5.5 gallons of stout in 2 carboys

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Hawkdiesel

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Ok, I made a big honking stout from northern brewer. I made about a half gallon more than called for because I slightly altered recipe by adding a little extra dme. Anyway I used wyyeast split the wort and yeast between two carboys added blow offtubes and have bad no issues that I'm aware of. I had good bubbling and am looking forward to moving to a secondary with bourbon laced vanilla beans. My question is : was it a mistake to have so much head space in the carboys? And what /where should I put the beer into for secondary? I only have 5gallon carboys, but I do have 6.5 gallon buckets. Thanks in advance.
 
Ok, I made a big honking stout from northern brewer. I made about a half gallon more than called for because I slightly altered recipe by adding a little extra dme. Anyway I used wyyeast split the wort and yeast between two carboys added blow offtubes and have bad no issues that I'm aware of. I had good bubbling and am looking forward to moving to a secondary with bourbon laced vanilla beans. My question is : was it a mistake to have so much head space in the carboys? And what /where should I put the beer into for secondary? I only have 5gallon carboys, but I do have 6.5 gallon buckets. Thanks in advance.

You won't want to use a bucket- the headspace is way too wide for a secondary. If you rack from above the trub, I'd be surprised if you had more than 5.25 gallons total, which WILL fit in a 5 gallon carboy. And it'll probably be less- you'll have some trub losses on the bottom, and may end up with 5 gallons in the end anyway.
 
Thanks Yooper,

One follow up. The stout will have been in primaries for two weeks as of friday (2 days), I'm still waiting on vanilla beans. I'm thinking once they arrive to slice the two beans the long way scoop out the good stuff and let sit in a cup of makers mark bourbon for 24 hours, then dump the entire concoction in the secondary and rack the beer on top. Does this sound right to you or is there some advice you could offer?

Thanks again,

HD
 
I agree, no bucket for long term conditioning.

Are you saying you have no other carboys to use?
 
Thanks Yooper,

One follow up. The stout will have been in primaries for two weeks as of friday (2 days), I'm still waiting on vanilla beans. I'm thinking once they arrive to slice the two beans the long way scoop out the good stuff and let sit in a cup of makers mark bourbon for 24 hours, then dump the entire concoction in the secondary and rack the beer on top. Does this sound right to you or is there some advice you could offer?

Thanks again

Yes this is correct. I would let the beer stay in primary for 3 weeks and then rack onto the beans. I would let the beans soak in the MM for more than 24 hrs. MM really adds to the flavor of a stout IMO. I use 3 beans per 5 gal in my recipies that I use them. Beans can be very different, so make sure you check the brew periodically to get the taste you are after.
 
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