Secondary Headspace

How long are you planning to let it sit? Aging a RIS generally means the beer gets slightly oxidized, which gives the smoother fruit/sherry flavors.

You could try the marbles, and flush it with co2. But you have it in a better bottle which is going to let in a bit of air anyways, but not enough to cause issues. I'm aging lambic in a better bottle, and it's still on the yeast cake even.

Do you keg? I'd simply just move it to a purge keg and call it a day.

 

I've wondered if people have ever just added a TBS of sugar into a secondary and called it good enough.

 

I think you might be okay for 6 weeks actually... I wouldn't stress over it.

 

For an imperial stout, my gut says roll with what you got, 6-8 weeks should not be a problem and a little oxidation might help "age" it quicker. If this was a hoppy beer then hopefully you would not have been doing a secondary anyway

 

With any beer where my OG is over 1.090 or so, it is now routine for me to primary for 6-8 weeks. I went 11 weeks on a Belgian Strong Dark and successfully bottle conditioned without even adding fresh yeast at bottling. This made me cocky, and the next time I had a really big beer sit for 6 weeks, the yeast crapped out on me and never carbonated the bottles. I now make sure I go long enough to have full attenuation, but shoot for bottling soon enough to avoid the hassle of adding more yeast to bottle.

The lesson I can share from my experiences is if you bulk condition for an extended period, make sure you still have yeast in there that are doing something. You should still condition it as long as you wish, but be aware that you might need to add fresh yeast at bottling if you go well beyond 2 months on a high OG beer.

 

...or just bottle and condition it, if you are sure it is @ it's FG.

 

IMO ... worrying about something like this is worth it b/c nothing bad ever happens.

 

I'm with GreenKrusty101... Just bottle it now and do the conditioning in the bottle.

 

Three ideas that I like in this thread:

(1) Marbles. I never would have thought of this. Brilliant idea. Choose this if your favorite scientist is Archimedes (Call your beer "Eureka!").

(2) Adding sugar. You can figure out how much sugar you would need via ideal gas law calculations and assumptions about what percent of sugar gets converted to CO2. inchrisin suggested 1 TBS and I am pretty sure that's low. I think you would end up adding enough sugar that it would change the beer some. Still, this would give you an excuse to dust off your intro chem text books and read up more on yeast metabolize. Backing your sugar addition up with equations makes you a badass homebrewer. Chose this if you lean towards the likes of chemistry pioneers like Charles, Boyle, and Dalton. Call your beer "Ideal Imperial Stout

(3) Bottle now. There will be less total headspace in the bottle and the yeast will consume most or all of the oxygen in the headspace that oxidation should not be a problem (except for leakage through the crown). Call this "We Don't Need No Stinking Secondary." I would choose this one if the beer has not been racked to secondary yet. Usually it's a wasted extra step, IMO.

 

What are you hoping to accomplish in the next 6-8 weeks that you are worried might not happen? Why wouldn't it be ready? My initial response was more along the lines of not doing more to your beer than necessary (marbles or racking again).

A couple of later responses have been to just bottle it now and be done with it. It is hard to argue with this point. So, what are you hoping will happen in the next 6-8 weeks? Or what led you to do a secondary vs. leave it in the primary until you were ready to bottle?

 

Unless you are oak aging or dry hopping or adding another ingredient you are better off just bottling it and let it age/condition in the bottle. If it makes you feel better to say you used secondary then let it sit there for a week or two and then bottle.

 

One more vote for just bottle it. Conditioning will occur in the bottle just as it would happen in a secondary.

Cheers!

 

Yes this is one of the great debates. Bulk or bottle condition? I am lazy so I let my big beers sit on the yeast for four weeks then bottle condition. I have never had to add yeast to get my bottles to carb.

 

"Yes this is one of the great debates. Bulk or bottle condition?"

Jim, have you read any scientific articles on this topic? I have been on the lookout for some technical articles on this topic but so far I have come up empty.

Cheers!

Jack

 

No I have not. I could be wrong but I think John Palmer recommended that it was better to bulk condition. I have read this somewhere but do not recall any data as to why its better. Take care.

 

Any bourbon or just oak? What kind of oak? Chips, cubes, spiral? If it is chips, you are probably looking at about 1 week to get a lot of oak flavor especially if you did not boil them to remove some of the tannin. How did you "prepare" the oak before you added it to the beer?