First big beer, need some advice.

[NordeastBrewer77]

Hell yeah! I was thinking about adding a vanilla bean in with the oak chips when i transfer to secondary, what do you think?

i love oak in a big beer like that. i'd do the oak for the last couple weeks before bottling. i use oak spirals, i like the medium toast french ones. but the flavor/aroma comes on pretty strong, and pretty quick. when i oak, i do it to taste, and i've usually found 1-3 weeks is good when using 1 fresh oak spiral per 5 gal. as for vanilla, never used it but thinking of doing a gallon of mine on vanilla, then maybe a bit of coffee at bottling time, maybe even espresso (like the Espresso Yeti :rocking: ). what i've heard about vanilla beans is to split 'em down the middle, soak in a small amount of vodka, then add beans and vodka to secondary, maybe someone can chime in on that and give us both some good ideas on adding vanilla.

 

[midfielder5]

Take a gravity reading before moving it!

 

[steelerfanatic7]

Ok so i did a short starter with another vial of yeast. Re aerated the wort and just pitched it. Maybe it will get in there and give the other yeast a break so it wont be strained

 

[ChillWill]

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out. If you take some gravity readings on the way it'd be interesting.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Ok so i did a short starter with another vial of yeast. Re aerated the wort and just pitched it. Maybe it will get in there and give the other yeast a break so it wont be strained

cool, keep us posted on how it goes.

 

[steelerfanatic7]

Ok so i went out after i pitched the short yeast starter. I came home to a bucket about to explode! My beer is going crazy! Had to rinse my airlock like 3 times to keep it from clogging, its bubbling nonstop, and foaming out the top of the airlock! I would say i would have a good amount of fermentation now!

 

[steelerfanatic7]

My beer is going nuts! Had to take the three piece airlock apart to achieve this.

 

[chickypad]

Glad to see you've got it going. Now get a blowoff tube on that!

 

[steelerfanatic7]

Don't have a tube, just took the airlock out and I'm wiping up what comes out with a towel crazy beer.!

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

My beer is going nuts! Had to take the three piece airlock apart to achieve this.

now that's a healthy ferment! :rockin::rocking: i second Chicky, get a blowoff tube on it, a healthy RIS fermentation will throw up a big krausen as you're seeing.

 

[flabyboy]

When mine gets this crazy, I usually unseat the lid a bit so the pressure comes out more than the airlock