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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