One brew, many stouts?

[mdbrewer1]

I just finished up my first batch ever, an Irish Red Ale from Northern Brewer. I gave away about half of it, but 25 bottles of one style of brew will still keep me busy for a while. I'm looking for a way to turn my next brew into a number of different tastes. I came up with an idea and wanted to run it by some more experienced brewers to get their thoughts on its feasibility and some tips on equipment, process, etc.

My plan would be to make a stout (unsure of what style would be best for my purpose), but to make a full 5 gallon batch. I'd like to split the batch into 3 or more small volumes to try different flavors. A couple that have caught my eye are a Vanilla Bourbon, Peppermint, and Coconut.

What would be the best way to accomplish this? I'm thinking of a split of something like 3 gal of Vanilla Bourbon, 1 gal of Peppermint, and 1 gal of Coconut.

I currently have a 6.5 gal fermenter bucket, a 6 gal better bottle, and my bottling bucket for equipment. I have no idea what would be the best way to split it all up and what would be the most economical option for adding the other equipment I might need.

Would it make sense to keep it all together for primary or do the split right away? Could I use the 6 gal better bottle for the 3 gal of Vanilla Bourbon? I could also pick up 3 of the 2 gal Mr. Beer fermenters from a friend for a good price if those would work. Is there an easy way to open those up to add the flavorings, etc.?

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[mdgagne]

Its probably easiest to ferment the whole batch in a single vessel and then find 3 appropriately-sized food safe containers that will work well as secondaries. You could use 1 gallon growlers, 3 gallon better bottles, or the mr beer containers as you mentioned. Just needs to be food safe and able to have an airlock installed.

 

[mdbrewer1]

Its probably easiest to ferment the whole batch in a single vessel and then find 3 appropriately-sized food safe containers that will work well as secondaries. You could use 1 gallon growlers, 3 gallon better bottles, or the mr beer containers as you mentioned. Just needs to be food safe and able to have an airlock installed.

Thanks for the fast feedback. I wasn't sure which way would work best.

Follow up questions. Would there be any ill effects to putting just 1 gal into the 2 gal Mr. Beer bottles for secondary? Could I put 3 gal into the 6 gal Better Bottle? I've read about having too much headspace could cause 'off flavors'. I could always adjust my splits, but I'd definitely prefer to have more of the Vanilla Bourbon and smaller amounts of the Peppermint and Coconut.

 

[Cyclman]

If your secondaries have too much air (head space) it can oxidize the beer, which gives it an undesireable flavor. In primary, this isn't an issue as you have CO2 covering the beer, but in secondary this can be an issue.

Fun idea, great way to experiment. How about you buy 5 1G bottles (not too expensive) and do it 5 ways?

 

[mdbrewer1]

If your secondaries have too much air (head space) it can oxidize the beer, which gives it an undesireable flavor. In primary, this isn't an issue as you have CO2 covering the beer, but in secondary this can be an issue.

Fun idea, great way to experiment. How about you buy 5 1G bottles (not too expensive) and do it 5 ways?

I just thought I'd see if I could make the Mr Beer bottles work.

What would be the cheapest option for 1G bottles?

 

[WI_Brew_boy]

You could use glass milk bottles with a rubber stopper and an airlock.

 

[bleme]

Or the Carlo Rossi wine jugs.

Also, many of the flavors your talking about (like the vanilla bourbon) are extracts and don't need a secondary. You can just add those to your bottling bucket as you bottle.

 

[mdbrewer1]

I appreciate all the suggestions so far. Being the "thrifty" person I am, I'm also trying to find a way that might make the whole thing work using what I have plus the Mr. Beer bottles.

What are people thoughts on filling a secondary with sanitized "filler" to reduce the available volume? Let's say I primary a 5G batch of stout in my 6G Better Bottle. When racking to secondary, I fill 3.5G of the 6.5G bucket with something sanitized(perhaps sealed and sanitized 1G water jugs???) and put 3G of stout on top of some bourbon soaked vanilla beans. I'd do the remainder in a Mr. Beer fermenter. Even better would be filling 1G of the Mr. Beer volume with "filler" and racking 1G on top of toasted coconut and the other 1G in a separate Mr. Beer fermenter that I'd add some peppermint extract to prior to bottling.

Any thoughts on something along those lines? I like going with outside the box solutions if they work well enough.