please help

I'm making a 5 gallon imperial stout, that will be broken into two 3 gallon carboys. One will get coffee and coconut, the other oak bourbon and vanilla.

My issue is I've never made a beer that needs months to age in carboys, so I don't know when to add any of my "extra" flavors. None of them are going into my boil... I will be starting this beer in a single carboy for 3 weeks before I rake to 3 gallons...

Add your "extra" flavors once you split the batch. Adding any sooner won't have the effect you're going for because then you'd have notes of all the "extra" flavors in both batches. It's SOP to add "extra" flavors in secondary anyway. Good luck with your brew.

maxwellius said:

I'm making a 5 gallon imperial stout, that will be broken into two 3 gallon carboys. One will get coffee and coconut, the other oak bourbon and vanilla.

My issue is I've never made a beer that needs months to age in carboys, so I don't know when to add any of my "extra" flavors. None of them are going into my boil... I will be starting this beer in a single carboy for 3 weeks before I rake to 3 gallons...

Click to expand...

Everytime I make my Vanilla Porter, I put 1 cut vanilla bean in the boil the last ten minutes. After its cool I transfer it to my primary. I let it sit I'm the primary for two weeks. I add two vanilla beans in the secondary, then rack the beer on top of that and let it sit for a minimum of two weeks. This is the best thing about making beer. Experimenting with secondary ingredients.

On your coffee beer, are you using whole coffee beans, or a pot of coffee?

Are you using coconut flakes?

jknapp12105 said:

Everytime I make my Vanilla Porter, I put 1 cut vanilla bean in the boil the last ten minutes. After its cool I transfer it to my primary. I let it sit I'm the primary for two weeks. I add two vanilla beans in the secondary, then rack the beer on top of that and let it sit for a minimum of two weeks. This is the best thing about making beer. Experimenting with secondary ingredients.

On your coffee beer, are you using whole coffee beans, or a pot of coffee?

Are you using coconut flakes?

Click to expand...

I will be using a half pot (6-8 "cups") of coffee. And yes coconut flakes.

I'm adding vanilla to secondary only as I don't want vanilla in both brews. But I'm going to add 3 beans soaked in 2 shots of bourbon...

The oak is what throws me off.

Add the oak in the secondary. Make sure you toast the coconut flakes it will give it a lot more flavor

How long should I leave the oak chips in secondary? The full 9 months or the last 2-3 weeks???