Quick Secondary Fermentation Question

[spam_and_eggs]

Hey everyone I got a quick question about secondary fermentation. So I've got 4 gallons of an RIS sitting in primary for the past 2 weeks (1.093 -> 1.027 in 7 days with S-04). I want to oak and possibly bourbon it. I was thinking I could use my two old 2 gallon plastic bucket fermenters, split the batch up, and do 2 gallons of unchanged RIS and 2 gallons oaked and bourbon'd. Or should I get a 5 gallon glass carboy and do secondary in that, in which case I'll probably oak and bourbon the whole thing.

Sorry if this is kind of confusing, I'm writing this quickly. Basically, since I've heard that plastic is not good to do secondary in because of the oxygen permeability, should I get a glass carboy even though I won't have enough beer to minimize all of the headspace? And since primary fermentation is done, there will be no more produced CO2 to purge the oxygen in the headspace.

Thanks!

 

[k_mcarthur]

Plastic buckets usually aren't ideal for a long secondary that most imperials need because they aren't as air tight as carboys. If I had the choice I would go glass, and if you can purge the headspace with co2.

 

[Cyclman]

You will get people that will say that buckets are fine for long secondary ageing, that better bottles are great, or that you HAVE to use a glass carboy.

I use glass carboys because I'm not handling them (so it's unlikely they're gonna break), nobody argues they're bad for ageing, and they are definitely not permeable.

I love my beers, and don't want to risk a single batch, especially one that I've put lots of months into.