addiing flavorings to the primary....is it a bad idea

[JonnyO]

I don't have a secondary, and haven't really worried about it up to this point. All of my beers thus far have been straightforward, no additions or dry hopping etc...The prevailing opinion from some much more experienced homebrewers on this site seems to be that conditioning in the primary is no problem up to 4 or 5 weeks. I'm planning on brewing a stout in the near future and am looking into adding some flavor (vanilla bean, or bourbon-soaked wood chips). I haven't seen anything about folks adding such things to the primary after fermentation is complete. Obviously it may be adviseable to use a secondary for this type of thing, but I'm wondering if it can be done with just a primary. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks.

 

[schoolmaster]

The main reason that the secondary is desired is that there is alchohol. If you add flavoring to the primary right away you run the risk on contaminating the batch. Once most of the fermentation has been completed the yeast have taken hold and there is a good amount of alchohol in the carboy, not to mention that the yeast have metabolized most of the sugars that other organisms would need to survive.
I'd just wait until the end of your primary fermentation to add your flavoring and you should be just fine.

 

[ChshreCat]

Another reason is that it's easier to do things to taste in the secondary. If you're in the primary and still fermenting or clearing and you add oak, you may find it's getting too much oak but you're not ready to bottle the beer yet. If you let the ferment finish and allow the beer to get clear in the primary, then move it to secondary for something like oak or vanilla, you can taste it now and then and when it's just right you can bottle it up.

 

[JonnyO]

ok, thanks for the info. I'll probably invest in a secondary....I think it will be worth having for such situations...and of course for freeing up the primary.

 

[Marius]

I use to throw two vanilla beans to my imperial stout in my primary. I cut the beans, mix them with a shot of bourbon or vodka the day i brew and leave them in a small bottle, then I just wait two weeks, open the lid, pour the mixture of beans and bourbon, wait two more weeks.

This metod has worked perfectly for me with the "four weeks in primary metod"
Since I found that this metod worked great I never again used a secondary.