Fermenter with spigot, no need to syphon?

I have a Coopers brewering kit. The fermenter is basically a large bucket with its own spigot near the bottom. When following instructions for a Cooper's pre-hopped beer kit you just ferment and then bottle directly from the spigot on the fermentor. In the 3 batches I've made so far there has been practically no sediment in the bottles and I assume thats due to the use of the pre-hopped kits rather than doing my own mash and whatever. Up until now I've just been using carbonation drops for my priming so with the spigot in the fermenter there wasn't a need for a bottling bucket. However, I am ready to get a bottling bucket and ready to use priming sugar.

So I was curious... Since my fermenter has a spigot on it would I really need to syphon the beer out? Couldn't I just connect a sanitized tube to the spigot and run it to my bucket with the priming sugar?

I already have an auto-syphon so I guess I am just asking out of curiosity.

yep, you can do what you said with no issues. I like to use the siphon just so I can make sure i get every last drop, especially if there is little or tight sediment. But going right from the spigot into the bottling bucket is fine.

Wouldnt the spigot get contaminated? Say I have my bucket sitting in the closet for 3 weeks. The spigot has been exposed, stuff could get into the outside of it, can't it? And when you attach the hose so you can send it over to the bottling bucket, it will be passing through an unsanitzed plthing. Am I missing something? I was thinking about doing the same thing.

-I

I've transferred from primary to secondary using the spigot on my ale pail. I just spray some starsan into the spigot before I transfer. I've also seen other people cover the spigot with plastic wrap and a rubber band during primary to prevent anything from getting in the spigot.

When you mix up your sanitizer (Iodophor, StarSan, ...) you can put some into a little sprayer bottle and soak the spigot. If you want you can put some of the santizer in a baggie and rubber band it around the spigot so that the whole thing soaks for as long as you like.

But if it worries you, don't mess with it. It's not going to hurt anything to use a siphon to rack.

IvanTheTerrible said:

Wouldnt the spigot get contaminated? Say I have my bucket sitting in the closet for 3 weeks. The spigot has been exposed, stuff could get into the outside of it, can't it? And when you attach the hose so you can send it over to the bottling bucket, it will be passing through an unsanitzed plthing. Am I missing something? I was thinking about doing the same thing.

-I

Click to expand...

Sanitize the bucket and spigot before racking.Wrap the spigot with aluminum foil. Rack the beer into the bucket. Place bucket in closet for 3 weeks.

Remove bucket from closet. Remove the foil. Sanitize the spigot with StarSan. Attach hose and rack beer.

RDWHAHB.

This is how I do ALL of my brews, I don't use a siphon, just a spigot. Just spray the outlet of the spigot with some StarSan, wait 60 sec, spray some more, wait 60 sec, then connect your sanitized tubing and proceed as usual.

People like to try to scare others with the Spigot Bogeyman. But I know he's not real. I just take the spigot apart every other time I use it, and scrub well, sanitize, reassemble.

In between thorough cleanings, I just run hot water through it while I'm cleaning my fermenter, then spray a healthy measure of StarSan through it before letting it dry with the spigot open. Once dry, I close the spigot, and store the bucket upside down, with the spigot pointing up-but-now-down-because-its-upside-down. Er. Pointing towards the ground. That one.