz of the soaked bourbon, but not the chips to the gallon that I intend to add the vanilla to, and work from there.

Any input or guidance is appreciated.