delboy wrote:The oak chips (50g) soaked in bourbon (150 ml) overnight were added to the fermenter on tuesday.
A hydrometer sample taster tonight (thursday) revealed that its already taking on the oak flavours, in fact i'll probably look to get it cornied and bottled some time in the next few days.
As far as being a clone of innes and gunn i would say that i underdid the crystal malt it needs to be darker and richer (maybe an extra 100 or 200g of crystal) at the moment its more like their lighter blonde oak aged beer (no bad thing really).
The flavour is pretty damn good although i don't think it has the same complexity as the orginal when it comes to the oak flavours, also with the bitterness i'd be tempted to up it a little (but still using EKG at the start of the boil) to make the finish a tad more dry.
I noticed from my french chips that a full extraction is about a week.. by which time it's beer of liquid french oak! Chips also have a very flat taste - I noticed this too. Cubes have to longer time to extract.
From my experiment I would say - use Goldern Promise. You'll also get the honey undertones and the colour. I'll take a photo of my goldern promise/British crystal/amber/carapils. The drink is of the right feel and texture with a creamy head (as I wanted - different from I&G). The Oak cubes I've used have added a deeper coppering tint which is perfect. The only issue I had was that I only used 2.7Kg GP - I think I would use alot more next time - a 5.5KG grain bill I think next time.
The #1968 yeast came out drier too - I think they sweeten I&G. I find the drier tastes better too.
Fuggles & Golding at 25IBU was good in terms of the bitterness but the taste wasn't being offset by the GP (low grain bill).
I'll be planning the next one soon, although I want to have a light beer underway for summer soon too..
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