Adding whiskey to beer

[jceg316]

I'm a groom's man at a wedding and the groom just gave me a 50ml bottle of whiskey. It's really nice of him, but I don't drink whiskey. What I'd like to do is use it in beer, perhaps for a whiskey infused smoked porter. 50ml isn't enough to soak woodchips in which is what I would do to get whiskey flavours in beer, could I add it directly to secondary?

 

[peebee]

I'm a groom's man ...

Might help? https://www.englishwhisky.co.uk/news/the-saints-whisky-beer-17/

All I could find for it was "added before bottling". And reviews of not being able to taste the whisky. I was in the "English Whisky Company" over the New Year period and have come away with a bottle; it is made with the "peated" version of their whisky which I would of thought would make a difference (but the "peat" in their whisky isn't very assertive).

I think "added before bottling" seems like a good policy, and allows for testing the amount to add before subjecting the whole brew to it. Oak chips soaked in whisky sounds un-necessarily complicated unless trying to emulate the Innis & Gunn stuff?

 

[mcphail]

50ml or 50cl? The former isn't going to be enough to flavour a batch.

 

[MartinHaworth]

I was at St Peter's Brewery over the summer. They told me about a beer they had with whisky added. The head Brewer said that very little was added due to excise issues. The whisky was added at the bottling stage just as an additional flavour, that blended over time.

Cheers Martin

 

[Leon103]

50ml? Just neck it

 

[peebee]

50ml or 50cl? The former isn't going to be enough to flavour a batch.

50ml? Missed that. Good point.

50ml could be added to one or two bottles only.

 

[Simonh82]

At the Brew Con club night in November I tried a really nice Russian Imperial Stout with Whisky and I think chocolate. The whisky came through very strongly but given that I'm not a big whisky fan, I really liked this. The sweetness of the stout and dark roasty flavours married really well with the whisky. I think they said they just added it at bottling.

 

[chewie]

I'd just make an Irish coffee with it and be done...

 

[jceg316]

I think I'll add it just before bottling and see what happens.

 

[Leon103]

I think I'll add it just before bottling and see what happens.

To a couple of bottles?

 

[Slid]

GH outlines a Vanilla Bourbon stout (p181) in his excellent book. As my effort was only kicked off 14 October, the only bottle I have tried was a bit , well - "whoosh". I did chuck in most of a bottle of Bourbon, whereas Greg suggests 400ml.
I feel it may be promising, as an experiment. I would have to say that, on the whole, I prefer the brews that are less than experimental and more, sort of "mainstream". ESB stuff.
More the sort of strong or dark beers from the GW book, to be honest.

 

[BREWERS DROOP]

Got a vanilla stout with bourbon in bottles, been in their since October so not tried it yet as I have been ill.2 vanilla pods cut up and the middle scraped out, soaked in bourbon for 2 days,then added to fermenter after 10 days, bottled with 400ml to 5 gallon of bourbon after 2 weeks, my old man should like this, think ill stick to my IPA

 

[Dutto]

I suggest you drink it as a chaser to a beer.

In Scotland an order of "A half and a half." traditionally meant you wanted a half pint of beer and a half gill of whisky.

Back in the mid 90's when Scotland had to go metric they chose the 35ml optic measure on the basis that a "quarter gill" was the equivalent of 35.5ml so nowadays "A half and a half." means a half pint of beer and a large whisky. i.e. two optics of whisky.

The changeover meant that there was less whisky in the "Half" and as the price of a dram didn't change there was great protest at the change over, mainly on the basis that the difference of 1.0ml gave the licensee an extra 1.5% profit at the drinker's expense!

Happy Days!

 

[jceg316]

After doing some more research it's not gonna be enough whiskey. I really wanted to incorporate it into a beer.