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Just brewed a very big Russian imperial stout (SG 1.134). My plan is to do some sort of barrel-aged with chips. Any suggestions? really looking for something with lots of vanilla coconut leather tobacco chocolate cinnamon and a hint of spiciness. I must confess I'm not interested in adding any other adjuncts besides the wood and the whiskey. figure there's got to be some combination of wood type and whiskey that would get the flavors I'm looking for.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homeb...island-bourbon-county-stout-maris-otter-base-
 
So you'll get vanilla, oak and bourbon with American oak chips with a decent char. Your malts should cover the chocolate. I can see people saying tobacco/leather from the combination of the malts and the chips/bourbon. But I'm not seeing much chance for the cinnamon and coconut without you adding them post fermentation.

If you did a tincture of the oak chips and bourbon it'd be trivial to add a cinnamon stick. And then you can add the bourbon/oak/vanilla/cinnamon tincture to taste at packaging. Haven't fooled around with coconut yet, but I've seen it mentioned in other threads.
 
So you'll get vanilla, oak and bourbon with American oak chips with a decent char. Your malts should cover the chocolate. I can see people saying tobacco/leather from the combination of the malts and the chips/bourbon. But I'm not seeing much chance for the cinnamon and coconut without you adding them post fermentation.

If you did a tincture of the oak chips and bourbon it'd be trivial to add a cinnamon stick. And then you can add the bourbon/oak/vanilla/cinnamon tincture to taste at packaging. Haven't fooled around with coconut yet, but I've seen it mentioned in other threads.

I might just try adding some toasted coconut to the whiskey and chips. That sounds like a pretty good idea. I am bit Leary of using cinnamon. I've had a couple of beers before where they use that and it was very overpowering. I'm really looking for cinnamon to be a very faint background note, almost not even sure what that flavor is until you really have to think about it. The rest of the flavor notes with probably the ones that are more upfront.

This is really more of a clone of the Goose island Bourbon county Stout beer. I've done this recipe before with pale ale malt as the base and it turned out amazing. I supposed to batch in half and it half with whiskey oak cubes and the other half with out. it's only been aging about 6 months, but I can tell this is going to be one of the best beers I've ever made.

I recently purchased a 50lb bag of Maris Otter, so this time I did it with Maris Otter and added an extra 5 lb of it to account for the performance difference between MO and Pale Ale. In my personal experience, my efficiency dips a bit when I use Maris Otter. That combined with the fact that I'm still trying to figure out the sweet spot on my mash tun as far as maximum pounds of grain (looks to be 14 lbs for 77-80%).

Thanks again for the helpful hints.
 
I agree. You want to get the faint cinnamon and coconut notes from the bourbon/whiskey and oak chips. I wouldn't be adding them in on their own. IMO, Wild Turkey 101 has all the flavor characteristics you're looking for. It's a great whiskey and doesn't cost much either. The proof is a nice bonus!
 
I agree. You want to get the faint cinnamon and coconut notes from the bourbon/whiskey and oak chips. I wouldn't be adding them in on their own. IMO, Wild Turkey 101 has all the flavor characteristics you're looking for. It's a great whiskey and doesn't cost much either. The proof is a nice bonus!

I do like wild turkey, however this time around I soak some Jack Daniel bourbon chips with some larceny wheated bourbon. wild turkey is a wheated bourbon as well as I understand, so I shouldn't be that far off. Although larceny only has 92 proof versus the kickin Chicken 101
 
I do like wild turkey, however this time around I soak some Jack Daniel bourbon chips with some larceny wheated bourbon. wild turkey is a wheated bourbon as well as I understand, so I shouldn't be that far off. Although larceny only has 92 proof versus the kickin Chicken 101

Wild Turkey 101 is not “wheated”. Just Corn, Rye and Malted Barley. And since it’s a bourbon, has to be brewed in Kentucky and by rule, has to have at least 50% corn.
 
Wild Turkey 101 is not “wheated”. Just Corn, Rye and Malted Barley. And since it’s a bourbon, has to be brewed in Kentucky and by rule, has to have at least 50% corn.

I stand corrected good sir. The image of the bottle in my mind was Maker's Mark, but what I wrote down was Wild Turkey...I may have already had a beer or two. I really do actually love Wild Turkey 101. Not really sure why people hate on it so much. Of course that's just my opinion and my personal preference for whiskey.
 
I stand corrected good sir. The image of the bottle in my mind was Maker's Mark, but what I wrote down was Wild Turkey...I may have already had a beer or two. I really do actually love Wild Turkey 101. Not really sure why people hate on it so much. Of course that's just my opinion and my personal preference for whiskey.

It’s our house bourbon! And no worries... just wanted to clarify!
 
There's nothing wrong with Larceny either. Are the Jack chips made from their barrel staves do you know?
 
There's nothing wrong with Larceny either. Are the Jack chips made from their barrel staves do you know?

The bag states that they are made from Jack Daniel whiskey barrels. They are actually marketed as smoking chips for BBQ. Did a little research to make sure it is ok to use them in a beer. Just boil them before using and dump the boiled water down the drain to get any dirt off along with any other critters that may be along for the ride.
 

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