Hey all. I've gotta brew a Belgian Specialty (16E) beer for a club-only competition. I was thinking about a big Belgian Stout, but want to add a hint of orange to it. Just enough to make you think you smell/taste it. I'm sure I'll add some sort of orange peel to the boil, most likely something fresh. I was going to age some oak chips in bourbon and add them for a couple of weeks, but figured that would overpower any hints of orange that might show up. That got me thinking about the possibility of soaking the cubes in an orange liqueur, instead of bourbon. Not sure if it would work out or not, but worth a try??? My wife has something in the liquor cabinet called "La Belle Orange", cognac and orange liqueur. It's nice because the orange aroma isn't overpowering, I guess because of the cognac. Same goes for the flavor. It is definitely sweet though...
Here's the base:
Shooting for OG=1.079 FG=1.016 and about 50 IBU's
*2-Row, carawheat, munich, c120, chocolate, roasted barley, and brown malt.
**Dark Belgian Candi Syrup (D2), fresh orange peel Magnum for bitter, glacier
***WLP530 Abbey Ale
****8 oz. medium toast American oak chips soaked overnight in the orange liqueur, added to secondary for probably only a week or so.