Bourbon aging 5 gallon barrels

[TheMortReport]

So if anyone that likes stouts was lucky enough to get their hands on one of Avery's Uncle Jacobs, they know that the 17.4% stout aged in Makers Mark barrels is phenomenal. I so desperately want to clone it, but Im trying to figure out the barrel aging.

What I want to do is buy a new 5 gallon barrel and age it with whiskey to impart that whiskey taste to the barrel, that I would then age the stout in. What I was thinking was buying a bottle of bourbon and letting it sit in the 5 gallon barrel to impart the flavor, constantly turning it to have the barrel fully saturated with flavor. I was thinking of letting it sit for 6 months.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this or ideas that I might be able to do it better (outside of filling it with 5 gallons of bourbon, I do NOT need that much whiskey at my disposal)

 

[mtcpilot]

Soak oak CUBES not chips in a mason jar with Bourbon for a while, then rack your ale into secondary to let age until desired flavor is reached. Good info on this can be found here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/tips-wood-aging-119445/

I let my 2.5 oz of medium plus American oak cubes soak for 8 weeks. The RIS has been on secondary now for 4 months now. Going to taste it this weekend and see if it's ready for bottling.

Good luck!

Clark

 

[Loneleigh]

This is a great idea.

 

[sfrisby]

Working on a similar beer for a 40th birthday beer. Planning on brewing in December to age 21 months before drinking. Looking at a similar abv with Belgian candy syrup additions for the high abv instead of just plain sugar. Currently have a 1.75 bottle of makers soaking in cubes. Should be soaking about a full year before I add the bottle to a 5 gallon barrel to rehydrate the barrel before racking. Although I can't speak to the Avery stout, I have my own stout recipe that has turned out well over time that I will use for the base beer.

 

[TheMortReport]

I understand the cubes being decidedly cheaper and easier to handle, but Im really in the mood to experiment. While I have never used cubes and dont know their dimensions and the amount that make up the 3oz or so you add to a 5 gallon batch, I can only imagine the total surface area of the cubes are much, much less that would be in contact with an actual barrel. Plus, and again, I dont know much about barrel aging, if you are using cubes, you are still aging in probably a glass carboy. I would think sitting in a true wooden barrel will impart more flavors into the beer.

I'm going to give it a try, but this is looking like it will be a year worth of aging the barrel and then the beer, so Im going to be real bummed if it sucks haha

 

[Fid]

Sounds like a ton of work to me. If you're set on using the barrel maybe split the difference and add the Bourbon soaked cubes to the barrel rather than spending a year trying to age the barrel?

 

[Fid]

Or just buy a used barrel here.

 

[sfrisby]

Don't misunderstand, I'm all about a strong oak presence, but rather than saturate a barrel with just bourbon, im soaking the makers with cubes and saturating my barrel with oak soaked bourbon to add even FURTHUR oak flavor to the beer. By rotating the barrel with oak soaked bourbon, im hoping to properly saturate a barrel with a lot of flavor.

 

[sfrisby]

Or just buy a used barrel here.

My only concern, with what I have read, is the risk of infection from not racking your beer right after racking off the bourbon. That's why I thought it was safer to buy fresh and resoak.

 

[Prymal]

There shouldn't be any issue, whiskey producers consistently sell there used barrels after each primary use. I would suggest purchasing your barrel from woodenville whiskey company. They specialize in small batch distilling and offer 5 gallon used barrels for $135 as well as 2 liter new barrels for rapid aging or spirits or beer. Because of the maximized surface area in a 2 liter barrel you could age a beer in 15 days or even less and gain the same flavor might over 2 months in a traditional sized barrel.

 

[grndslm]

Based upon this book I just finished reading, Beer Craft: A Simple Guide for Making Great Beer, the author suggests that those who want to barrel age are... "entering territory mysterious even to many professional brewers. There is still a lot we don't know about wild yeast, except that it takes a long time, and rarely works as you expect. Be patient, and good luck!"

His suggestion is wood chips. Just read about this yesterday, and wood cubes is a new one to me.

If you're worried about wood cubes not providing enough surface area, then have no worry that wood chips will provide however much surface area you'd want.

 

[Karkinos]

Based on what I've read here, I'm going with cubes and brewing a massive barley wine this Saturday. To all of you who long ago subscribed to this thread and never unsubscribed, welcome back. I've revived a year-old thread. Huzzah!

 

[SirNathan]

How did it turn out? Do you happen to have the recipe?

 

[MEPNew2Brew]

Just stumbled across this thread.

I brewed a bourbon barrel porter - Northern Brewer all grain recipe. 2 ounces of medium toasted oak cubes soaked for two weeks in 16 ounces of bourbon. WHOLE LOTTA OAK. Brewed in in October 2013, bottled after about 8 weeks or so. Finally, after about two years of aging it is a great beer. Oak was way over the top for at least a year.

 

[SirNathan]

awesome thanks for the update.