whiskely ale in the fermenter!

[unionrdr]

Well,I finally pitched the starter on my whiskely ale last night. Took a while to cool down in the sink without the ice I forgot to pick up. The basic recipe;
1) can cooper's dark ale
3lbs Munton's plain amber DME
1oz US Kent Golding pellets,4.5%AA
1oz German Haulertau pellets,4.3%AA
Brewed to 23L (6.072G)
I used 2.5G of water in the boil,& half the DME added to that (1.5lbs). Stirred till foam died down,Then did 1st hop addition of 1oz Kent Golding in a hop sack for 20mins. At 10mins,added .5oz Haulertau. At flame out,added the remaining DME stirred in well,then added remaining .5oz haulertau for 10 min steep with lid on BK. Then added cooper's can & stirred till foamy. Allowed to steep with lid on for 15 min while sanitizing FV. Put BK in sink for several cold water changes with floating thermometer in kettle.
Got it down to 70F eventually,then poured roughly into fermenter. Likewise with top off water to 23L mark. Stirred it so vigorously,it had 3" of foam on it. Got OG of 1.050. Stirred & pitched starter & stirred lightly. Screwed on lid & filled airlock with vodka.
That was last night. It was bubbling merrily this morning. 11:15am we split to run some errands. We came back to foam just starting to come out of the airlock. So much for my previous theories. I couldn't get the 3/8" hose to fit the tube in the center of the airlock. Same size,bacht! Had to cut the end off the old cooper's "S" type airlock to mount the blow off in the airlock grommet. Good thing I listened to my inner self,& saved that empty 1/2G vodka jug. Makes a great blow off 1/3 full of water.
It just bubbled violently...sounded like a bbq fart in a bathtub. lolz...
Watch for part 2...

 

[JonK331]

Whiskey?

 

[unionrdr]

That's basically part 2. But,anyway,I took 4oz of medium toast French oak chips,put them in one of those Glad deli meat containers. Then poured 5 jiggers of Beam's Black 8 year old Kentucky bourbon over them,& snapped on the lid. I put it in the fridge to soak while the dark ale ferments.
When the ale reaches FG,It'll be racked to secondary with the oak chips,bourbon & all in a hop sack. I'll pour the lot through the hop sack,basically. Clamp the lid down with an airlock,& check it a week later for flavor(s). I thought using 4oz of chips instead of 2 would work faster. I was going to let them age for a couple of months anyway. Although I'll try one at 3-4 weeks to see where I'm at.
Even though it's traditional to make whiskely with stout,I found that dark ale & porter were used over the centuries. I decided on the dark ale to lighten it up a little. But still get the flavors from the dark ale itself,the Munton's amber DME,the hops,& of course the "double aged" bourbon & oak.

 

[unionrdr]

Ok,time for an update. Today is 11 days exactly that my dark ale has been in primary doin it's yeastie boys thang. That 1.050 OG went down to 1.011! That small starter helped a little more this time! So that gives 5.73%ABV so far!
The malt flavor is a little light atm,& hop bite is there. But I can taste that things are just starting to mellow. Needs the few days till I check it again to clear more. By mixing the 3lbs of Munton's plain amber DME with the black cooper's dark ale can,It looks like I'm going to get the nice brown color I wanted. I figured I'd get brown from the colors produced by the 2 dif malts.
I figured by the time the medium toast French oak with the 8 year old bourbon sit in secondary with it,I'll wind up with a JD whiskey sort of color to boot!
So,Wednesday I'll check it again for a stable FG & more settling.
Hopfully,that'll be where the fun starts...:rockin:

 

[unionrdr]

Well,since I took the first FG on Tuesday of 1.011,today at 3:15pm I took a second FG,got 1.010. Tastes much smoother than it did Tuesday. Tastes,tests done. Cleaned & sanitized secondary twice. Dang dog dander! Poured oak chips/bourbon through grain sack into secondary,tied off,& dumped it in. Racked dark ale onto them,which took until 3:40 to complete with the auto siphon catching the rest under the level of the spigot. It looks so far like I'm going to get a "regular" bourbon color out of it. Maybe a hair darker. When I poured the chip mixture in,it kinda smelled like it was smoothed out some by the medium toast French oak. I again filled the airlock with cheap vodka. Some for the airlock,some for the brewer...
I just did the math,the ABV is up to 5.9%! When the oaking is done,I'll check the FG again,just out of curiosity.

