BeerBorg

The name is inspired by my 3 year old daughter that calls Darth Vader, "Dark Vanner." Not sure that this would still qualify as a porter or stout, so I will just call it a dark beer. And Vader is Imperial and Dark side so it fits.

2.86# HME MrB Winter Dark HME
1.87# MrB St. Patrick's Irish Stout HME
1# Extra Dark DME

Steeped for 30 min:
6oz chocolate malt
3oz C60 malt

Danstar Nottingham yeast

1oz French oak chips (medium toast) soaked in Jim Beam Black Label (will measure quantity before dumping in keg, if I remember) will add after about a week of fermentation

This should be nearly 11% abv, I believe Notty can handle this right? Or should I pitch another yeast for carb?
Never oaked a beer, and I have yet to add the oak, but the oak is in boubon now. Any tips?

Looks good JP...

Notty should handle the ABV... Might consider feeding some of the DME during primart next time to give the yeast a lower gravity wort to start with, and then get them excited with a feeding later to finish up...

But you should be ok. What's your fermentation temp? Around 68°F should be ok...

I'm thinking you pitched 11g?

For the oaking... Chips impart flavor pretty quickly as compared to cubes, spirals or spires.

Sample after a few days to see if it's where you want it to be, or if you need to go longer.

Should be a great sipper for those cold Iowa Winter Nights...

BigPapaG wrote:Looks good JP...

Notty should handle the ABV... Might consider feeding some of the DME during primart next time to give the yeast a lower gravity wort to start with, and then get them excited with a feeding later to finish up...

But you should be ok. What's your fermentation temp? Around 68°F should be ok...

For the oaking... Chips impart flavor pretty quickly as compared to cubes, spirals or spires.

Sample after a few days to see if it's where you want it to be, or if you need to go longer.

Should be a great sipper for those cold Iowa Winter Nights...

Pitched at 62, the brew room stays around 63-65 this time of year. Also yes, the whole 11g.

Yep, hoping for a good sipper. Too bad I've got a bottle of Jim I've got to get rid of somehow.

Yeah, the Beam... Well, it does age well...

You could just hold on to it for future oak soakings...

... Naw... What was I thinking!

Call me strange, but I love the Beam. I actually prefer the Rye, but that wasn't profile I was going for here. Now, obviously if I could afford it, I would get the super premium stuff. But anything under super premium I go with Jim Beam.

Update: At bottling this was already very tasty. I'm guessing the strong oaky flavor was masking any early off flavors. I'm pretty excited to sample this one in about 6 months!

Cool!