Single malt oaked Scottish heavy

[Spike101uk]

OK so my next crazy plan needs a yay or nay from the more experienced brewers,

I have a 1.8kg Brewmaker Scottish heavy tin and plan to do the following

1.8kg Scottish heavy tin
1.5kg liquid pale malt extract
50g french oak chips medium toasted
50ml islay single malt possibly Laphroaig to soak in chip

Plan to soak chips in whiskey and add to secondary for 4-6 days then put into keg and condition at room temperature for as long as it takes for flavours to mellow

Would this work and would I need to add more dextrose or anything?

 

[DoctorMick]

What length brew? If it's 5g I think you'd need a lot more whisky, most like 500ml I'd imagine. Greg Hughes has a bourbon Stout in his book, can't remember exactly how much bourbon he used exactly tho. I also remember he adds before bottling, not sure if fermentation would drive off some of the whisky flavour/aroma.

 

[peebee]

Crazy? Possibly. But you wont be the first. Adding whisky soaked oak chips has become quite the thing these days. At least having chosen "'Fraig" you've picked something that might well be noticeable.

I don't think the dextrose will help you. Carry on keeping it simple :thumb:.


(EDIT: I think if "DocterMick" is right and you need 500ml of whisky, I'd sit down with a glass and the whisky and forget about putting it in the beer!)

 

[Slid]

GH suggests adding 400ml of Bourbon to an already strong stout. The addition is just before bottling (or casking, in this case).

Whether it would be better to keep them separate and go for the Old Scottish "half and a half" - that is a wee Heavy and a single tot of whisky, or mix it up comes down to your choice.

 

[Poochops]

I'd scale it right down for a first attempt if I was giving it a go, take off a gallon and treat that to the alchemy and bottle the other four gallons as normal. At least if doesn't taste great you haven't wasted a whole load of good scotch.

 

[mickthetrick]

i brewed a russian imperial stout and used rum soaked oak chips. the beer was sat on the oak chips for a month. it was brewed in april and i tried a bottle last night. no rum taste but a nice oakiness comes through.
11 litres of stout.
approx 500g of oak chips were soaked in rum before hand for a couple weeks. the idea was to infuse the oak and sterilise at the same time. then the surplus rum was drained (next time id leave the surplus rum and add it)
give it a go id say. you may be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Spike101uk]

i brewed a russian imperial stout and used rum soaked oak chips. the beer was sat on the oak chips for a month. it was brewed in april and i tried a bottle last night. no rum taste but a nice oakiness comes through.
11 litres of stout.
approx 500g of oak chips were soaked in rum before hand for a couple weeks. the idea was to infuse the oak and sterilise at the same time. then the surplus rum was drained (next time id leave the surplus rum and add it)
give it a go id say. you may be pleasantly surprised.

How much rum did you use or would you use and add to next time

I was planning on doing a full 21 litre batch but will heed advice and maybe do a smaller or even a cheapish dark rum soaked with the Scottish heavy, give it a bit of a sweeter kick , how much oak should I use if I use 500ml for a 23 litre batch

Thanks all for your help and ideas

 

[Brewed_Force]

What kind of effect do oak chips have on a brew?
Reading this thread I'm thinking of adding some to a Hobgoblin clone.......

 

[mickthetrick]

How much rum did you use or would you use and add to next time

I was planning on doing a full 21 litre batch but will heed advice and maybe do a smaller or even a cheapish dark rum soaked with the Scottish heavy, give it a bit of a sweeter kick , how much oak should I use if I use 500ml for a 23 litre batch

Thanks all for your help and ideas

i never measure it. just used enough to cover the chip in a kilner jar

 

[mickthetrick]

What kind of effect do oak chips have on a brew?
Reading this thread I'm thinking of adding some to a Hobgoblin clone.......

an oak taste hopefully :thumb:

 

[peebee]

What kind of effect do oak chips have on a brew?
Reading this thread I'm thinking of adding some to a Hobgoblin clone.......

I don't imagine they make any impact at all unless soaking for a year or so (in wine new oak adds vanilla-like flavours). It's what they are soaked in that really makes a difference. I've heard of people using soaked raisins in the same way (I'd just eat all the soaked raisins before they got to see the beer).

There is nothing in Hobgoblin that needs such flavouring, so if you are creating a clone, just forget all this stuff.

 

[Brewed_Force]

You're probably right, and I'm struggling to imagine what oak tastes like (never having eaten wood....)

 

[DoctorMick]

I don't imagine they make any impact at all unless soaking for a year or so (in wine new oak adds vanilla-like flavours). It's what they are soaked in that really makes a difference. I've heard of people using soaked raisins in the same way (I'd just eat all the soaked raisins before they got to see the beer).

There is nothing in Hobgoblin that needs such flavouring, so if you are creating a clone, just forget all this stuff.

As most people use oak chips the contact time doesn't need to be so long (down to increased surface area I'd imagine), a couple of weeks can give a significant oak flavour.

 

[DoctorMick]

You're probably right, and I'm struggling to imagine what oak tastes like (never having eaten wood....)

Try an innis and gunn beer, they're available is Tesco and B&M. I used to like them but I think it was a bit of a novelty and I'm not so keen now.

 

[Thumper]

Why not just buy whiskey barrel oak chips? I'm sure you can buy some for brewing purposes. If not, Jack Daniels sell wood chips made from their old barrels for use in smokers. Bourbon is very different to Scotch, but it's a better option that potentially wasting Laphroaig!

 

[Spike101uk]

What about trying a 1 gallon demijohn only extract brew with whiskey soaked chips or rum, like maybe a rum and raisin porter, any ideas on a 1 gallon porter recipe could even probably manage a biab porter recipe

 

[serum]

+1 to trying Innis and Gunn. It's a creamy vanilla taste. It can be pretty nice when done right.

I think the best oaked beer I've had was a Thiriez Oud Bruin which is dark, a bit sweet and not roasty. I imagine it'd be good in a Scotch ale for the same reasons. I've had a few Scotch style ones with peated malt and thought they were foul so I'd personally not try to get the Laphroaig flavour in there but some people like it. I like the whisky on its own but that flavour in beer doesn't really do it for me.

 

[Zephyr259]

I was going to try these out then they went out of stock. Meant to be getting more though.

http://www.geterbrewed.com/oak-barrel-chunks-29-year-scotch-whiskey-oak-barrel/