whiskey beer

[hawgwild81]

Last night I added a shot of whiskey to a smoked porter I made about 8 months ago. It had a definite whiskey taste but it wasn't over powering. It was missing the "cask" flavor though.
I bought a kit from brewers best called whiskey barrel porter. I'm gonna try soaking the wood chips in a pint of knob creek for a week and then add the chips and whiskey to my secondary. Hopefully that will bring out the "cask" flavor I'm looking for.

 

[hawgwild81]

Just tried my whiskey barrel porter for the first time. It has a definite whiskey/cask flavor. I like it, but I can see where others might find the flavor overpowering. I'm gonna let it age for a month or so and see how it tastes after it has time to mellow out.
I ended up soaking the barrel chips in a pint of knob creek for three weeks. I added the whiskey and the chips into the secondary and let it sit for a month.

 

[Boru]

I did a "bourbon barrel" recipe I made by soaking two ounces of oak chips in a cup of bourbon during the primary fermentation. I aged it in Secondary for a month. Like someone else on here mentioned the bourbon taste was there intitially but faded as the beer aged. The oak stayed the whole time.

If you want a "bourbon barrel" Randy Mosher describes a fairly good process for it. Pretty much get a charred piece of oak, put it in a bottle of bourbon for 4-6 months then drop that in secondary for whatever beer you want and soak that for four months. It gives you a reusable (freeze between batches) "bourbon barrel" on the cheap.

That being said I'm really interested in your experiment.

 

[Vance71975]

so i was watching modern marvels the other day on whiskey. i noticed that they seem to mash, ferment then distill. what if i were to take this process without the distillation.

say i were to come up with the same grain bill that a whiskey company uses. i would add hops, but would any of the flavors be similar in the fermented product?

i am assuming no since i've heard that most of the flavors come from the barrel.

so say i were to age this beer in a barrel?

let me be clear here. i am not trying to distill anything. i am just intriuged that the process of making beer and whiskey seemed so similar.

thoughts?

What i would do is a Corn heavy Sour Mash, and you will need a BIG mash tun to do it in. Something like this recipe.

5lbs 6row(or any pale malt of your choice)
Amylase enzyme(about 2 table spoons in the mash just to be sure)
20lbs Flaked corn
3 lbs rice hulls

Do a standard mash on it at about 2qt/lb at 152 for an hour. Drain into boil pot,Sparge to collect all your wort. Then take a good size hand full of Pale malt(u can put it in a grain sock for easier straining) when the wort cools to about 120 throw the grain sock in your wort Work the grain so that it all gets wet, Cover and let it sit for 48 hrs to a week or two, remove the grain sock, Boil and hop lightly say 1oz fuggle at 60 mins. Chill and pitch with Distillers yeast and ferment it out. I would do 30 days in primary and 60-120 days in secondary.That should put it around 14.5% ABV, Estimated Starting Gravity of 1.144(most Distillers yeast is good to the 18-20% range, but once it is chilled i would shake the crap out of it, or hit it with pure O2 if you can. Age it in a Charred Oak Barrel if you can for about 1 year, then Keg and carb it. That should get you pretty close to a "Sour Mash Whiskey Beer" Of course you dont have to do flaked corn, you could do Rye,Flaked Oats,Oat Malt, or you could just mash 25lbs of Golden Promise, and you would be close to a Single Malt Scotch Minus the Distilling part and of course with hops.

 

[kallen]

I just bought a new, 10L, charred, white oak barrel and was thinking that my rye porter would be a great beer to barrel age. What I really desire is to have the flavor of using a used whiskey barrel. My companies pilot brewery did a Russian Imperial Stout aged in used barrels from a local whiskey distillery, so this is part of my barrel aging inspiration.

I am really looking for some guidance and making sure I am on the right track before I accidentally destroy a half of a batch of a really good beer. So, in the next two paragraphs, am I going about anything wrong?

So I was planning on aging some whiskey in the barrel, like 1.75L of Jameson, rotating a 1/8 of a turn per day, to get the barrel to taste like it was a used whiskey barrel. Will that whiskey strip off much of the tannins? Am I wasting a portion of the barrels life by putting whiskey in it? Will I get that "whiskey barrel" flavor without the whiskey?

Also, is there a rough guideline for aging? I.E. 4 weeks for first beer, 6 weeks for second beer, 8 weeks for 3rd beer? I know it is all personal preference, but a baseline would be nice to start from. My basement utility room is roughly 62-64 degrees, which I am glad it won't kill the yeasts before bottling, but also is cool enough were I am not too worried about losing too much to evaporation. I also plan on having the barrel completely soaked and expanded prior to adding the whiskey.

 

[Stratotankard]

Your plan sounds pretty good. You may not get as much whiskey flavour as you would if the barrel had been used to actually age it. It should still impart a decent amount. I wouldn't worry too much about it stripping any tannins. They will still be present in the residual liquor.

As far as aging times go, I aged my first beer in a 5 gal barrel that had been used for whiskey for almost 3 months. That was too long, but the beer did eventually mellow to drinkable. The second beer throught also went for about 3 months and it was near perfect. The third beer got forgotten about for nearly 6 months and had more oak/tannins than whiskey. It also picked up a slight sour note.

Hope this helps.

Stratotankard

 

[kallen]

Yeah that helps a lot. Being presumptuous, I am figuring from your examples that a doubling aging time line would be appropriate. Say, if I age for 6 weeks for the first beer, to get the same effect I need to go 12 weeks for the second batch, and 24 weeks for the third batch, etc. And then after that it all belongs to patience if you get a new barrel or wait even longer.

If anyone has other input, please let me know. My brewing has actually now come to structured schedule, so planning has now become a variable too.

And I was planning on aging the Jameson in the barrel for a bit over a month before beer goes into it. Plus I found an extra 1.75L bottle that has been opened. So I should have about +3 Liters of whiskey to help keep the barrel hydrated. And that should make some interesting whiskey once I reclaim it. No need to waste good liquor!

 

[Akavango]

I haven't done it but I know Revvy has used Jack Daniels Oak wood chips. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/jack-daniels-infused-beer-273424/ you can read more about it here. Just do a search and there are other threads.

I'm about to add Peated Irish Whiskey to a beer I made 3 months ago. Don't plan on bottling it for another 3 months. I have also used just emptied bottle of that whiskey to bottle some of that beer. Haven't tested it.