BeerBorg

This was a total guess on the recipe:

1 can Winter Dark Ale
1 lb dark DME
.25 oz Saaz 20 min
.25 oz Saaz 7 min
US-04 yeast

1/2 oz oak chips soaked in 4 oz Jim Beam for 2 weeks, then poured the bourbon and chips into the fermenter for the 3rd week of fermentation.

I just cracked one open at 3 weeks in the bottle and it is great. I was afraid the bourbon might overwhelm the beer but it blends well. It has nice roasted malt flavor. I think it will be even better in a few more weeks.

I have plenty of wood chips and Jim Beam left so may try a Bourbon Barrel Amber next.

This sounds like a winner. I've got an extra Winter Dark from a Defibrilator Dopplebock Recipe I haven't made, figured now I'd wait until Aprilish to brew for next year. Maybe I'll go in this direction instead, and sooner too!

Kudos, great idea!

So...starting to really consider this.

Do you think 4 oz. of bourbon is the right amount? If you did it again would you go little more/little less?

Thanks!

Glad yours came out good, docpd!

To ssorck's question, I'll add my two cents: I made a 2.4 gal batch of a Bourbon Barrel IPA in an LBK recently. I used 4 oz of Maker's Mark and 1 oz of oak cubes (chips impart flavor better than cubes, so I used more cubes than I would have if using chips). In my opinion, it tastes decent, but the aroma is strongly bourbon and not much else. Even the taste is a little more than I was shooting for, but still drinkable. But keep in mind, this is an IPA, which wouldn't have the malt-forward roasty flavors to stand up to the bourbon. So, it could well be that 4 oz is a good amount for a Porter.

I added the oak cubes to the secondary for 14 days, but not the bourbon itself. The method I used for adding the bourbon was to wait until bottling time, and I dosed a few 2-ounce samples of beer with varying amounts of bourbon, decided which one I liked best, and then scaled up. The end result was 4 oz for the whole batch.

I've used this sample-and-scale method for some other additives (fruit extract, spices) and I think it works very well, but the one suggestion I'd offer is: round down. What tastes perfect for a sip or two will probably be too strong over a pint or two. For example, I had three samples of the bourbon which equated to a batch addition of 2 oz, 4 oz and 6 oz. To me, the 4 was perfect at bottling time, but in retrospect I should have gone with 3 oz, IMO. (Again, keep in mind this was for an IPA, not a Porter or Stout.)

Whatever you choose to do, have fun with it!

I have used toasted oak and it imparted the flavor I was looking for.

I think I would agree with Crazy Climber that a bit less bourbon would be better in a lighter beer. So far I have only tasted one bottle and it is not fully conditioned yet, but I think the roasted and chocolate malts in the porter do balance the bourbon. I think Gymrat has done some Bourbon Barrel Ales. Maybe he will weigh in on this.

This was the Bourbon Barrel Stout I made.
I soaked the oak chips in 12 oz of bourbon for a week before adding them. I added a week after brewing. Upon bottling I tasted the wort and there wasn't quite enough bourbon character so I added 2 more oz to the bottling bucket. I used windsor ale yeast as I really wanted as much malt character as I could achieve. I also mashed at 158F.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Ralph's Bourbon Barrel Porter
Brewer: Roger
Asst Brewer: Ralph The Wonderdog
Style: Robust Porter
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 5.70 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.20 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.061 SG
Estimated Color: 37.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 39.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 70.8 %
2 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 16.7 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.2 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.2 %
4.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.1 %
4.0 oz Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 6 2.1 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [6.40 %] - First Wor Hop 7 25.8 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [6.40 %] - Boil 20.0 Hop 8 14.2 IBUs
1.0 pkg Windsor Yeast (Lallemand #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 9 -
1.00 oz Oak Chips (Primary 7.0 days) Flavor 10 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 12 lbs

I sent Beer Lord one of these but I don't know if he has tried it.

Gymrat - on your initial addition you just added the wood chips, not the 12 oz of bourbon?

No..there was no way to add bourbon in beersmith. After soaking the chips in 12oz of bourbon for a week in a mason jar, I dumped all of the contents into the Ale Pail after 1 week of fermentation.

As an update, after several more weeks of conditioning, the Bourbon Barrel Porter is awesome. It has exactly the blend of malt base and bourbon flavor I was looking forward to.

Nice Doc. I love mine as well. At 6 months old it is a fantastic beer. It isn't a session beer but a nice occasional treat. And it made some really good chilli.

Snowed in today so I brewed this after bottling a couple of batches. Except I did .5 Saaz at both 20 and 7 minutes and swapped the lb of dark lme for a Mr. beer Brewmax Robust LME pack and 1/3 lb of Briess light DME, both of which I had on hand. Thanks for the recipe Doc!

Started writing a post to say this is active fermentation, and was gonna post this pic:
Literally as I was typing heard a big boom from the basement, lol...
1st keg overflow AND 1st keg blowup within 15 minutes of each other!!! Thankfully I had this one in a cooler with the lid down!

Ohhhh yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, beer pron!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those look like some VERY happy yeasties!!!!

NICE!!! Prob scared the p00p outta you lol.