I spent a few days on the Bourbon Trail last month and purchased a packet of Buffalo Trace barrel char. It sure smells great, just like the barrel dump station on the tour. I am looking for advice on how to make the most of it as an aging adjunct on an Imperial Stout. Cheers!
I got some barrel staves from a friend who lives down the road from Maker’s Mark. I am going to try and use some of the staves in a beer as well. My thought is that i might use a jig saw or a miter box. I will cut the staves in strips and then cube me. My idea came from similiar cubes at my LHBS.
Not sure if it will work but i am totally prepared to try.
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How big are the pieces in the packet?
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As I understand it, the barrel char they sell is the completely charred part of the wood that they scrape out to re-char barrels for secondary uses. That probably works fine to infuse bourbon flavor into a beer but the char itself isn’t adding oak flavors. You would need to add oak cubes/staves/chips/etc. to get actual oak flavor.
You could try adding just the barrel char and if you feel like it’s lacking, add oak and give it another month or two of age to get the wood flavor into the beer.
They are 1"x1" cubes that I have used in the past. To give all sides a good char to get into the beer, I used a blow torch from a distance to just char them. Not light them on fire. If you do light them on fire the area around you will smell wonderful for awhile but will defeat the whole purpose and idea of charring. At least in my humble opinion!!! 
only somewhat related but ive tried making a bourbon inspired beer for a few iterations so far.
my thoughts for getting that flavour are:
#1 by far - BURN/char that oak.
#2 just a thought but the more complex the idea or process for me to try to make it the less it worked
I bought some staves from WoodCraft once. Not knowing what they had gone through since they were sold to woodworkers I steamed 8 inch pieces. Then I soaked them in burbon, or spiced rum, placed one in my wide mouth better bottle carboy. They did impart the oak and alcohol flavors
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