Cerpintine

Recipes 

My second batch is almost two weeks in the primary now and I was gonna move to secondary for a week. This is the ale pale bucket though with a spigot and not a carboy--if I were to use the spigot for bottling this essentially defeats the purpose of moving over, right (the beer again clears up with sediment falling to the bottom)? I mean I should just auto siphon out the top with bottle filler?

mikefranciotti

Recipes 

I'm very new at this but from what I've read, many people don't even use a secondary.

My last batch I kept in the primary for 6 weeks, racked to the bottling bucket and left it to settle for a day or two then racked to bottles.

__________________
Primary: Dark IPA
Bottled: Barley Wine
Kegs: Air

Finally dusted off the equipment after a year hiatus!

marubozo

Recipes 

If you're using the bottling bucket as a secondary then you're going to have a problem come bottling time when you have to mix in the priming sugar. Usually people put the priming sugar/water into the bottling bucket and then rack the beer into that and the swirling gives you a good mix of the sugar.

If your beer is ready to be bottled and is already in your bottling bucket, mixing your sugar becomes that much harder and you risk oxidizing everything, not to mention stirring up all the stuff you meant to settle out in the first place.

If that is your only other vessel, don't even bother and just leave it in the primary for another week and then rack into the bottling bucket with the priming sugar.

EvilGnome6

Recipes 

I don't think I've ever used the spigot in my bottling bucket for bottling. I just use an autosiphon, some vinyl tubing and a bottling wand.

marubozo

Recipes 

I didn't use the spigot at first either, but noticed the bottling wand and spigot were the same diameter. A 1" piece of vinyl tubing connects them easily

Revvy

Recipes 

What he said.

Or if you don't have a bottling bucket go to a hardware store and get a translucent or white bucket,,,but look for one where the 5 gallon mark falls way below the top of the bucket. Usually it will say 5 gallons at 3rd band from the top. (oh get the lid too....I totally regret not getting it when I did.)

Then get a spigot and make a dedicated bottling bucket. It really defeats the purpose of both a long primary/no secondary or a secondary if you have to stir up all the nice sediment you patiently waited to settle just so you can have consistent carbonation.

Mine is the translucent Leaktite brand 5 gallon container with the gallon and liter markings from Homedepot.



Here's a pic of mine from my bottling thread.



http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

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EvilGnome6

Recipes 

I have a step stool toolbox that hangs out in the kitchen area:



I set it on top of the kitchen counter and set the bottling bucket on top of it. It's tall enough so that the top of a bottle is below the level of the bucket. This way I can line up my bottles and dip the bottling wand (attached to a siphon and some vinyl tubing) in the bottles one after another. My wife rotates the bottles out as I'm filling. We can bottle a batch in no time.

Revvy

Recipes 

Cool gnomey...why don't you add that to my bottling tips list...

I mention in that thread, that since I took the original picture for the thread I have now switched to setting mine up on top of an ale pale on the table...The height could not be even more perfect.

__________________
Like my snazzy new avatar? Get Sons of Zymurgy swag, here, and brew with the best.

Revvy's one of the cool reverends. He has a Harley and a t-shirt that says on the back "If you can read this, the bitch was Raptured. - Madman

I gotta tell ya, just between us girls, that Revvy is HOT. Very tall, gorgeous grey hair and a terrific smile. He's very good looking in person, with a charismatic personality... he drives like a ****ing maniac! - YooperBrew

EvilGnome6

Recipes 

I'll take some pictures next time I bottle a batch and write up some details on my process.

mikefranciotti

Recipes 

I'm definitely using this method come bottling time!! Fantastic.

__________________
Primary: Dark IPA
Bottled: Barley Wine
Kegs: Air

Finally dusted off the equipment after a year hiatus!