philrose
Well-Known Member
- Recipe Type
- All Grain
- Yeast
- WLP001 Cal Ale
- Yeast Starter
- Absolutely. I did a 4L starter, may have been an overshoot though.
- Batch Size (Gallons)
- 11
- Original Gravity
- 1.090
- Final Gravity
- 1.021
- Boiling Time (Minutes)
- 90 min
- IBU
- 57
- Color
- 50+ deg L
- Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
- 21 days, 70 degrees F
- Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
- 30 days, in American Whiskey Barrel, ambient room temperature
- Additional Fermentation
- Sat for 6 months in keg after evacuated from barrel
- Tasting Notes
- Wonderful beer. Easily the richest bourbon barrel homebrew I have ever tasted.
Fermentables and Mash
Mashed at 150 degrees f, with no mashout
You will need at least a 15.5 gallon tun to run this mash as normal. if your tun is too small, you could conceivably steep some of the specialty grains after lautering to cut back on the space. Not something I have tried, but a thought we had when the tun was full to the brim.
Boil
12.5 Gallons, 1.073 preboil gravity
---
So you got a whiskey barrel, now what?
This beer was the first phase of a 5 gallon balcones blue corn whiskey barrel. The intent was to make a rich, tending slightly sweet imperial stout to let golden naked oats shine for the unique ingredient they are. We thought the whiskey flavor would best be "foiled" this way. The barrel ended up imparting more of a slight wood flavor than true whiskey, which was surprising but good.
Our barrel prep involved heating enough water to fill at 180 degrees f, after 30 minutes we drained, swished some preboiled and cooled water and racked wort directly to the barrel as a primary fermentor.
In retrospect, this led to a lot of the whiskey aromatics being washed away and blown out of the beer. I think we would have done things differently had we known but I am still very proud of this beer every time I serve one or take a sip. The wood flavor is present but restrained. The fermentation profile listed in the heading of this post is how I'll brew this beer in the future.
W ood
A ged
R ussian
I mperial
O atmeal
Stout
- 25 pounds 2 row
- 4 pounds flaked oats
- 3 pounds pale chocolate
- 2 pounds crystal 120
- 2 lbs Simpson's golden naked oats
- 1 pound black roasted barley
- 1 pound chocolate 350
Mashed at 150 degrees f, with no mashout
You will need at least a 15.5 gallon tun to run this mash as normal. if your tun is too small, you could conceivably steep some of the specialty grains after lautering to cut back on the space. Not something I have tried, but a thought we had when the tun was full to the brim.
Boil
12.5 Gallons, 1.073 preboil gravity
- 90 minutes- 3 ounces Belma, pellet, 10.6% AA
- Flameout- 4 Oz Sonnet Golding
---
So you got a whiskey barrel, now what?
This beer was the first phase of a 5 gallon balcones blue corn whiskey barrel. The intent was to make a rich, tending slightly sweet imperial stout to let golden naked oats shine for the unique ingredient they are. We thought the whiskey flavor would best be "foiled" this way. The barrel ended up imparting more of a slight wood flavor than true whiskey, which was surprising but good.
Our barrel prep involved heating enough water to fill at 180 degrees f, after 30 minutes we drained, swished some preboiled and cooled water and racked wort directly to the barrel as a primary fermentor.
In retrospect, this led to a lot of the whiskey aromatics being washed away and blown out of the beer. I think we would have done things differently had we known but I am still very proud of this beer every time I serve one or take a sip. The wood flavor is present but restrained. The fermentation profile listed in the heading of this post is how I'll brew this beer in the future.
W ood
A ged
R ussian
I mperial
O atmeal
Stout
