Secondary + Bottling Split Fermentation

[melbow]

Heyo, I'm currently fermenting about 5 gallons worth of rye saison with intent to secondary some of it with pineapple concentrate. My question is, if I'm stupid and forgot to put gallon markers on my carboy, how should I go about secondarying and bottling the batch?

Should I first siphon out as much as I want to bottle (~3 gal) and the place the rest in the secondary so that I know my my bottling volume first and can calculate priming sugar, or should I siphon the amount I want to secondary with my fruit addition (~2 gal) first and bottle the rest?

I'm worried about throwing off the carbonation with unknown volume or having to wait so long while boiling the appropriate amount of priming sugar. I'm also worried about throwing off fruit addition calculations.

Am I over thinking this?

Also, should I cold crash my primary before bottling/secondary? Would that risk taking too much yeast out to complete my secondary fermentation?

 

[shortyz]

jesus christ is your hipster moustache obscuring your vision? all i can say is cold crashing does not effect carbing in the bottle much at all.

 

[madscientist451]

My first impression is that 2 gallons of pineapple concentrate is a lot to use even is you were blending it with 10 gallons of beer. I would get some 1 gallon glass jugs and use different amounts of concentrate in each one and see how it develops. I've never use pineapple concentrate in beer so I don't know what kind of flavor profile you'll get with the rye malt and saison yeast.
For bottling, I use a cheapo water dispenser from walmart. It has a built in tap to dispense the water (beer). I marked the outside at 1 gallon and 2 gallon. I use a online priming calculator to determine how much priming sugar to use.
I like to bulk age my saison in secondary, that way I can take small samples and monitor the taste. If I want to tweak it later by adding oak or dry hop or fruit, I can still do that. But you could also bottle it now, it will continue to develop in the bottle.

 

[melbow]

My first impression is that 2 gallons of pineapple concentrate is a lot to use even is you were blending it with 10 gallons of beer.

Oh, perhaps I worded that poorly, I meant I want to use 2 of the approx. 5 gallons of saison with 12oz pineapple concentrate.

I've never use pineapple concentrate in beer so I don't know what kind of flavor profile you'll get with the rye malt and saison yeast.

I want fruity, sour, and some of that sweet delicious rye flavor.

I like to bulk age my saison in secondary, that way I can take small samples and monitor the taste. If I want to tweak it later by adding oak or dry hop or fruit, I can still do that. But you could also bottle it now, it will continue to develop in the bottle.

That's not a bad idea. That way I'll know much I have for calculating priming sugar. What temperature do you hold your saisons at during secondary?

 

[melbow]

jesus christ is your hipster moustache obscuring your vision? all i can say is cold crashing does not effect carbing in the bottle much at all.

That's not the appropriate attitude for the 'Beginners Beer Brewing Forum'.

I over carbonated my first batch and didn't want to repeat my mistakes so I was trying to be more precise.