First RIS and I have a few questions about the secondary.

[Klickmania]

This is my first imperial I've brewed and I have a few questions about it. It's a Russian Imperial Stout I brewed a month ago that came out to 10.25% abv. I hit my OG of 1.102 and fermented out to 1.025 within 5 days, and has been sitting in primary for a month now. I've also had a bourbon tincture with 2 vanilla beans and a cinnamon stick sitting for about 10 days and I am planning on racking to secondary tomorrow night.

Onto the questions!
1.) How long should I let it stay in secondary since I did such a long primary?

2.) I'm planning on bottling this batch as well so I can give some out for christmas presents and stuff. Am I going to need yeast at bottling time? I know they were pretty stressed with the high abv, and I've heard of people coming out with low carb levels due to that.

Thanks for any info in advance fellas!

 

[MattHollingsworth]

1. It's up to you, of course, but you can leave it for a good long while in secondary. I did a RIS a while back that I think is maybe the best beer I've made. 1 month primary, 8 months in secondary. That one was 11.1% and had Jack Daniels oak added to it. It was already lovely at bottling.

If you do an extended secondary, put CO2 into the secondary before you rack into it. With the weather cooling off, the beer will cool off and will pull some of the air in that headspace back into solution, so better if there's some CO2 there.

2. With these strong beers, I've found it a benefit to add yeast at bottling, from a live starter. I've read about other people who don't and have success, but I've not experienced the same thing. I've read "just be patient", but I've had 11% beers that weren't carbonated after 6 months. Since then, I've made maybe 5 or so strong beers and used krauesen with good results. I use a spreadsheet from Kai. Can't find where he linked it at the moment, but here's a thread on it:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/carbonation-kraeusen-how-9685/

I had one beer come out too carbed, dialed it back a little and all subsequent beers have been great. If you can't find Kai's original spreadsheet, let me know and I'll post the one I have.

I usually make a starter with Fermentis US 05 which is tolerant up to 12% abv, and don't use the stirplate to avoid oxidized flavors in the beer. You don't need to step up the colony anyway. I usually make a 1 liter starter, then pour in only half or so. I don't swirl the starter, leaving those flocculant yeasties on the bottom and only adding the ones still in suspension. Some sugar is also added, hence the spreadsheet.

Anyway, with that technique, the bottles are carbonated after 2 weeks, sometimes less, if kept in a warm area.

If you're planning on giving them away for THIS Christmas, you should bottle soon, but then the beer may still be rough for that age. It'll be lovely next year. The RIS I made was bottled 14 months ago after that 9 months in the fermenter, and it's really amazing.

 

[amandabab]

This is my first imperial I've brewed and I have a few questions about it. It's a Russian Imperial Stout I brewed a month ago that came out to 10.25% abv. I hit my OG of 1.102 and fermented out to 1.025 within 5 days, and has been sitting in primary for a month now. I've also had a bourbon tincture with 2 vanilla beans and a cinnamon stick sitting for about 10 days and I am planning on racking to secondary tomorrow night.

Onto the questions!
1.) How long should I let it stay in secondary since I did such a long primary?

2.) I'm planning on bottling this batch as well so I can give some out for christmas presents and stuff. Am I going to need yeast at bottling time? I know they were pretty stressed with the high abv, and I've heard of people coming out with low carb levels due to that.

Thanks for any info in advance fellas!

4-6 months in secondary
4-6 months in the bottle
I Don't have to add yeast at bottling

 

[Klickmania]

Thanks for the replies fellas! I'm definitely planning on aging most of this for 6 months minimum. I would love to have it in bottles for this Christmas but I will recommend that everyone sit on them for a few months. Basically trying to get the schedule down really.

From what I understand there isn't much difference between bottle aging and bulk aging, correct?

 

[Klickmania]

Also, how are you putting the co2 in the secondary? I do have a keggerator so I'd be able to do it.

 

[kingwood-kid]

I would advise adding champagne yeast at bottling. It can survive high alcohol levels and will ferment the bottling sugar only, so no risk of overcarbing. It's quite possible that this is an unnecessary step, but it's about a dollar and won't harm anything. I've heard that bulk aging is a little faster than bottle aging, but I don't think it's a huge difference. I'm no CO2 machine expert, but I'd guess you'd flush the secondary with CO2, transfer, flush again and seal. You don't need to pressurize enough to carbonate the beer,ust to make sure that the denser CO2 will settle on top of the beer and push out any oxygen. For people like me that lack a CO2 doohickey, you can just add a tiny amount of sugar when you transfer, so that the yeast will produce enough CO2 to push out any oxygen.

 

[Klickmania]

I actually just racked it into the secondary about an hour ago. I understand that the C02 isn't there to carbonate it, just to purge the O2 out of the bucket so it doesn't get oxidized. The issue is, I only have ball lock keg connectors coming out of my co2 tank. I was asking about the methods involved with purging a bucket of 02. Do you hold the valve open with your finger over the beer after you rack it? Seems like it would dissipate in the time it takes to put the lid on. So I just racked it like normal since I had no clue. We'll see.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

For CO2, I take the bottle, no hose and hold it over the fermenter and leak it slowly in. I do this a day ahead of time so it can settle.

I like that idea of adding a little sugar to get a little CO2 via fermentation. Pretty smart.

You can also boil some glass marbles and add a lot of them to the fermenter to top it up, so there's very little headspace for O2, also reducing the surface contact as the surface area up into the neck is greatly reduced. I do this with mead.

As for getting the schedule down, it's easy. Just brew it a year before you want to give it away. ;-)

I'll be brewing one on 12-12-12 that's 12% abv. Brewing one a year is good for me.