Adding coffee + leaving headspace in secondary

Hey guys,

I brewed another coffee stout and want to experiment with adding real coffee (cold-brewed) and bourbon to part of the batch. I have 5 gallons in a 6 gallon bucket right now. I have two questions:

1) I want to add bourbon to only 1 gallon. Would it be ok to rack 1 gallon to a jug for that, then either

A) leave the other 4 gallons in the primary bucket and add coffee to that, or
B) move the 4 gallons to a 5gal carboy to lessen headspace a little more, then add coffee there?

Since oxygen will invade the headspace either way, is either separation of 1 gallon viable or recommended? I don't have a means of producing CO2 with which to purge the O2 out.

2) If I can somehow get away with it, is it ok to dump coffee into my primary, or should I strictly be doing this in a secondary vessel? Even if I shouldn't be separating my batch into portions, it'd be helpful to know for the future.

I seperate beers all the time with no issues. I would suggest using the one gallon jug and the 5 gallon carboy. Add the coffee and bourbon to the bottom of each fermentor and then siphon your beer on top of it. Since coffee really only needs a few weeks to add good flavor, you don't need to worry much about head space. You could even add coffee to the bottle bucket and just condition your beers a bit longer until it mellows enough.

Looks like the man who just brewed a coffee bourbon porter is the perfect man to help me!

Moving on from the "separating beer" question - do you ever add either coffee or bourbon straight into your primary, or do you always secondary? Neither contains many solids, and I try not to secondary when possible - my beers look great without it and taste just as great.

I know what you mean... I don't like using secondary either. But, for any beer that has an addition, I usually secondary. I might concider adding the bourbon to primary, but not coffee. I usually use coffee beans though, so you might be able to get by with it in primary if you used cold-brewed.

I'd say give it a try. If it turns out good, you saved yourself the hassle of racking to a different vessel.

Coffee is one thing, but if you value a good bourbon (and I do), I wouldn't add it to the primary. Too much would get left behind when you bottled. Why not add it to the bottling bucket if you don't want to secondary?

Good luck with it either way...

Good point. I plan on adding either a touch of Woodford Reserve (so well-rounded and very slightly sweet) or Baker's (a little sweeter, I think) and I wouldn't want to waste any, especially if I ever make a whole 5 gallon batch. I'll do a tasting tomorrow with some store-bought stout to decide which one I'm using. Exciting times.