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Bourbon Oak Stout

 By Matt..our famous contributing writer/brewer on Brewtoob

            Every now and then my cousin comes to visit. There are two things about my cousin coming to visit that are always true; he never calls and he always brings a gift. I wasn’t surprised when he showed up a few years ago in late fall (unannounced) in his fur hat carrying a jug of what looked like spring water.  [note: make sure you consult the laws of your country before accepting moonshine from your hillbilly cousin]. Anyway, there are places to order charred oak barrels in the internet. Shortly after my cousin’s visit, I sent away for one of these barrels in order to age the gift he’d brought me.

            Of course, to do what I’m suggesting you’ll need a source of unaged liquor. If you don’t have a cousin that lives in a mountain shack, use your imagination – I’ve even heard that some distilleries now sell unaged liquor precisely for this purpose. I confess that I’m ignorant in the ways of aging in oak barrels. For what it’s worth, though, the whiskey turned out pretty good. I bottled the whiskey and left the bung off the barrel so that it could dry a bit.

            But I digress.

           

            As soon as the barrel was empty, I was thinking about what beer I’d put in there to absorb that caramelized, woody, biting goodness. I had decided long before the bourbon was ready, that I would age some beer in the spent barrel.

            I ended up using a breakfast stout that I was brewing later that week. I suppose you could use any beer if you try something like this, but I would recommend something dark and strong; this method does not produce a subtle beer. You’ll want something that has a chance to compete with the woody bourbon taste, and a darker, maltier also beer will also pick up a nice sweetness from residual caramelization in the barrel.

I aged the beer in the barrel after fermentation had finished because I was worried about wild yeast and contamination. I worried for nothing in this case, but this is always a risk. After a couple of weeks I emptied the barrel into a bottling bucket, primed it with a smaller than average amount of sugar and bottled it. I waited a few months before I was bold enough to open one – I’d smelled it in the bottling bucket!

            The flavor of this beer is strong. If you don’t like whiskey, don’t even think about it. If you don’t like oak, don’t even think about it. I like both whiskey and oak, but I must admit that the taste is quite strong.  I like the beer I made, but I expect it would be too much for some people. On that note, I wouldn’t recommend more than two weeks, but my methods are hardly scientific. Furthermore, I suspect that if I used the barrel a second time, that some of the intense flavors might be muted on the second go. I’m not even going to try to guess the alcoholic content of this beer, but it warms with every sip. Give it a try!

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Brewing Eats: A Big Salad Dressing from a Big Beer.

This is a great sipping beer but we couldn't help make something delicious with it. From a famous local chef Jeff Gompers and published by www.brewtoob.com, a most awesome dressing recipe for your next salad using Sour in the Rye:
 
Frisee and Beet Salad with Sour in the Rye Dressing

Serves 4 people

Salad Ingredients

1 large head frisee (or any kind of lettuce)
1 Large beet diced small (red or gold)
1/2 Cucumber skin on diced small
7 Grape tomatoes cut in half
2oz crumbled goat cheese

Dressing Ingredients

1 Shallot
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Cup vegetable oil
1/4 Cup cold water
1/4 Cup Sour in the Rye beer
Salt & pepper to taste

Method of Preparation

Salad

In small pot boil beet until tender, cool in a large bowl of ice cold water for 3 minutes then peel and dice small. Combine frisee, cucumber, beets, grape tomatoes and goat cheese in a large bowl.

Dressing

Rough chop the shallot then put it in a blender with garlic, Dijon mustard, honey, cold water and Sour in the Rye beer. Start blender on low to medium and slowly add oil then salt and pepper to taste. Lightly season salad and toss with dressing and enjoy. Cheers!

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Oatmeal Stout All Grain Recipe

Oatmeal Stout All Grain recipe by Matt Jones..home brewer and contributing writer for Brewtoob.
 

Ingredients:

7.5 lbs   Pale 2-row

.5   lb     Crystal Malt (60L)

.5   lb     Chocolate Malt

.5   lb      Flaked Oats

.25 lb     Roasted Barley

2     oz    Kent Golding Hops

1 pkg     Irish Ale Yeast

            This beer is my wife’s favorite. Every fall she will start dropping hints. When I start to see the flaked oats piling up in the pantry, I dust off this recipe. In the name of full disclosure,  I tend to shy away from excessively malty and excessively dark beers. This one is dark in color, and contains a fairly decent (and strong) malt bill, but the end result is a mellow, creamy, sweet and full of roasted goodness. It has become one of my favorites as well.

            This makes a great brew for the colder months, and it makes a great starting point for experimentation. Most recently, I’ve decided to branch out with this recipe. I used it as a base for my breakfast stout – I added some coffee to the beer and made it a oatmeal/coffee stout. I love it. I’ve also got less conventional with the recipe, adding things such a melted chocolate! This is a great bear standing alone, and a great base to hold up against other bold flavors. Brew it once, and go from there. Make it your own. It is sure to be a crowd pleaser every time!

           

            The first step is simple, and it will make your house smell great. Toast the oats on a baking sheet at 325 degrees for an hour and fifteen minutes. The oats will start to turn a golden brown and smell delicious. Remove the oats when you’re happy with the smell. It will become more nutty and intense as the process goes on, but be careful to remove the oats before they burn! I used the same process to make roasted barley.

            Roasted barley, generally speaking, is not malted. Malting refers to the process of germinating (aka sprouting) the barley seed. After the seed has sprouted, the seed is dried – trapping the sugars. Roasted barley does not undergo this process. I used leftover seed barley (I plant it as an ornamental grass – try it!) and roasted it in the oven. Not to go too far down the rabbit hole here, but you can also save money by buying 2-row in bulk and home roasting it to make caramel and other specialty roasted (or smoked!) malts. If you are the type of brewer that likes control of the process and starting from the most basic ingredients, give it a try. If consistency is your thing, you may want to shy away from this method.

            First step is to heat up your water in your mash tun and add the grains. I allowed for a protein rest at around 120 degrees. I think we allowed it to rest for slightly under a half hour. This rest will help your enzymes convert starches at higher temps. For the non-eggheads, it helps your mashing efficiency.  It isn’t necessary, but recommended.

 I also added some pH stabilizer – which I often don’t, but my friend had some sitting around. (I did this brew in a friend’s garage – try to brew with friends and you’ll learn twice as fast!)

After the rest, I raised the temperature in the mash tun to 165 degrees and allowed the mixture to rest for an hour and fifteen minutes. Heat up your sparge water. Drain your wort into the brew kettle. I heated the sparge water to about 170 degrees and sparged through a colander in order to minimize disturbance to the grain bed. If you’re wondering about how much water you should be using step to step, there are many calculators available online. This grain recipe is meant for a 5 gallon batch, but your water numbers may vary depending on your equipment (boil-off, etc).

I boiled for 60 minutes. I added a half once of hops at 15 minutes. I added a full ounce of hops at 30 minutes. I threw in some yeast nutrients in the last 5 minutes of boil, and I added the last half-ounce of hops at flameout.

Use a chiller or ice bath to cool the wort to about 70 degrees. Pitch the yeast. Oxygenate the beer (aka shake it up a bit). I only did a primary fermentation on this – I left it for two weeks at 65 degrees. I kegged and force carbed it, and was enjoying it soon after. I apologize that I don’t have gravity readings, but I’ve made this beer enough times that I don’t even measure. Assuming an 80-90% efficiency, you should end up with a beer in the 5%-6% range. Happy brewing!