Flavoring a brown porter

[deanpearson62]

I have just fermented 10 gals. of brown porter brewed from an extract kit.
I am looking to flavor it to try and imitate a beer from a local brewery that I found to be quite amazing.
The beer I am trying to imitate is called an Imperial brown ale flavored with vanilla and cocoa nibs, (what ever a nib is) and then aged in what tastes like a rum cask.
I have 4 oz. of oak cubes that I have soaked in rum for over a week now.
My idea is to use brown sugar, vanilla extract and cocoa boiled just as you would a priming sugar and add it along with the oak cubes into my keg and let it carbonate / age for ??? long.
My questions are mainly in regards to amounts of ingredients;
Brown sugar
Vanilla extract
Cocoa
But would also be interested in any other ideas you guys might have.
In addition I plan to add 2 Oz. oak cubes that have been soaked in Bacardi Oakheart rum to each keg.

Any help with amounts of these ingredients would be greatly appreciated.

Dean Pearson.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

It's easy to ruin a beer by adding too many flavors to it. (A bacon infused chocolate coffee milk stout comes to mind)

If you are using this to carbonate a 5 gallon batch you aren't going to want to exceed more than 3 gravity points. (The equivalent of 5 oz of sugar) Brown sugar is molasses and white sugar, so if you want the brown sugar flavor to be added when carbonating molasses might be a better route. Molasses is roughly half sugar which means you could add up to about 10oz, which would give you plenty of flavor.

For the oak, the alcohol will take on the flavor of the wood, and the wood the flavor of the alcohol, so if you didn't use too much alcohol you may consider adding both.