Vanilla Oak (Chocolate) Bourbon Stout

[HawksBrewer]

Thought I would post our most recent brew on here for people to see. This has been brewed before in different forms to great success each time.

Recipe:
10 lbs 2-row
1 lb Munich 10
1 lb Carapils
1 lb Chocolate Malt
.75 lbs Crystal 120
.75 lbs Crystal 60
.50 lbs Roasted Barley
.50 lbs Black Patent
3 lbs Extra light DME

2.00 oz Brewer's Gold (60 min)
1.00 oz Brewer's Gold (20 min)
1.00 oz Brewer's Gold (10 min)

S-04 harvested yeast

Mashed at 152F for 60 min

1 oz light toasted oak chips added after 7 days in primary
1/2 vanilla bean added after 7 days in primary
6 oz raw cacao nibs added after 7 days in primary
10 oz Maker's Mark added after 7 days in primary

All additions were soaked in maker's the week prior to adding.

Minimum aging time: 6 months
Rec'd aging time: 12-18 months

Cheers.

 

[HawksBrewer]

Just cracked the first bottle of this yesterday afternoon and all I can say is wow. This is one of the best beers we have ever made and I can't even imagine how good it will be 3-6 months from now.

Everything just seems to work. :rockin:

 

[solbes]

Cool, sounds good. I have a RIS in secondary right now on oak/scotch. Had some a light amount of Caribou coffee added for 24 hours prior to racking. No vanilla or cocoa nibs, though that sounds pretty good too.

Question, you have all of the additional ingredients after 7 days in the primary. Do you eventually rack the beer off primary into a carboy for aging? Do you age in primary? Or do you age in the bottles after a few weeks of primary?

I'm trying to figure out how long to age on the oak I added (1 oz of US medium toast cubes).

 

[HawksBrewer]

Yeah, I guess I wasn't too descriptive on the adjunct process. We add the adjuncts right into the primary and leave them in for 6-7 days depending on when we have time to get to it.

Then we bottle and let sit at room temp for two weeks before moving to cellar temps (50-60*F) for bottle aging.

Depending on how much oak you want, be careful w/ oak aging. We did one w/ 3 oz of oak for two weeks and all you could taste was oak for the first 14 months or so. Then it subsided into a nice fireside sipper, but it was difficult to drink for the first year (the few we tried at least).

Hope that helps.

 

[solbes]

Thats good advice, I certainly don't want to over "oak" it. The cubes were rinsed with scotch twice after a few days of soaking each time. It certainly picked up a lot of tannins from those rinses. The third soaking (about 3 oz) went with the cubes into the secondary. It's coming up on 3 weeks now, so I suppose I should do a taste test.

I'm hoping the relatively small amount of surface area with 1 oz of cubes will allow for 2-4 months min of aging in the carboy. But I should keep tabs on it. Thanks!

 

[HawksBrewer]

No problem. I think you'll be fine w/ just an oz of cubes, much different than chips as you know. Good luck w/ your beer. Oaked bourbon stouts are our absolute favorites to brew and drink, there's just something about the overall experience of having one in a snifter on a cold night. Cheers.

 

[Headley_Lamarr]

See you're from Chicago. Was this an attempt to clone Goose Island Bourbon County Vanilla? If so, how would you say it compares?

 

[HawksBrewer]

Not a clone attempt, but inspired by our love of oaked bourbon stouts. Vanilla was an adjunct we played with after doing a few batches w/ just oak and bourbon. Never had the BC Vanilla so I can't comment on it, but this is definitely one worth brewing if you like the style.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

Can I use the applewood chips I use to smoke with on the grill or is there a reason I shouldnt do that?

 

[HawksBrewer]

Never tried that so I can't really speak from experience. It would interesting to try half of the batch w/ applewood chips and half with oak chips. If you try it let us know how it turns out.

 

[Jebu1788]

Aw yeah! That looks great! I love beers like this.

I can see how vanilla would be a great complement, but how does the cacao come through though? Do you get a lot of chocolate flavor by soaking the nibs in whisky?

 

[HawksBrewer]

The chocolate flavor is probably the most subtle of the adjuncts. If you wanted to taste the chocolate more up front I would recommend a cocoa addition during the boil.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

Thinking it over I would use cherry wood if its ok to do. Im coming up with a very similar beer and saw your thread... A couple people in my brewclub have made smoked beers but while they were good, no one seemed to really rave over them. So I figured a smoked whiskey stout was a must.

 

[DonDirkA]

What size brew are you doing? This is almost exactly like a brew I am trying to plan with a friend, so I want to use you as a reference now, haha

 

[HawksBrewer]

5 gallon brews. It gets even better as it ages. This batch has been sitting for over 6 months and the couple we've sampled have been outstanding. I can't wait for winter when I can finally start cracking some open to enjoy!

 

[kagythings]

This sounds amazing. I may set up for this brew soon to enjoy next year around this time. Thanks for posting the recipe.

 

[DonDirkA]

Thanks! Since I am relatively inexperienced with homebrewing (I have only done 2 batches and the last one was almost a year and a half ago) I need some pointers and this recipe will definitely set me in the right direction.

 

[Thomsen1287]

In your recipe, is that suppose to be 1/2 a vanilla bean, or is it suppose to be a UoM in there like oz?

 

[HawksBrewer]

It is literally one half of a vanilla bean. The ones I get from Whole Foods are enormous and adding an entire bean was too strong for my liking.