 

[unionrdr]

I got out a jigger size shot glass,& took a sample today. I'd pressed the lid of the secondary to sniff the airlock (remember that revelation thread?),got a small whiff that didn't seem promising.
So,I crack open the spigot,& take a sample. It looks like the color of bourbon or whiskey,just like I wanted. Already very clear. But wow! the ale has a dark smooth malt flavor so far,& the bourbon & French oak...oh my Lord! The combo gives a creamy smooth vanilla quality. I think it needs until maybe Monday to get a little more presence.

 

[tryn2brew]

Sounds very good. Let us know how it turns out. I have supplies arriving on Monday to make an Oaked Dark Farmhouse IPA.

 

[unionrdr]

I wish you guys could try this! Upon further thought,the color is more of a cross between red ale & the double aged bourbon whiskey used. Clear,beautiful color. But that vanilla cream/bourbon background flavor really knocks me out! Out-freaking-standing flavor.
And nearly 5.9%ABV too boot! That oaked IPA sounds like a winner too. I'm curious about that one. Curious about how much can be done with different oaks. They give some great flavors. I'm stoked,man,seriously!

 

[unionrdr]

Tried another one shot sample a bit ago. Color is now just like whiskey,red is down noticeably. More like an oaked bourbon flavor now,stronger too. Malt flavor now undetectable. This one will have to age to get back the color & flavor it had last time.
But I guess that's to be expected. Looks like I'll be bottling today after all.

 

[unionrdr]

I was forced to do an interesting variation on bulk priming a little while ago. My bottling bucket is also my secondary,so I had to pour the priming solution into the pale while stirring to mix it in. Stirred at least 1 minute,then let it continue to swirl with the lid on til I got set up to bottle.
With some minor losses to racking,trub,wood chips,etc, I got 64 out of the usual 66 bottles. That's still pretty good.
I'm just disappointed that the bourbon soaked oak seems to lighten the color while it's aging. And I loved that reddish brown color it had before wood aging. We'll see what happens as it clears in the bottles. I'm thinking I'll wind up with the Salvator color again. Damn.

 

[unionrdr]

Well,here we are a couple of days later,& I can see through the lighter colored bottles. As the ale clears,I can see that reddish color coming back. In the coming weeks,as it carbs & conditions,it should get that dark brown with ruby tint back. It looks like it'll at least be close.
Not to mention,as the dubble-oaked bourbon mellows,the vanilla flavor is said to come out more. It'd be great also to get that vanilla cream flavor back. The dark ale has it anyway,so it should be outstanding in a couple of months.

 

[brettclutch]

cheers!

 

[unionrdr]

Well,here we are 22 days in from bottling. I chilled one for a couple hours to see how the flavors are mingling. The color through the bottles is nice. Like a chestnut brown with red glow to it. The pour gets a 2" or so tan head,little carbonation. Some yeast smell,I think I got some in the pour. So it is a little young yet. but the bourbon flavor is on the back,& quite pleasant,def smooth. I can smell the dark malt & bourbon,smooth with some brightness from the KG hops. The KG & Haulertauer hops make a bright sort of spiciness against the malt/bourbon profile. If/when this carbs up nice,it's going to be smooth & malty/bourbon/spicy.
Overall,quite nice balance so far,...not to mention,5.9%ABV!

 

[unionrdr]

Here's a pic of this ale 22 days in the bottle;http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss71/unionrdr/wskly2.jpg
It has a nice dark malty bourbon aroma,with some brightness from the Kent Golding hops. The taste is smooth bourbon with some slight toasty malt flavor. Pleasant ale,but I think it def needs more conditioning time. The co2 in the head space is getting pretty good,but needs time to produce good carbonation.