LeonardC2 Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Here's one from colonial times in America. It was usually made with stout,but dark ale,& stouts pre-cursor,porter,were also used. It was popular up until prohibition. It was made by aging the ale in used wooden bourbon casks. 1 can cooper's dark ale 3lbs (1.4kg) Munton's plain amber DME 1oz (30g) US Kent Golding hop pellets,4.5%AA 1oz (30g) German Haulertau,4.3%AA Starter for cooper's ale yeast 4oz (120g) medium toast French oak chips 5 jiggers of Beam's Black Kentucky bourbon 1st make the starter with 1 1/2C boiling water & 1/4C of the DME. Place in it a quick check thermometer,cover with plastic wrap. Allow to cool down to 70F (21C),then stir in yeast sachet. Recover & set aside. Get 2.5 gallons (9.5L) of water boiling in the brew kettle. Add half the DME,stiring till lumps dissolve. You'll get a small hot break at this point. Then,sock up the whole 30g of US Kent Golding hops,toss it in the BK,& set timer for 20 minutes. At 10 minutes,add 15g of the Haulertau hops. At flame out,remove BK from heat,place strainer over kettle,& drain hop sacks. Then add the remaining DME,stiring to dissolve. Then add remaining 15g of Haulertau for 10 minute steep with lid on BK. Remove that sack,& stir in the cooper's can till no more syrup can be scraped off the bottom of the kettle. Replace lid to steep for 15 minutes while sanitizing FV,etc. Place BK of wort in ice water bath till temp goes down to 70F (21C). Pour roughly into fermenter to aerate it,dito with top off water to 23L. stir like mad for 5 minutes to mix wort & top off water. Take hydrometer reading,I got OG of 1.050. Stir yeast starter & pour it in,stiring the lot lightly. Seal & attach blow off tube in vessel of water for the 1st couple of days. Then you can use the airlock. At 11 days in primary,I got an initial FG of 1.011. I'll check it Wednesday or Thursday for final FG. At that point,sanitize secondary vessel,pour chips & bourbon through grain sock (looks like a large hop sock)into secondary vessel,tie off,& toss it in. Rack ale onto that in secondary. Allow to sit for 7-10 days,then taste for desired level of flavor. At that point,prime & bottle as usual. it should be left to condition for a couple of months. It's said that the oak/ale/bourbon flavors mellow to nicer flavors in that time. We'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Leonard, pardon my ignorance but what is a jigger? I thought it was an Irish dancer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muddy Waters Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 The only jigger I know is best not mentioned [bandit] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB2 Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Is a jigger the little bit of kit for measuring out a nip?[sideways] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muddy Waters Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 According to the always accurate ([innocent] ) and reliable Wikipedia: A jigger or measure is a bartending tool used to measure liquor, which is typically then poured into a cocktail shaker. It is named for the unit of liquid it typically measures, a 1.5 fluid ounce (~44 ml) jigger or shot. However bar jiggers come in other sizes and may not actually measure a fluid jigger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Brew Master Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 ......... I bet you blokes are glad you drink from Pots, Middies, Glasses, Stubbies, Longnecks & not out of Jiggers, [whistling Cheers, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonardC2 Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 "sigh"...oh well,I tried. A jiggeris indeed 1.5oz,or 1.5 shots in the little measures we get in bar tending kits over here. I thought that might be a standard measure everywhere,being a shot & a half.? I used that to measure the Beam's Black "double aged" bourbon onto the oak chips after pitch the yeast on the wort. I thought to have it soaking for the whole time the beer is fermenting. Should get nice flavors that way. Being a "historical brew" makes it interesting to me. I have to take a 2nd FG sample today or tomorrow. Need the brew to clear a bit more. Then,it'll go into secondary with the bourbon/oak mixture. I thought maybe you folks down under might like it.?... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weggl Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Were do we get medium toast French oak chips in OZ? Do do these chips have to be sanitised? Weggl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewtownClown Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 Were do we get medium toast French oak chips in OZ? Do do these chips have to be sanitised? Weggl Dave's HomeBrew Ibrew Grain and Grape Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonardC2 Posted June 25, 2011 Author Share Posted June 25, 2011 They are specifically medium toast French oak chips. I got them at JW Dover,my LHBS. I took a second FG yesterday,which was 1.010,down from OG of 1.050. That gives me nearly 5.9%ABV by the cooper's formula! I racked the dark ale onto the chips,which I had poured through a grain sack into secondary,then tied off & dumped in. So far,it had a smooth taste from the hydrometer sample. The color looks like it's going to be similar to the color of whiskey. I'm going to let it sit 7-10 days. Then try a sample to see how it's doing. I want a good balance of flavors between the ale & the oaked bourbon before I bottle & age for a couple months. In 5-6 weeks,I may try one to see how the flavors are melding/developing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonardC2 Posted June 30, 2011 Author Share Posted June 30, 2011 I took a double shot sample of this ale yesterday afternoon. It's a cross between red ale & whiskey in color. It's cleared nicely already. OMG,are the flavors wonderful so far! The oaked bourbon has a vanilla cream quality by using French oak,rather than American White Oak to mellow the flavors coming out of the reaction between the bourbon & oak wood. The malt/hop flavors are there,albeit light. They'll need carbonation & aging to bring them out. I'll definitely be using the o2 barrier caps on this when it's bottled,maybe next week. I want that vanilla cream bourbon flavor to stand out just a bit more before carbonation brings it out even more. Just not too much. This is proving[love] to be an outstanding drop!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonardC2 Posted July 3, 2011 Author Share Posted July 3, 2011 Well,I had an interesting problem getting ready to bottle today. Since I also use my bottling bucket as a secondary,nothing to rack to to get the priming solution in at the bottom. Oh well,just got it stirred to swirling,but not frothy so no o2 getting in. Kept the swirl going as I poured in the priming solution. Stirred at least a minute. I got 64 out of the usual 66 bottles with o2 barrier caps.May try one the 1st or 2nd week of August to see how it's doing. I hope that reddish brown color comes back as it clears up. The bourbon flavor is more pronounced. It seems like at 3-4 days in secondary with the oak,you get a taste of the flavor you'll wind up with when the ale is aged a while... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matty A Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 The only issue I can see you having Leonard is that the priming solution might not be mixed in properly. Although it sounds like you tried to mix it fairly well so it should be pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonardC2 Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 I did stir it pretty good without frothing it for over a minute. It should be fine. But only one way we'll know. It'll take a while for it to carb,thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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