What advice do I need if I'm going to include bourbon in my beer?

[coneal]

I've never done that but I think I want to give it a shot. Anyone with experience have any advice for me? Some questions I have are:

1) when do I add the bourbon? When I secondary? When I bottle?
2) how much bourbon should I add for a 5 gallon batch? (I'm looking for a hint of bourbon flavor, but I don't really want to end up with a ridiculously high ABV. I want a beer that has a bourbon taste, not bourbon that has a beer flavor, ya know.)
3) what else do I need to know that I don't even know to ask about?

I don't have a specific recipe yet, but I'm not too worried about that. I'm looking for more general advice. I feel like I've seen plenty of recipes.

 

[brewbama]

I did a 5 gal batch of bourbon barrel porter a while back. I soaked the oak cubes in 16oz of Maker's Mark when I started the pri fermentation. Once all the activity stopped, I racked and poured oak cubes and bourbon in the secondary. I let it go for 2 weeks. It was awesome.

 

[Cyclman]

I would add in secondary, I typically add wood as well. I would start small, 6 oz. or so, you can always add more. use flavorful bourbon, some "smoother" bourbons are too subtle in a strongly flavored ale.

 

[olotti]

I soaked 4 oz of oak cubes for one month with knob creek for my ris. I racked to secondary and threw in the cubes and about 4oz of bourbon I used about 8oz total when soaking them, I let that sit for two months wanted to go longer. Anyway I saved the extra bourbon and when I bottled I threw that in the bottling bucket too. So far two months + bottle conditioned and the three I've had so far are really good. Def get the bourbon which is what I wanted but it's mixed well with the beer and should only get better with age.

 

[passedpawn]

Last time I made this porter (Denny Conn's Vanilla Bourbon Porter) I split a 750ml bottle between two 5g carboys.

Be really careful not to go too hard on the bourbon. You can ruin your beer.

Don't bother with good bourbon.

 

[Ole_Smoky]

I just went through all this with my current batch, I read so many different amounts and everyone made good point on why they did what they did. I ended up soaking the oak chips in 16 oz of jack Daniels then poured all that into the secondary and racked on top. I did that last night so I'm a good month off before I'll be trying it but I'm excited for this beer!

 

[Calder]

When you decide on what beer you are going to brew, take a similar beer, and add some bourbon to taste. Multiply the amount by 50 for a 5 gallon batch.

I generally use 2 teaspoons per bottle = 10 ml = half liter for 5 gallons.

 

[coneal]

Thanks, Calder! That's really good advice! It sounds really obvious now that you've said it, but I don't think I would have thought of that on my own. (Until the next person asks, and I claim the idea as my own!)

I like all the info! I'm relatively new to this site, but it's been awesome so far!