Olde #34

Oaked Bourbon Stout

On to my 34th batch.  I make a lot of beers on the lighter side, pale ales, saisons, any number of belgian farmhouse ales, but come winter I like to get one or two dark beers under my belt.  Something that is damn near a meal on its own.  It needs to have the color of used 10w-30.  A light tan head.  The aroma is toasty with a bit of nuttiness and chocolate.  It also needs to go well with a nice warm fire, a beautiful Christmas tree and quiet night in.  Maybe a cigar if you're into that sort of thing. 

Anywho, on to the recipe.  This is still in the primary fermenter.  I'll post more notes on flavor after this is kegged and I actually get to taste it.  Hopefully all that stuff I said before ends up being true.

Grain Bill

• 8.00 lbs Marris Otter
• 2.5 lbs Munich I
• 1.5 lbs Flaked oats
• 1.0 lbs Carahell
• .5 lbs Roasted Barley
• .5 lbs Chocolate

Mash

• Single infusion mash for one hour @ 148, fly sparge.
• I was shooting for 150 and ended up just a tad on the low side.  I'm assuming that the temp in the center of my mash tun was a tad warmer and that this will hopefully balance out.  I think it will turn out fine in any case, just was off target.

Boil

• 60 mins - 1 oz English Fuggles 5.8% alpha
• 20 mins - 1 oz English Fuggles 5.8% alpha
• 15 mins - 1 whirlfloc tablet
• 5 mins   - 1 oz Hallertau 3.8% alpha

Fermentation

• Wyeast 1469 - West Yorkshire
• Pitch @ 70
• 1 month in the primary
• 1 month in secondary

Additional Stuff

• Soak 6 ounces of heavy toast American oak chips in Redemption Bourbon.  I put it in a mason jar until all the oak was covered and gave it a good shake every two days or so.
• When transfering to the secondary, add oak chips and bourbon. 

Updates

• 11/2/12 Primary
• 12/10/12 Keg
• 12/24/12 - Update
• This one turned out great.  The first time I tasted it pre kegging, I was a little leery.  It was a little hoppier than I wanted and I couldn't taste much oak.  So nothing of course was wrong at this point and I went ahead and kegged, carbed and gave it a good shake.  After about a week I gave it its first taste as a finished product.  It was phenomenal.  The hop flavor had mellowed a bit and was well balanced with the oak and maltiness of this yeast.  The oak flavor was also noticable but mild.  There is not a strong woody flavor here, there's a slight smokey vanilla taste that with the chocolate malt and roasted barley meld together just right.  It's not a huge stout mind you, it's in the 5-7% alcohol range, but has a nice chocolate/vanilla/toasty flavor.  This came out well balanced and tasty.  It's great on a cold night by a fire, but its not so strong that the only next thing you can do is take a nap.  If you're considering making an oak beer I'd recommend this one.