First time with secondary..

Hey all,

I have a few questions regarding a 5 gal. Bourbon Vanilla Oak Stout I just started brewing with respect to using a secondary carboy. First off, I used White Labs English Ale yeast, but didn't have time to make a starter, so a fellow brewer friend said I could use 2 vials to speed things up (It took off pretty quickly and I caught it just in time to get a blowoff hose in there :cross:.) The recipe for the kit says to wait 3-5 days before moving to secondary, but I may keep it a bit longer based on what I've read here.

1st Question: Do I avoid getting any trub or yeast into the secondary when racking?

Once the beer is moved to the secondary, I need to add a sack of Bourbon-soaked Oak chips and vanilla beans.

2nd Question: I understand sanitation is key, but adding these seems a bit dodgy. Do I need to sanitize the sack or anything here?

If all goes well, I'll eventually get to put this batch into bottles...

3rd Question: Because I used extra yeast in the pitching process, do you think I'll need to compensate and use less priming sugar to avoid bottle bombs?

Thanks!

1. I don't really worry about it. Anything that gets transferred will settle out. Of course try to transfer as little as possible.
2. Soak the bag with the chips. Bourbon sanitizes as well as vodka.
3. It's sugar that makes the extra carbonation. Not extra yeast so don't change a thing. Unless you want to change the carbonation level that is.

Sounds great, thanks!

Why use a sack. Just soak the oak and vanilla in bourbon, then toss it all in the fermenter (no sack).

Wait until the beer is finished (reached FG) before transferring to Secondary. In fact wait a few days after that. It might be 10 days or more. If you leave it longer, more will settle in the primary and the beer you transfer to the secondary will be clearer.

The longer you leave it before bottling will give you a clearer beer in the bottle with less sediment.