How much secondary and conditioning time? Imperial Stout

Hi again folks!

I put the lager on the back burner and got going on a mini mash Imperial Stout that I was told by the LHBS would be ready by or slightly before Christmas. My grains dropped my Hot Liquor temp down farther than I expected, so most of my mashing time was trying to hit the right temp (and overshooting a bit to 160). Nevertheless, I got 1.092 OG and pitched some WLP004 that I had made a starter out of a day or two in advance. 12 hours later, and there was a ton of bubbling coming out of the blowoff tube. Still bubbling merrily away (sounds kind of like an idling diesel) 2 days later.

The recipe called for soaking some whiskey barrel chips in whiskey during the primary and racking onto the whole mess of whiskey and chips for secondary. Firstly, I replaced the whiskey with a Speyside Scotch, but how long do I need to make the secondary to allow this to do its thing? How long, for that matter, do I bottle condition before I can start drinking/giving these away?. Also, if I am racking onto a mix of Scotch and oak chips, can I still use gelatin finings, or do those not work with exposure to liquor?

Not much need to use finnings in a stout. They're not really supposed to be clear.

For the oak chips, the best thing to do is taste it. With that much surface area hitting beer, it can get overpowering pretty quick.

I agree with Maddoghoek. I made an Imperial Stout that I added Woodford Reserve soaked chips from my LHBS, 4 oz chips at their rec, in secondary for about 6 weeks. I think the whiskey and oak flavors are overpowering. It's good, and I think it will get to be very good, but not the flavor I was going for. It could be I needed only about 2 oz chips, or I should have only put them in for a week or so, not sure, it was my first time to experiment. I think a scotch might have been less sweet flavored than the Woodford was, but I just tasted it this weekend after being in the bottle for 2.5 weeks, so it's not nearly done aging. I will probably try one a month for the next few months and see how it develops.

I've heard of people going for as little as one week with chips. I just bottled an imperial brown that sat on about 1.5 oz. Med cubes for 4 months.

You'll have to try it and see what you like. I'd think it should be ok by xmas if you bottle it soon ..