Secondary Fermentation with Whisky? - Christmas Porter

[CrimsonYellow]

Hi guys,

I tried to search the forum for secondary fermentation with whisky and somehow could only find whisky infusions using wood chips. :tinhat:

My brew day, this weekend (my first recipe), is a Vanilla, Cinnamon, Nutmeg Porter.
Hops - Williamette and WGV.

Pre-mash volume - 18L
Batch volume - 13L

My idea is to add Vanilla, Cinnamon and Nutmeg to this porter during secondary fermentation. The quantities that I'm looking to put are

1. Vanilla Beans - 2 beans
2. Cinnamon - 1 bark
3. Nutmeg powder-.35 gms ( I've read that even small amounts tend to be right in the face)

Whisky - Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition

I am planning on crushing them up and mixing them in about 35mls of whisky with intervals of agitation and rest for 8-9 days.

I would add the spices to a muslin bag (post-infusion) and place them in the secondary fermentation vessel with the whisky, siphoning my beer from primary (10 days) into secondary (4 days).

I plan to bottle condition this with dextrose and letting it sit for 10 days up until Christmas. The whisky wouldn't kill my yeast, right?

Would this be an issue in any way when it comes to my final beer? Are these spice amounts enough to shine through in my porter?

Any advice is appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Slid]

I think that to answer we would need to understand when you want to drink this beer. Is it for this Xmas or next?

My one and only effort on adding whisky to a Vanilla Stout was rubbish for well over a year, for instance.

 

[CrimsonYellow]

I think that to answer we would need to understand when you want to drink this beer. Is it for this Xmas or next?

My one and only effort on adding whisky to a Vanilla Stout was rubbish for well over a year, for instance.

This Xmas. Too soon?

Also what happened with the Vanilla Stout?

 

[Slid]

OK, so this Xmas - leave it alone as a simple Porter and you are in with a decent shout at a brew. 2weeks in primary and bottle. Leave it until it carbonates in a warm place.

If it is OK-ish for the festive period, you can drink it with a whisky chaser and some spicy peanuts.

Sorry to speak so negatively from mere experience, but the sort of beer you are describing is just very hard to do in short time frames.

The stout was over-whisky-ed and I would not advise this approach for any but the most patient and experienced.

 

[crowcrow]

As above. You'll be lucky for the beer to be both well carbed and conditioned in the time you have before Xmas now. Many beers greatly benefit from time in the bottle.

For planning ahead you want to be brewing a season or two ahead of when you'll be drinking it.

Also get a few under your belt before risking ruining a good beer with additions. I guess you could separate an amount offf and treat that as you describe, so you. Can compare with and without? Then keep a few bottle back and try on in the summer and some next Xmas to see how they compare. Take notes if that interests you

 

[Harbey]

I did a strong (~7%) milk stout back in September. I bottled 1/3 plain, 1/3 with a vanilla addition, and 1/3 with whiskey that had liquorice root soaking in it for 2 weeks. I only added the additions at bottling as I don't think these added any additional sugars which would need fermenting and doing it this way allowed me to taste test in order to get the right balance. It's tasting really good now and ready for Christmas.

If you're soaking your spices in the whiskey and then just adding the whiskey to the beer you should get a bit of Christmas warmth in there without too much of a wait but you're still going to be cutting it fine. I'd give it a go and see how it comes out. I'm sure it'll be more than drinkable and, at worse, you'll have some nice winter beers for those long January and February nights. And put a couple of bottles in storage ready for next year too!

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi CrimsonYellow

Welcome to the forum, by the way ... I saw your post in the "Introduce Yourself" forum before seeing this thread ... I find it interesting that, despite your clear experience around beers and brewing, here you are making a classic "rookie" mistake (with all respect) of choosing a complicated brew to get the balance right ... indeed, of all the beer styles to choose as the base beer, choosing a Porter the style that was "invented" as a (long-term) brewery conditioned beer is an odd choice in the first place (when you stop and think about it) ... and then to consider adding spices and liquor and hoping for all the flavours to balance and "work" in the timescales you're looking at ... well it's a big ask
Please note: I'm not pointing these things out simply to criticise/"name-call" ... we ALL get ourselves thinking along "dumb" lines at times, and we all need others to point out why what we're thinking about is "dumb" ... I hope my criticism comes across clearly as having those intentions

You've not described your grain bill above ... but as a complete alternative, if your grainbill is simple enough (but with just a hint of complexity, perhaps), you might consider dropping the spices and whiskey, lowering the IBU a touch and calling the beer you're making a Mild ... at least starting out to make a beer that's intended to be drunk young will give you a solid chance of having ready for when you want to be drinking it ... and a well brewed simple Mild can be just as much a joy to drink, and to share with your chosen "samplers", as the most complicated of spiced-up, pseudo-barrel-aged beers, IMHO

Cheers, PhilB

 

[user 18729]

I’d be tempted to add whisky barrel oak chips and age the beer that way rather than adding whisky. Just a thought. As already said a beer of that complexity will need to be aged a a while before you get the best out of it