Timing for secondary

I have a ten gallon batch of an imperial chocolate stout in primary right now. It has been there for exactly 7 days now. It has been steady at 70 degrees. the starting gravity of it was 1.075 and it is already down to 1.025-ish. I plan on splitting it up into two five gallon secondaries, to oak half of it. any opinions on when to rack to secondary? When, how, how much, and for how long to add oak to one of them? and how long to keep the unoaked one in secondary? thanks guys and gals. cheers

You can keep the unoaked one in the secondary for up to several months without any issues. If you go any longer than that you may have to repitch yeast to bottle condition.

For the oak, I would start with 1oz of oak cubes and leave it on there for a week and then taste it. Keep tasting it every few days from there until you get the desired oak flavor your want

when would you rack to secondary?

When it's done fermenting plus about 3 days.

Unless I need my fermenter for another brew, I leave the beer on the yeast for a month or so. I have left beer in secondary (no oak of course) for as long as six months.

well it has been in primary now for 7 days. I want to clear out my primary for my next by next week and will probably rack them to the two secondaries prior to. chode720, you mentioned oak cubes...does it matter much that I have chips? they are medium toast american oak...

Just make sure there is enough time to make that imperial chocolate stout clear - the last thing you want is a cloudy one

I have an imperial chocolate COFFEE oatmeal stout brewing (Grandmas Breakfast Stout) - about 2 weeks into it. Not oak-ing it though - I'm dry "hopping" with Kona Coffee.

Oaking would just make it too complex ! LOL

bhatchable said:

well it has been in primary now for 7 days. I want to clear out my primary for my next by next week and will probably rack them to the two secondaries prior to. chode720, you mentioned oak cubes...does it matter much that I have chips? they are medium toast american oak...

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I've used oak chips before, and subsequently learned I should have used oak cubes. I think the augment is that oak cubes add a more complex flavor profile more similar to if you were to barrel age, where as chips are a single oak tone.

the cube has a measurable surface area that can be repeated,chips however have a surface area that is unmeasurable ...due to the fact that its chiped.

that aside, should i be using the same amount of chips as cubes?

If you have an Hour, listen to this "Wood Aging"

I think, the idea is to start with about 1-2oz and taste often, until you get the oak flavor where you want it to be.

As for moving to secondary, IMO you are too late to use a secondary fermentation schedule. Using an ambitious FG of 1.015 you have already chewed through about 85% of your fermentables. If you transferred now you would not bring enough yeast to finish and condition the beer.

Give the beer enough time on the cake to fully condition; I think 3 weeks is good but a month may not be a bad idea.

After that, purge your bright tanks (carboys) with CO2, and transfer in being careful about air contact. Beers that will be subjected to age have a higher likelihood of oxidation problems.

The beer that is getting oaked should have a third vessel to spend its bulk aging time in.

Update: I just racked it to two five gallon secondaries. I am tentatively planning on two weeks in there. then one is going to bottle and the other will go to tertiary for an oaking session for plus or minus a week, then bottled when it tastes right.