Homebrew - Bourbon Barrel Aged Porter

MASH INGREDIENTS
- 9.5 lbs. English Maris Otter
- 1 lbs. Weyermann Pale Wheat
- 1 lbs. English Chocolate Malt
- 0.5 lbs. English Black Malt
- 0.5 lbs. English Dark Crystal

1 oz. Chinook (60 min)
0.5 oz. US Goldings (15 min)
0.5 oz. US Goldings (5 min)


MASH SCHEDULE: SINGLE INFUSION
Sacch’ Rest: 152° F for 60 minutes
Mashout: 170° F for 10 minutes

Wyeast 1728 Scottish

Made 1L starter the day before.

Step Name	Start Temp	Stop Temp	Infuse Temp	Infuse Amount	Water-Grain Ratio
Sach	66 °F	152 °F	163.5 °F	18.8 qts	1.50

2/9/2013 - Brew went well. I used pellet chinook hops and whole US goldings. I think the whole hops cause a little bit more of a problem with clogging. In general now I really prefer pellet hops for all hop applications. My method of rubber-banding a hop bag onto the end of the kettle drain tube works pretty well. Even after the whirlpool action inevitably a lot of hop reside ends up coming out of the kettle so using the hop bag works well. A long skinny bag would work even better but the normal ones work ok.

Tip for next time. If the seems to fill up with too much hops instead of taking it all the way out take it only partially out and squeeze the wort out. This will compress the hops and make more room. If you take the bag all the way out you'll probably have to remove it or have to empty it and sanitize everything again.

OG turned out to be 1.066

The wort started fermenting *very* quickly. The starter did its job very well. Fermentation had mostly completed after 2 days.

2/24/2013 - FG has settled at 1.015. ABV is 7.1%. This beer tastes quite good. Very roasty and toasty. I think it could stand a little more body however. Next time I would like to mash slightly hotter for more body (155?) and maybe add some flaked barley and/or carapils for body and creamy head retention (they are supposed to achiever similar results).

I transferred into the bourbon barrel tonight. First I flushed it with C02. Also my fears came true - I had waited a little too long and the wood had dried and shrunk = leakage. It wasn't *too* bad though. I lost maybe a pint in beer drops before the wood swelled back up and it stopped. I'll sample this baby in another week and see how its coming along. I don't think it will require more than 2 weeks in this barrel. Should I put another one in after it?

3/2/2013 - Took a small sample today. The bourbon addition is coming through pretty strongly, its a bit harder to detect the oak and vanilla. I bet the bourbon came through sooner because I had to add a bit to the barrel to make it more moist before I added the beer. I'm going to let this sit another week and hope the oak flavor get stronger.