Add extra wort to secondary

[JQhomebrew]

So I brewed up about 1.25 gallons of what I hope to be a nice Spiced Holiday Ale. I have one gallon fermenting quite nicely, and put the other .25 gallon in a sanitized mason jar along with some spices. My plan is to add that to the secondary (which I know will kick off a primary for that .25 gallon portion). Will this create any problems for me?

 

[Elric]

Well, if you are doing true secondary, you may not have enough yeast left to chew through it? Also, your primary is so full there is no way you will be able to add that extra dose to a 1 gallon jug, and if you are going from one gallon jug to two gallon pail for secondary, I'd imagine your o2 problema will be through the roof as you should be working to decrease headspace when/if moving to secondary, bot increase it.

 

[JQhomebrew]

I have since lost some through blowoff, there is a bit of loss in trub, there is sediment in the spiced jar. All in all there is room for at least some of it. I planned on putting he spiced stuff in the jug then topping off with the primary. The yeast point though does seem a good one.

 

[jddevinn]

I wouldn't do that. The wort in the jar without yeast has no yeast activity to compete with wild growth. When you take wort and store it for use in a future starter it has to be pasteurized, same thing applies here just on a shorter time frame.

 

[BrewZer]

I would have steeped the spices with wort pulled a half-hour into the boil and added the spiced wort back to the pot in the last 15 minutes of boil.

Who knows what could have been lurking in those (unboiled) spices...

 

[JQhomebrew]

All spices were boiled. I took the boiling wort from the brew kettle 5 minutes prior to boil ending, added the spices and continued to boil as the rest of the wort cooled. so all should be clean.

 

[jddevinn]

Boiling will Sanitize but not Sterilize the wort. Storing sanitized wort without fermentation allows the microorganisms that survived the sanitation to regrow and is not considered safe, if you want to store unfermented wort it should be sterilized.

I would not add stored non sterilized wort to anything or drink it.

 

[IslandLizard]

I have one gallon fermenting quite nicely, and put the other .25 gallon in a sanitized mason jar along with some spices.

When did you brew this? Has it fermented out already?

That gallon jug doesn't have a lot of headspace, definitely not enough to undergo a fermentation without it spilling a pint to a quart out.

Will this create any problems for me?

I hope the screw lid is on loose, so gas and beer can escape. It's fine to use a loose lid instead of an airlock, but there is a chance nasties can get it when active fermentation slows down. Or fruit flies.

If the beer wasn't fermented, that quart jar will spoil, or has already.

We usually steep spices and such in Vodka, Rum, Bourbon, Everclear, etc. Something with high alcohol to extract the essential oils and flavor/aroma compounds. That gets usually added at bottling.

 

[JQhomebrew]

Boiling will Sanitize but not Sterilize the wort. Storing sanitized wort without fermentation allows the microorganisms that survived the sanitation to regrow and is not considered safe, if you want to store unfermented wort it should be sterilized.

I would not add stored non sterilized wort to anything or drink it.

for future reference, how would one go about sterilizing?

 

[BrewZer]

All spices were boiled. I took the boiling wort from the brew kettle 5 minutes prior to boil ending, added the spices and continued to boil as the rest of the wort cooled. so all should be clean.

I've never tried kreusening, which is what I think you're doing...

Did you refrigerate the spiced wort you pulled out?

 

[jddevinn]

for future reference, how would one go about sterilizing?

This is about canning wort for starter use but covers sterilizing.

 

[Elric]

I've never tried kreusening, which is what I think you're doing...

Did you refrigerate the spiced wort you pulled out?

Kreusening is when you a small quantity of beer at the height of fermentation into a beer just finishing off and use the gasses from that ferment to carbonate the beer. it isn't adding old wort to almost finished beer which is what the op is proposing to do.

 

[JQhomebrew]

I just looked at the jar. It is off the scale in terms of usability. Thanks all for your input. Live and learn I guess. I will boil the spices for the last 5 minutes or so next time, or go through the canning process. I like the idea of saving extra wort because after blowoff and trub I can add the spiced base then top off with the primary to reduce headspace. Possibly pitch a little extra kickstarting yeast get it all going again.