Homebrewing: Bourbon Barrel Stout

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For Bug specifically, I seem to remember you used the AHS Oaked Bourbon stout kit. How did that one turn out for you?

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It turned out very good. My only complaint was very low carbonation. I added 8 oz. of Woodford reserve. I also aged it in a 5 gallon balcones whisky barrel. I think the high alcohol content and the addition of whiskey caused the yeast to be spent, therefore not much carb in the bottles. IT is still delicious though.

I consider closer to a sipping whiskey. It is great for a cold day. I have 3 big bottles, and 3 12 oz. left in the beer fridge, aging.

Add yeast at bottling? Wha? Doesn't seem like a good idea. I'd add yeast and let it do it's work for a couple weeks, then bottle.

I tried to make a KBS clone a couple years ago and it did not turn out well, mainly because my mashtun was not big enough to hold all the grain, so I wasn't able to use it all.

That recipe is on homebrew talk and gets rave reviews. It uses french oak chips. Most people say to soak them for a little bit and add a good bit of bourbon straight to the secondary with the chips. 8oz sounds like a good #.

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For those of you that have made bourbon stouts, how did they turn out? Did you add bourbon and soak oak chips?

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The one I did turned out really nice, but I had a used 5-gallon bourbon barrel from Balcones.

So I aged in the barrel for about two months prior to kegging.

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The kit calls for double pitching the yeast

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That's just so there's enough yeast to cover the 1.100 or so wort you'll have(if it's that high)

I want to say that the new yeast pitch so close to bottling is a completely fresh yeast that hasn't struggled through primary then secondary and any extra barrel aging or bourbon additions. Could be a Champagne yeast or something like that that can survive higher alcohol content in the bottle and still provide the carbonation you need.

Adding it just before bottling wouldn't cause over carbonation or bottles popping?

Eta: no, because there is only the priming sugar left to ferment, right?

I've been brewing hard core for the last 4 years.

And lonestar you are correct in that all you have left is the priming sugar

A year

If you need someone to help, holler at me. Until then, read this.

I actually have a PDF of that and I've been reading it for a few weeks. I am reading it as kind of a "first pass" right now since I am physically limited in being able to brew stuff, so I intend to go back through it whenever I actually attempt my first one, which will be something straightforward.