Mash grains at 156° F (69° C) for 60 minutes. The high mash temperature, caramel malt sweetness, and heft will help balance the beer when you dry it out with the bourbon/oak addition later on. Sparge at 168° F (76° C). Chill wort to 65° F (18° C), ferment for 7 days, and then allow temperature to rise to 68° F (20° C) and ferment to completion. This typically takes 10–14 days.
While you are waiting, boil 0.5 oz. (14 g) of white, untoasted French oak chips, 0.5 oz. (14 g) medium toast chips, and 0.5 oz. (14 g) heavy char chips in 8 oz. (240 mL) of water for about 5 minutes. Drain off the water, and soak the wet chips in 8 oz. (240 mL) of cheap, rotgut plastic bottle whiskey or bourbon for 1 week. Drain, donate the booze to your nearest sink (or even better, use it in a pork shoulder marinade prior to smoking) and this time soak the chips in 750 mL good-quality bourbon (cask strength is better if you are willing to make the sacrifice) for 4 to 7 days. You should get vanilla from the white chips, coconut from the medium chips, and dark chocolate notes from the heavy char. Begin tasting the bourbon after 3 days. After the boil in water and pre-soak in cheap booze to extract harshness, you should now get subtle, harmonious flavors and aromas from the chips.
You are looking for a good, sweet, vanilla, coconut, and chocolate character that complements both bourbon and stout. When these flavors are detectable, and work well with the bourbon, it’s time to blend the soaking liquid into your finished or nearly finished stout. Add to taste—you don’t have to use all the bourbon, and you don’t have to add the soaked chips either, unless you feel the beer needs more oak character. Less is definitely more here—it seems like a whole lot of booze and a pitiful amount of wood, but this ratio will allow you to pull subtle, sweet barrel nuances from the chips, rather than harsh, dry tannins, charred wood flavors and bitterness. The bourbon itself will provide much of the flavor, and will bump up the alcohol on your stout a bit too, leaving you with closer to 10–11% ABV, which is right in line with Dragon’s Milk. It will also dry out your beer appreciably, which is a good thing, because we’ve intentionally made the beer thick and sweet by mashing high.
If you choose to add the chips along with the bourbon, it will be worth monitoring the beer every few days. Chips have a lot of surface area, and the oak can very quickly become overpowering. Rack the beer off the chips when you have noticeable vanilla notes, blanketing your secondary with CO2 to avoid oxygen pickup. After a month or two, your stout’s flavors will blend and mellow appreciably.
