About to add oak and vanilla to a stout... do I secondary?

[darkrabbit]

Hey all, I have oak chips soaking in bourbon and vanilla bean that I am about to add to my stout. I'll only let it sit in there for about a week or two as I don't want to over-oak it. All my primary fermentation is done, I am almost 3 weeks in.

I only have buckets for fermentation. I don't think I want to buy a carboy as there might be an opportunity for me to jump on a unitank or conical soon. So in order to secondary it will be bucket to bucket.

I know this is heavily debated, but given my setup, would you secondary? I am not too concerned about my sanitation practices as I tend to overdo it (paranoid), but I am concerned about having all that headspace in the secondary. Even if I did get a carboy, my brew is around 4.75gal so the carboy would have headspace as well.

Also, if I keep everything in the primary, how would I add the soaked oak and vanilla? This might sound odd, but I don't want to disturb the protective CO2 layer if that's indeed the protection. Otherwise I might as well just secondary into a bucket..

Thanks in advance!

 

[jalc6927]

I’ve never added oak or wood, but have read when adding these and fruit secondary is recommended

Buckets should be fine

 

[myndflyte]

I had the same question a few weeks ago, more because I was being lazy about it. The general consensus was that I should use a secondary, which I ended up doing. If you're only going for 1 week, I think a bucket would be fine. If you decided to go for a few weeks, then I think you should think about a glass carboy.

 

[RedlegEd]

Hey all, I have oak chips soaking in bourbon and vanilla bean that I am about to add to my stout. I'll only let it sit in there for about a week or two as I don't want to over-oak it. All my primary fermentation is done, I am almost 3 weeks in.

I only have buckets for fermentation. I don't think I want to buy a carboy as there might be an opportunity for me to jump on a unitank or conical soon. So in order to secondary it will be bucket to bucket.

I know this is heavily debated, but given my setup, would you secondary? I am not too concerned about my sanitation practices as I tend to overdo it (paranoid), but I am concerned about having all that headspace in the secondary. Even if I did get a carboy, my brew is around 4.75gal so the carboy would have headspace as well.

Also, if I keep everything in the primary, how would I add the soaked oak and vanilla? This might sound odd, but I don't want to disturb the protective CO2 layer if that's indeed the protection. Otherwise I might as well just secondary into a bucket..

Thanks in advance!

Hi. I've done it both ways for my Bourbon Barrel Stouts. The first time, I used a secondary because that was the conventional wisdom. The beer came out great, and it worked fine. The second and third times, I just added the soaked oak chips/cubes (and the bourbon of course) directly into the primary after about two weeks when I was certain the primary fermentation was finished. Those beers came out every bit as good as the first beer, but without the hassle. I found that I liked using pure Vanilla extract (the real stuff, not imitation) much more than scraped and soaked Vanilla beans. IMO, the extract gives you much more predictable results than beans. I also found that it's better to add the vanilla when you keg and/or bottle as the flavor tends to stay in the beer a little better than when added in early. Just my thoughts/experience. YMMV. BTW, you're correct to be careful of over oaking your brew. It really doesn't take long sometimes for it to become "too much." I'd definitely recommend not adding the vanilla until you're happy with the oakiness. Ed

ETA: Buckets are no problem, just make sure you sanitize the bucket edge and lid (if you add to primary.) If you're worried about headspace or oxygen, add about 1/2c honey or sugar when you add your oak and/or vanilla. The little bit of extra sugar will get the yeast going a bit to help scavenge any extra oxygen.

 

[darkrabbit]

As advised, decided to transfer to secondary, but I'll only let it sit for a week. That should be sufficient for the oak.

Thanks!