Secondary question-Necessary?
 

Have a bourbon porter in primary for 2 weeks. Recipe says to put in secondary with 2oz wood chips and 16 oz bourbon for 4 weeks. Do I really need to rack and put in secondary or can I just add ingredients to primary and let sit for 4 weeks? I hate all the cleanup!!!!

I would say yes you can leave it and add the wood chips. You should steam (sanitize) the wood chips before adding though. I think that I have read about that on here. Good Luck!

IMO to get the full flavor you should soak the oak in the bourbon to sanitize.

Use a secondary as you want the beer off the yeast to impart the most flavor of the additions. Most people oak in secondary.

I was told to boil the chips? I see steam? Soaking them make since. How long do u soak them for? What temp? And do u just dump the bourbon in?

I would NOT boil, or steam the chips at all. Soak them in the bourbon for at least a few days and they will be fine. IF you want to use boiling, then you'll want to pitch the cooled water they were boiled in too. Otherwise you're tossing a lot of the oak flavor/aroma down the drain (poor idea IMO).

Something else to think about. The flavor you'll get from chips WILL change over time. Even over a couple/few months they will change drastically. IF you want a more stable flavor from oak, use either cubes, staves or spirals. IMO/IME, chips are the worst option of all of them.

Thanks for that. So 3-4 days soaking? And I'm must not now all the lingo...what is IMO and IME?

IMO= In My Opinion
IME= In My Experience

You could soak for longer if you wished. I would advise using the same bourbon you would drink. Don't go cheap on this.

Not a big bourbon fan... Maybe that's why haha ill give it a try. How many vanilla beans would u suggest?

Depends on what you're after. Start with one, split and scraped (drop it all in) and taste after 2-4 weeks. Add more IF needed.

Again, go with the better/higher grade product. Do NOT go with cheap beans, or those that have been on the shelf for untold months. Amazon has a good number of sources of high quality beans for damned cheap prices.

BTW, I started my own vanilla extract back in February. Bottled it this past weekend. There's several recipes available online, but I used 2-2.5oz of beans in a pint mason jar filled with Skyy vodka. Now I'm just waiting to use it (or have a family member use some) so I know how it came out.

Well I have some from Midwest. I'm sure they are fresh do to when I wanted to order them they we out. I'm a cook I'm use to seasoning something and tasting it to see if I like it. Not use to havering to wait two months to see if its any good b