Secret Santa Stout: The ingredients

Deciding to brew Secret Santa Stout was the result of a not-terribly-scientific survey of dark, high-gravity beers. After brewing an amber ale for my inaugural batch, I knew I wanted to go darker for the second. I've always been a fan of maltier beers, so it made sense to try a porter or a stout. I also wanted to add fresh ingredients this time, whether in the boil or in the fermenter, so I thought about flavors like coffee, chocolate, and vanilla -- or maybe even something daring like cinammon or hot pepper. Ultimately, caution won out, and I stuck with a kit, but one that includes most of what I'm looking for.

Secret Santa Stout is made from the "bourbon vanilla oak stout" kit from Beer and Wine Hobby. The kit includes:

• 2 lb flaked oats 
• 1 lb chocolate malt 
• 1 lb roasted barley 
• 2 lb Munich malt 
• 3 lb light dry malt extract 
• 3 lb dark dry malt extract 
• 2 lb amber dry malt extract 
• 2 oz Galena hop pellets 
• 1 oz Golding hop pellets 
• 4 oz French oak chips 
• English ale yeast

Despite being an extract kit, the shipment includes 6 pounds of grains for steeping, which is important. I'm not philosophically opposed to the ease of extracts. I can't see myself ever going to all-grain brewing, or even a partial mash that would require a lauter-tun. That all sounds too much like work to me. But I do want to introduce quality ingredients wherever I can. Two of the key ingredients in the kit's name, the bourbon and the vanilla, are not included, and that's part of what attracted me to the recipe. Anything fresh that I can add will make a big difference.

The recipe required a little prep work prior to the boil. The first thing I had to do was soak the wood chips in bourbon. I put them in a small, airtight container, and poured Knob Creek bourbon to cover (about 300 ml). The wood is to soak for a week. Even after a few days, it's already absorbed a decent amount of liquid. At first the chips were completely submerged, and now the top layer is visibly above the bourbon's surface. This pleases me.

The wood will be used later in the fermenting process to approximate aging the beer in a bourbon casket. First, though, comes the boil.