Oaked and Bourbon Infused IPA

[hopshead]

So, I love IPAs. I was curious and wanted to tweak some IPA recipes. After reading Vinnie's article in Zymurgy about the Pliny, I was curious about Vinnie's "cube of oak" he used to add to some IPAs with the dry hops. I think I want to try this, dry hops along with with oak cubes/chips. Has anyone done this, what did you think? I also thought about bourbon infused IPAs with the cubes of oak. A smooth bourbon though, like Maker's Mark. Am I nuts, tell me someone has tried it and liked the results. I was also thinking of the base recipe being more like Jamil's West Coast Blaster.

[Billy Klubb]

soak the chips you want to use in the bourbon prior to brewing. let the chips (or cubes) soak through primary. add the chips to secondary. at bottling or kegging, if you think it needs more bourbon flavor, you can add the bourbon from the soak. I think it would be real interesting with an IPA. "I say: Go for it!"

[Sent From My iPhone]

A few years ago I made an English style IPA and added oak chips soaked in bourbon to the secondary. Came out real nice. Not sure how it'd work on an American style hop bomb though.

[hopshead]

Yeah, I realize I will be pushing the envelope here on flavors that might taste right together. My deal is that I am disappointed every time I make a home brew that doesn't have a shitload of hops in them. I get to the point that I would rather not make a "standard" beer and make only hoppy beers (minimum 1 to 1 ratio of Ibus to OG). So, I have almost decided that all my beers will be hoppy, now go make anything I want. I guess I could make very hoppy porters with bourbon and such. For some reason though, I can't stop thinking about adding an oak cube for 6 days with my dry hops to an ipa though. What the hey, I'll give it try and report back.

[SKymax]

Sounds like a good idea to me! I made an Oaked IPA once, and it was great. I think the bourbon sounds like an interesting addition. One thing I'd suggest, though. You may want to add the oak first without the dry hops, that way their time frames are independent. I added my oak and dry hops together and then regretted it, because oak flavor takes longer than dry hop flavor. I didn't want to leave the dry hops in there for too long (and get possible off flavors), but I wanted to leave the oak in. I ended up having to split the difference. Don't get me wrong, though...it was still good!

[Bob G]

Howdy,

I happen to have an IPA on oak right now.
I brewed a Two Hearted clone and added one ounce of oak chips to it in secondary along with the dry hops. I toasted the chips at 300* for 15 minute turning them every 5 minutes. The heat brought out a great woody character and aroma. I'm going to give them 5-7 days in and then give it a taste. I'll report back.

Hmmm, I keg but maybe a bit should be bottled with a bourbon infusion.

Cheers,
Bob