Making a sort of aged beer laced with whiskey/bourbon flavours with ch

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Josho

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Location
Butler WA
Hi Guys,

was thinking of making a brew and aging it in some oak chips that will give it a partial whiskey flavour,

My local bottle o had some about 3 years ago for 8 dollars a bottle cannot remember the name just that it came single in a cardboard box

would love to try to copy this somehow,

anybody tried to do this?

is it even possible?

the beer would probably be a budweiser clone very sweet

could buy some bourbon chips from LHB and pop in during hop stages, or even just the last few days of inital ferment,
 
G'Day Josho,

I tried a brew in Kentucky called Bourbon Barrel Ale. Bourbon aint my deal but that was a very nice beer. Try hitting google up for some clone recipes.

But the basic process was:
1. Get some oak chips or staves, char them up a bit and add to either the Bourbon bottle or a jar with some bourbon in it.
2. Wait 6 weeks.
3. Brew up an ESB.
4. Retrive your oak chips/staves, and add them into your secondary fermenter when you rack the beer in. (Don't pour the bourbon in - drink it instead).
5. Wait 4-6 weeks and bottle as usual.

The only other tip was to use less oak rather than more.

Note: I haven't actually tried this, but did read up on it a few months back. I know a few other boys have tried oak aging and may be able to support.
 
I chucked in about a dozen chips (bourbon soaked allegedly, they smelled pretty good) after primary.

Not sure how much character it'll add, as I've gone for the "better under than over" mantra.

It's a barleywine, and tastes pretty nice. Not sure how long to leave it, so I'm giving it a try every now and then.

Can't add anything except "this is what I'm currently doing".

Ross has a rum oak barrel baltic porter that is to die for. He'd be the bloke to ask.
 
I agree with the "dont pour the bourbon in" advice. I did and although it was a really nice beer the bourbon flavour was a bit stronger than I would have liked (a bit much bourbon and not enough beer).

I tried to clone an Innis & Gunn beer a while back - recipe is here

Or perhaps with a bit more detail here on Brewtoolz.

It was my first ever AG brew - i have been thinking it is time to give it another go now I have a bit more experience under my belt.

At the end of the day the oaking aspect was done in the secondary so you dont have to be doing AG.

Good luck with it.
 
Innis & Gunn thats it !@!

I was going to extract a Strong Bitter I think?
 
I'm proud of a lot of things Scotland has made, but Innis and Gunn is not one of them!

The flavour I got when I had it was overwhelmingly honey, I didn't get the whiskey flavours at all.
 
I can highly recommend Denny Conn's famous vanilla bourbon imperial porter:

http://www.brew365.com/beer_dennys_bourbon_vanilla_porter.php

It's so good, i've brewed it several times. Perfect winter sipping beer.

I disagree with the "dont pour the bourbon in" As per Denny's recommendation I add 1 cup of Makers Mark to the keg. Delicious!


Comfort Food, but Beer
Originally created by Denny Conn and spread around the various internet forums, this recipe for a rich, big, complex Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter (BVIP) has become quite a popular homebrew recipe. There are all sorts of things going on in this beer no matter where you turn. There is the roasty, coffee flavor of the porter that is tempered with the smoothness of whole vanilla bean. Then there is the toffe, caramel, warming, flavor of bourbon enveloped by the slightest hint of the oaky sweetness of the oak barrel chips.

A great beer for fall and winter. This one will take some aging too.

The Beer
A nice, big, over the top Robust Porter is created as the base for all of this goodness. Note that our gravity is pretty high, so make sure to use a big, healthy pitch of yeast in order to have a healthy, and complete fermentation.

Once fermentation has slowed down, it's time to add your extras (Bourbon, Vanilla, and Oak (if you want)). Denny's original recipe calls for you to split 2 fresh vanilla beans, scrape the insides, chop the pods into quarters, and add all this to the secondary fermenter (or just throw it in the primary if you do not use a secondary.) Then taste this periodically for between 7 and 14 days to get the right level of vanilla flavor you are looking for.

