In honor of my newly born son next week I plan on brewing one of the RIS recipes either the Rapture or Award winning RIS, in his honor. Both are High gravity 1.095-1.120 stouts, I'm shooting for something over 1.1 and around hopefully 10% final abv, in a 5.5 Gal batch. Anyway the plan and I'm looking for thoughts is to brew the beer and leave in primary for 1 month, rack to secondary on bourbon soaked oak cubes that have been soaking for 1 month + and bulk age for 6 months, then bottle and age for another 6 months and drink the first one on his 1st birthday. One year from brew to drinking.
My questions are:
Is 6 months an appropriate ageing time on the oak cubes or will it be to "oakey" when bottled.
Should I add the bourbon and the cubes or just the cubes to the secondary. I'd like a bourbon presence ie. KBS but not something that overpowers the beer.
Will I need to add yeast when bottling due to the extended bulk ageing and bottle ageing time? If its advised what type of yeast would I use?
Thanks for the help.
My questions are:
Is 6 months an appropriate ageing time on the oak cubes or will it be to "oakey" when bottled.
Should I add the bourbon and the cubes or just the cubes to the secondary. I'd like a bourbon presence ie. KBS but not something that overpowers the beer.
Will I need to add yeast when bottling due to the extended bulk ageing and bottle ageing time? If its advised what type of yeast would I use?
Thanks for the help.