Secondary Fermenting vessle?

[Flaming Barrel]

I want to make an Imperial stout, and would like to add some oak chips to the secondary. Can I use an ordinary FV bucket for this as all my kegs are full. I intend to bottle condition after a week with the oak chips in the secondary.Is this OK?

[fivetide]

Yes!

I would use a tapped FV bucket and a Little Bottler stick for this job, putting it on a table or something at the start of the week so it's already in position, and priming each bottle rather than stirring up the crap again. Unless you want to use the extra step of a bottling bucket of course.

Sounds a fun recipe - any chance of putting up pictures of he chips in the brew, before and after secondary?

[Flaming Barrel]

Thanks fivetide, ive just amended my H&G order to include a bottler stick.
I'll try & get camera up & running for piccys (need it for ebay aswell).
I'm just blagging a recipie from the brewdays on JBK & adding some oakchips, so we'll see what happens....
I was concerned that the secondry fv wasn't pressurised, does this matter, or do I only need pressure/priming for the bottles?
(I dont think i'll need to prime bottles with such a big beer).......

[fivetide]

You don't need pressure - in this instance you are simply taking the brew off most of the yeast cake and putting it into another sanitised FV to drop more yeast out of suspension. I have used this additional step with every brew I have done. Even with kits I used a secondary stage to get the brew as bright as possible before kegging and to provide a useful week for dryhopping with a muslin of leaf hops. Your oak method sounds pretty much like dry hopping, only with wood chips rather than hops - presumably you'll use a muslin bag or similar to keep most of the crud in one place?

[Flaming Barrel]

I hadn;t thought about baggingf the chips , I do have a mash/ sparg bag I could use.
Good news though, I can spell vessel...........TYPO!
Er, good news though, I can brew more beer even with barrels full!

[SiHoltye]

Is there a brew commercially available that has an oaky flavour that you like?

[Flaming Barrel]

Not really, I was just going to try it. I like to add different ingredients, such as the honey and treacle in my porter & stout.
Maybe i'll split the planned imperial stout half normal and half with oak chips to see what happens.........

[SiHoltye]

I just wondered 'cos I heard that it's a myth about old style wooden beer barrels contributing to the flavour of a beer in an oaky way. Apparantly something caled brewers tar was used to line the inside of barrels to prevent beer touching the wood, and ultimately spoiling early.