The instructions have you soak the oak in a bourbon and then add to the beer. Do I add just the oak cubes or both the cubes and the bourbon? I’m guessing both, but just thought I’d ask.
Can’t wait to brew this stuff!
Tony
My guess is you would just add the bourbon soaked cubes. You are looking for an aged in a bourbon barrel flavor. To find out for sure try going to NB’s site and click on the “have a brewmaster contact me” when it pops up or give them a call. Be sure to post back on this thread if you find out for sure so others will know.
Will do! Thanks!
Let us know how this turns out!!!
You are correct. Just add the cubes. Now to decide what bourbon to use… Any opinions? Of course, low price would be great, but I want to make this a great tasting batch.
Tony
For me it would be Knob Creek. That way after I fished the chips out, I could have the liquid gold straight. Really any cheap bourbon I would think is fine, as you are extracting the basic flavor of bourbon into the chips. It’s so miniscule in a batch of beer, basic flavor is all you need. The aging time might be the question, and others have to answer that, I’ve never done it myself. Sounds like fun, report back, ok.
You are correct. Just add the cubes. Now to decide what bourbon to use… Any opinions? Of course, low price would be great, but I want to make this a great tasting batch.
Tony[/quote]
Knob. Creek.
[quote=“tvissoc”]
You are correct. Just add the cubes. Now to decide what bourbon to use… Any opinions? Of course, low price would be great, but I want to make this a great tasting batch.
Tony[/quote]
I would say any bourbon that you would drink otherwise. If you like cheap bourbon, use cheap bourbon! Knob Creek is very good. Jim Beam, Wild Turkey and the like are pretty decent. Woodford makes a really good bourbon. Heck, if you like Buffalo Trace George T. Stagg, you can use that, but you better drink every drop of what’s left after soaking the cubes!
I’m not a huge bourbon fan (I like spiced rum), so I don’t know much about it. I have been known to occasionally purchase Irish Whiskey. Since I’ve had a couple recommendations for Knob Creek, I might give that a try, or get some little bottles from the store and see what works well for my taste.
Did the Rebel Rye Porter, which called for rye whiskey soaked cubes, and then 16 oz of the rye whiskey in the beer for aging. Can hardly tell the whiskey is in there. If I do this again, which I probably will because it rocks my socks off, I might up the whiskey to 20 oz and see how it goes.
Also will age for longer than a week on the oak.
Turns out that a friend of mine had a half-consumed 350ml bottle of Knob Creek. Stole a bit for myself and gave the rest to the oak cubes, which are now happily floating in my secondary.
Now to wait.
Tony
Bottled this up about 1 month ago now. Still waiting for carbonation. Nothing. I’m wondering if the high abv has basically killed off any yeast that would typically remain for bottle carbonation. This batch spent most of its life around 60 degrees in the basement. It has gotten a tad warmer, but not much. I brought a few bottle upstairs to sit in 75 degree air for a week, but no change. I’d expect some bubbles after 4 weeks.
So… what are my options? pop the caps and add some yeast an re-cap? I’m liking the brew so far, but I’d enjoy it more with Mr. Bubbles.
Oh, and it is a real belly warmer. Like a nice wine, really. 
Tony
I used Maker’s Mark in my Oak Bourbon Stout. Soaked the chips in 375 ml of bourbon in a Mason jar during primary (4 weeks), then poured the whole thing into secondary.
