Using oak chips, chocolate, and vanilla for the first time

[Ducky]

I am brewing a chocolate bourbon porter right now, been in the primary for 6 days so far and its doing good (.006 above what beersmith said the FG will be). Once it goes into the secondary I will be adding some vanilla bean, chocolate, and the chips, I have questions on each. The recipe called for 1 oz of vanilla bean, but I dont have a way to measure how much my one whole vanilla bean weighs. I figured I would chop it up and throw the whole thing in the secondary, shouldnt be too powerful right? As for the chocolate, I couldnt find the bakers bittersweet, so I just bought a bar of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate. If I break it up and throw it in, will it work as well as bakers chocolate? Any real difference between them?

Now, for the important stuff. I have 2 oz of medium roasted american oak chips soaking in Evan Williams bourbon, been there for as long as the beer has been in the primary. The recipe calls for 9 oz of bourbon, no chips. I decided to go with bourbon soaked chips. Do I throw the chips AND bourbon in? Or just the chips? I dont remember how big the bottle was that I used, but I have 12 oz ob bourbon now, not including the chips or what was soaked up by them. I kind of want to throw some of the bourbon in, since it is noticeably darker and I feel like I will be wasting oak flavor if I dont.

 

[Ducky]

Really? Nobody has any advice? What about just the oak chips, I can figure out the chocolate and vanilla.

 

[coryforsenate]

Have you figured out how you're going to deal with the oils from the chocolate going rancid? I would add .5-1 pounds of chocolate malt, depending on your grain bill.

As far as oak goes, drop .5-1oz of the chips (presoak weight) in a porous baggy into your fermentor after bubbling's slowed. Wait ~3days, then start taking a sample every two days until you've reached the desireable level of oaky-ness. The oak flavor can get pretty strong, so I'd wait on putting the other half of the chips in. But toss some bourbon along with the chips.

 

[Ducky]

Have you figured out how you're going to deal with the oils from the chocolate going rancid? I would add .5-1 pounds of chocolate malt, depending on your grain bill.

As far as oak goes, drop .5-1oz of the chips (presoak weight) in a porous baggy into your fermentor after bubbling's slowed. Wait ~3days, then start taking a sample every two days until you've reached the desireable level of oaky-ness. The oak flavor can get pretty strong, so I'd wait on putting the other half of the chips in. But toss some bourbon along with the chips.

I have .5 lb of chocolate malt in it, with another 2-3 oz (recipe calls for 2) of bittersweet ready to go in. I really think that its about done fermenting. It started hard and fast (11+ bubbles/10 seconds) so I decided to move it into my room and cool it off for a cleaner taste. At this point, I am only getting bubbles if I swirl the carboy slightly. I moved it about an hour ago to a warmer part of the house to give it a diacetyl rest and get the yeast to really get everything (still sitting about .006 high). Are you saying now is a good time to throw the oak chips in? I can get a hops bag from my LHBS tomorrow and get it weighted down.

 

[NHBeerDude]

I used vanilla beans in a recipe not too long ago. I had 2 beans that I split down the middle lengthwise and opened up. Then I soaked them in a pint of vodka for a week. I added the vanilla vodka to my bottling bucket and racked the beer on top.
Also, a friend of mine recently made a chocolate coffee stout and he used cocoa powder instead of a bar. It came out fantastic.

 

[baseballstar4]

I brewed an imperial stout with bourbon soaked oak chips. I used 4 oz of oak and soaked them in about 6 oz of Woodford Reserve Bourbon. To the secondary I added about an oz of bourbon. At bottling time the oak was really powerfull and the bourbon was not there to much. So I added another 2 oz of bourbon to the bottling bucket. After 3 months of bottling aging, the bourbon characteristics are good and the oak is mellowing. Add some bourbon to the secondary and then taste and se the flavors and adjust if needed. Add slowly. Check out the post of "Questions of oak chips" a lot of people chimed in there to help me with that brew.

 

[baseballstar4]

Here's the link, hope it helps
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/question-oak-wood-chips-105682/