I recently visited my sister in London and tried a bunch of great beers that are either rare or unavailable here. One was Old Crafty Hen, a blend of Old Speckled Hen with a strong ale aged in oak barrels for years. It was great, light enough to be refreshing but with just enough oakiness for you to know it was a special brew. I’d like to try making an Oak Aged Amber ale myself and need some advice. I got some medium roast french oak chips, but how many oz should I put in the secondary? And should I put them in the keg when I keg, or would the longer they sit in there give more and more oakiness until the flavor is overwhelming? Also, I’ve thought about adding a small amount of bourbon to the final product to give another element to the beer, but I’ll see what the beer tastes like and experiment with a pint to see if I want to do it to the whole batch. Most recipes with oak or bourbon are darker beers so I don’t want to use the same quantities and have the oak be overwhelming. Any thoughts?
Here’s the recipe for reference:
6lbs amber LME
1lb belgian biscuit (I’ll do a mini-mash even though it’s only 1 pound of specialty grains)
(possibly 1-2oz of molasses)
.75oz Northern brewer for 60 mins
.5 oz tettnang for 20 mins
.5oz tettnang for 0 mins
yeast will be a starter of Wyeast American Ale harvested from a previous batch.
