[manyguns]

Good morning all. Brewed my first batch 10 days ago. It's a Stout from a Simply Beer kit from Midwest Supply. Full 5 gal. boil, added 1 pound of honey, 1 pound of brown sugar and about 1/2 pound of DME with 5 min left in the boil. My intention is to add oak cubes which have been Soaking in Early Times whiskey for the last 10 days. My questions are:
It is fermenting in a glass carboy. After an active fermentation, it has slowed to one bubble about every 15 seconds. Is it ok to remove the plug and siphon a sample for my fermenter?
My plan is to transfer to a secondary and leave it for 2 weeks as I will be leaving on vacation for a few days. Should I add the oak cubes after transferring?
Should I transfer now?
 Thanks for any help you can give me.
Tom

[denny]

First question, yeah, take a sample.  I'd leave it as is u til you get back from vacation.  Normally I wouldn't recommend using a secondary, but in this caee3, when you get back put the oak in your secondary and rack the beer onto them.

[manyguns]

Thank you! Just tested it. Beginning gravity was 1.070, it now is 1.013 which comes out to 7.48 ABV.
It tastes really good. When I add the cubes and the little whiskey there are soaking in, will that boost the ABV? I'm happy so far. Almost seems that this is good enough to transfer?

[denny]

Thank you! Just tested it. Beginning gravity was 1.070, it now is 1.013 which comes out to 7.48 ABV.
It tastes really good. When I add the cubes and the little whiskey there are soaking in, will that boost the ABV? I'm happy so far. Almost seems that this is good enough to transfer?

Nope, there will be so little alcohol boost that it will be unmeasurable.  If you want to xfer now, go ahead, but usually it only takes a few days on the oak, so you may want to take that into consideration.

[manyguns]

Ok. I'm leaving on vacation in 9 days, so if I transfer today and bottle next weekend or Monday, I should be good?

[denny]

Ok. I'm leaving on vacation in 9 days, so if I transfer today and bottle next weekend or Monday, I should be good?

That would be my guess.

[manyguns]

Thanks Denny, you've been a big help for this Newbie.

[denny]

Thanks Denny, you've been a big help for this Newbie.

Glad to help.  Hope you have a great batch!

[a10t2]

Nope, there will be so little alcohol boost that it will be unmeasurable.

Small anyway: every 1 fl oz of 80 proof liquor will add ~0.06% ABV to a 5 gal batch. So a cup would be ~0.5%. Probably within the error of your ABV estimate anyway - the formula I use gives 7.35%, for example.

[denny]

Nope, there will be so little alcohol boost that it will be unmeasurable.

Small anyway: every 1 fl oz of 80 proof liquor will add ~0.06% ABV to a 5 gal batch. So a cup would be ~0.5%. Probably within the error of your ABV estimate anyway - the formula I use gives 7.35%, for example.

I'd bet the oak will soak up less than that

[a10t2]

I'd bet the oak will soak up less than that

Good call; I didn't even consider not adding the whiskey!

[manyguns]

I did have a problem with my siphoning cane and had to resort to mouth siphoning. I'm a little concerned about that ad I'm pretty anal about sanitation. A fermenter with a spigot is in my future.

[denny]

I did have a problem with my siphoning cane and had to resort to mouth siphoning. I'm a little concerned about that ad I'm pretty anal about sanitation. A fermenter with a spigot is in my future.

I think I'd prefer mouth siphoning over a spigot, personally.  I get siphons started by filling the tubing with water, but have had to resort to mouth a couple times over the years.  No ill effects.

[Robert]

^^^^
+1
Spigots (and valves) on fermenters scare the heck out of me.  Once you take your first sample, there's beer residue up in there growing all manner of nasties, and you can't properly disassemble and clean it out until you've emptied out all the beer -- through the contaminated spigot.  They're fine on a bottling bucket, because you start clean, and bottle the whole lot in one operation through the  clean spigot.

[manyguns]

That's a good point. Hadn't thought about that. Do the auto siphons work well?