Yeast for a big wood-aged ale

[Jebu1788]

So I'm thinking about brewing a beer to age on some Jack-Daniels barrel chips for a while and putting it back for 6 months or so before bottling.

Here's the idea as of recent:

OG 1.098
(a conservative estimate of 65% efficiency)
IBUs: 57

15.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 75.00 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 5.00 %
0.75 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.75 %
0.50 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 2.50 %
0.50 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2.50 %
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 1.25 %

2.00 lb Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 10.00 %

1.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (60 min) Hops 42.3 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 11.9 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 3.1 IBU

3.00 oz Oak Chips, Whiskey Soaked (Secondary 28.0 days) Misc


Question is, what yeast? I was thinking I want something with a really soft character, and a bit of fruitiness to it but not dominant. My initial thoughts after looking into it were either Wyeast 1272- American Ale II (I heard Anchor uses this for many of their beers, and I think that would fit exactly what I'm looking for if they do use it) or perhaps Wyeast 1084- Irish Ale or Wyeast 1728- Scottish Ale (higher alcohol tolerance, some fruitiness).

I've never used any of these yeasts or aged any beers except one imp. stout on oak, so I'm open to any suggestions the kind folks in the yeast department may have!

 

[Nateo]

I used 1728 in my beer inspired by Avery's Czar. I was really happy with the results. Yeast character is definitely like most of the commercial Scottish ales I've tried.

I would scale the oak back, unless you want an oak bomb. I would use probably 1oz (assuming 5gal batch). I would also add the whiskey separately, so you can control how much of each flavor you get.

I've made a number of beers the way you've described, and I was happy enough with them, but I've found that scaling the oak back and adding whiskey a bit before bottling has given me the best results.

 

[Jebu1788]

Hmm. Haven't had many Scottish ales (Old Chub and French Broad's Wee Heavy are the only ones coming to mind right now) nor have I had the Czar. Would it be similar to what I described?

Also, I hadn't decided exactly the levels of oak, but I do want it to be pretty forward. I recently had Weyerbacher's Insanity, and if you haven't: man is it good, and heavy on the oak. I realize chips are quite different from actual bourbon barrels, but since I have them, I'll go with it instead of getting cubes.

 

[Nateo]

Hmm. Haven't had many Scottish ales (Old Chub and French Broad's Wee Heavy are the only ones coming to mind right now) nor have I had the Czar. Would it be similar to what I described?

Also, I hadn't decided exactly the levels of oak, but I do want it to be pretty forward. I recently had Weyerbacher's Insanity, and if you haven't: man is it good, and heavy on the oak. I realize chips are quite different from actual bourbon barrels, but since I have them, I'll go with it instead of getting cubes.

Old Chub's yeast doesn't seem particularly Scottish to me. The most common Scottish beer I can think of is probably Belhaven. 1728 is from McEwan's, but they don't export that to the US anymore, AFAIK.

I'd say any British Isles yeast will give you what you're looking for. I think 1728 particularly would do well. I'd ferment @60*.

Something to keep in mind when using oak chips. Extraction is directly related to surface area. A barrel's worth of surface area for 31 gallons scales down to quite a small amount of oak chips per 5 gallon batch. I haven't tried to compute the surface area, but from my experience, 3oz is too much, FWIW.

I learned this from making multiple batches with too much oak. Maybe what I consider "too much" you'd think is just right, your mileage may vary, etc. Just my $0.02.

 

[Jebu1788]

Ok, that sounds good to me then. I may look to try a couple Scottish beers before I brew, and look for beers that use 1084, but I think I'll go with one of those. But I may have problems keeping it under 65 or so with my advanced method of "ice-packs-in-the-mash-tun-cooler" refrigeration.

As far as the oak goes, I do want it to be very oak-y, so what do you think of 2oz for 3-4 weeks? Would this over-do it too? I know most people advise against a lot of chips for too long, but it seems like this wouldn't be absurd if you're looking for a real strong oak character, right?

 

[Nateo]

I would use 1oz/5g for two weeks, but I'm not you, and maybe my conception of "too oaky" is different than yours.

Here's something you could try: Get some glass gallon jugs, like from apple juice, split the batch into 5 parts after fermentation, and oak each a different amount/time. That way next time you'll know exactly how much you like.

Re:ferm temps, if you cool it down as cold as you can get it before pitching, that will help a lot. I usually pitch @ 55*, add water/ice packs to the cooler with the fermenter, and then over the next couple days it'll creep up to around 60-65*. By that point, most of the active ferment is done so the temp isn't as crucial. I just have a cheapo cooler, so I'm sure yours would chill as well as mine.