Molasses and wood (bourbon) chunks

[Soren]

Hi all,

Two things I have been thinking about that some of you may already have tried:

1) Molasses.
I know you can brew with molasses but how is the outcome, that is the taste in the final product? What styles of beer might improve with a cup of the stuff?

2) Wood chunks.
This may be a bit creative, but I have noticed the homebrew shops sell these "bourbon chunks" which I believe is for making your own bourbon. Have anyone tried adding these to the secondary? What I am thinking is that they might produce a "wooden" or aged flavour, possibly resulting more depth.
If anyone have tried this, how do you sanitize them, do you boil them or are they clean enough as you buy them?

Cheers
Soren

[Simon]

Hi,

Don't know what the results with the molasses would be, but am sure it would make an interesting experiment. I have thought about doing a beer with maple syrup additions at some point in the future.

I found the following article suggesting that a 15 minute steam or a boil would do the trick of sanitising the wood chips:
http://www.byo.com/mrwizard/913.html
Oak barrels are toasted for some length of time before filling, but I think this is done to open up the structure of the wood to the liquid so that it can seep into it and filter through it rather than for the purpose of sanitisation. I wonder whether a few minutes toasting in a frying pan or 15-20 minutes on a baking tray in an oven might kill any bugs and sanitise the chips sufficiently. Could be a bit risky but might be worth a test on some small batches? You'd probably want to watch them constantly if trying this to make sure they don't catch fire!

Let us know how you get on with your experiments.

[Soren]

Thank you for that link Simon, really interesting article. Probably normal oak chips would be what I'd use, I never intended on making the beer taste like bourbon, although that could be another interesting experiment :) Will let you know how it goes, if I decide to sacrifice a batch for the sake of science :)

[Dan]

How about soaking the chips in a glass of straight bourbon for a few days, should kill some bugs.

[Fairlane]

Hi Soren,
I put about 250gms of molasses in my porter (42L) which aids in that sort of slightly burnt grain / coffee type flavour that I like in a robust style.

As for oak, as long as it is soaked in water that is over 80 deg. C it will be fine. The toasting that they undergo is purely for a bit of added flavour complexity when used in the winery.

Using bourbon oak would also go great with a porter but you need to be careful about how much you use...I wouldn't go past 5g/L for my first brew....

dh

[David Falconer]

You may also want to look at a peated whiskey malt that adds these flavors with minimal hassle in the mash,
I think mike ellwood at brewers coop has some
Cheers

[Soren]

Smoked malts are on my list of experiments as well. How much would you use, just a pinch I take it, say 100g or so for a ~20L batch?

[Soren]

What kind of molasses do you use? I got some blackstrap molasses which is REALLY potent, tastes alsmost like raw licorice. Not that this is bad but I believe you can get milder forms of molasses, maybe the'll be too tasteless though... How about treacle, have you tried this?

[Fairlane]

yep thats exactly what I use; haven't tried treacle, but at the end of the day it's all about the flavour profile you want to try to get...

dh