TheBrewLebowski
Member
Ok, I have my base stout for a peanut butter stout I'm brewing in the primary for a week and a half now. Time to start thinking about Racking to the secondary. At this stage, I plan to add a whole bunch of Bell Plantation PB2 powder. My question is, how would you sanitize this powder? I prefer not to add it to the boil, as that seems to mellow out the PB2 from what I have read here and elsewhere. I also would prefer not to add a whole lot (preferably none at all) of liquor to the beer. I am willing to use vodka if needed, but am adding 3 jars of PB2 to a 2.5 gallon batch. I suspect that the amount of vodka needed for this will adversely up the abv of this small a batch. I have also considered boiling a small pot of water, then adding the powder to it after it's removed from the heat, then stirring, and letting it cool to a pitching temp. Being relatively new to brewing however, I don't know how this will affect the beers gravity. Og was 1.060 btw. That was taken at the beginning of my 5 gallon primary fermention. At the time of racking to the secondaries, I will be splitting the batch half and half. The other half will become a chocolate cherry stout. Both batches are experimental, so I want to split them up for the trial run. That way, I can tweak further batches based on my results here without spending a ton of time and money.
So, would you bite the bullet and use vodka (no whiskey will be in this particular batch), or just boil up enough water to submerse the PB2, then add that to the carboy after it cools? A third option is also worth considering if anyone has other ideas.
So, would you bite the bullet and use vodka (no whiskey will be in this particular batch), or just boil up enough water to submerse the PB2, then add that to the carboy after it cools? A third option is also worth considering if anyone has other ideas.