Dosing thought?

General Homebrew Discussion
1

I’m looking for the best way to experiment with dosing a beer that will make scaling easiest.

Here is what I want to do:  I have a Bourbon Barrel RIS that has about a week left in the barrel.  I want to try dosing a small amount of it with Wild Roots Marionberry or Red Raspberry vodka to see if I like it as an addition.  If I do, I’ll probably add it to 6-10 bottles.  Wild Roots, for those unfamiliar with it, is an all-natural intensely fruity vodka unlike anything you have probably tried.  They put over a pound of berries in each fifth.  I’m thinking this would be an easier way to get natural berry flavor without the danger of an infection…

So I’m imagining starting with say 100 mL of beer, to which I would add 1 mL of vodka, taste it, top off the base beer to 100 mL again, add another mL of vodka, etc., until I like it or realize it was a bad idea.  If I like it I’d just take the ratio and dose the bottles appropriately.

Am I getting this right?

2

I’m wondering what that means precisely. If you’re tasting from the 100 mL sample, then tracking the concentration gets trickier, but not impossible.

For example, if you make a 1% solution, then drink 45 mL, then top off to 100 mL, then add another 1 mL vodka, you’d be at about a 1.55% solution. Repeat and it’s a ~1.85% solution, etc.

3

1 mL out of 100 mL is probably too high in concentration already, i.e., overpowering.  Try 1 mL at a time in 1000 mL.  Take tiny sips and you can pretty much ignore the 1000 mL going down to 900mL or whatever.