When the vanilla is right and it's bottling/kegging time, it's time to add the Bourbon. Denny's original recipe calls for 10ml. of Bourbon per pint of finished beer. He arrived at this by adding ml. samples to 4 oz. of beer and then scaled up. To some, this may be a bit too much bourbon, so I suggest you do the same calculations and figure out what suits your taste best. You can get more bourbon in, but you can never take it back out

For the sake of math, however, 10 ml. Bourbon/Pint of Beer = 400 ml. Bourbon/5 Gal. of Beer = 1.69 Cups Bourbon/5 Gal. Beer

Although the original recipe does not call for oak, I like it. Restraint, however, needs to be practiced here. Jamil Zainasheff on The Brewing Network recently recommended 1 - 2 oz. of Medium Toast Oak Cubes per 5 gallons of beer. If you are using oak chips, they have more surface area and will require less to get the same effect. Jamil also recommended boiling the chips or cubes in a bit of water for about 10 minutes to sanitize them. Alternately, you could also soak the chips in the bourbon for a bit then pour the whole thing into your secondary fermenter.


Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter ::: 1.079/1.017 (6 Gal)

Grain Bill (70% Efficiency assumed)
13 lb.- 2-Row Pale Malt
2.5 lb. - Munich Malt (15 L)
1.5 lb. - Brown Malt
1 lb. - Crystal Malt (120L)
1/2 lb. - Crystal Malt (40L)
1.25 lb. - Chocolate Malt (edited - Thanks Denny)
Extras :
Kentucky Bourbon (Jim Beam, Knob Creek, etc.)
Real, Whole Vanilla Beans (Extract just won't do)
Oak Chips or Cubes

Hop Schedule (37 IBU)
1 oz - Magnum Hops (60 min)
1/2 oz - E.K. Goldings (10 min)

Yeast
White Labs California Ale Yeast (WLP001) - 1800 ml starter

Mash/Sparge/Boil
Mash at 153° for 60 min.
Sparge as usual
Cool and ferment at about 68° Add Vanilla Beans after primary - rack 7 to 14 days
Add Bourbon at bottling (1 to 1.75 cups - don't overdo this!)
Infuse Bourbon beforehand with Oak Chips/Cubes if you want.
 
If you popped a nip of bourbon in each pint when bottling with a few oak shavings gently roasted i guess its a good way to see how it will taste without commiting to a large amount of brew i guess?
 
With the bourbon sure you could do that, but you dont want floaty bits of oak shavings to end up in the beer in your glass.
 
Josho said:
Hi Guys,

was thinking of making a brew and aging it in some oak chips that will give it a partial whiskey flavour,

My local bottle o had some about 3 years ago for 8 dollars a bottle cannot remember the name just that it came single in a cardboard box

would love to try to copy this somehow,

anybody tried to do this?

is it even possible?

the beer would probably be a budweiser clone very sweet

could buy some bourbon chips from LHB and pop in during hop stages, or even just the last few days of inital ferment,
Our local LHBS stocks include the "Still Spirits" products. http://stillspirits.com/collections


I have tried items from their 'spirits' & 'liqueurs' categories. eg. a 50ml bottle added at flameout for a 16L 'in the fermenter' batch. Doing another one next week.
 
so you get the flavour without upping the alc content,

hmmn very interesting,
 
I have tasted a Bourboun Vanilla Imperial Porter, mind blowingly good stuff.

Sure go the stillspirits cordial if you want. Goop and cordial would be a good blend.
 
phoneyhuh said:
I can highly recommend Denny Conn's famous vanilla bourbon imperial porter:

http://www.brew365.com/beer_dennys_bourbon_vanilla_porter.php

It's so good, i've brewed it several times. Perfect winter sipping beer.

I disagree with the "dont pour the bourbon in" As per Denny's recommendation I add 1 cup of Makers Mark to the keg. Delicious!
Could you bottle with the bourbon in, will it carb up ok ?
 
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