Secondary Fermentation

My wife bought me a home brew kit for the Christmas and I had a few questions that I was confused about and wanted to see if I could get some help. The kit included a 6.5 gallon bucket with a lid that accepts an airlock and a 6 gallon glass carboy that will also accept the airlock. I wanted to start brewing my first batch of beer(an American Pale Ale) which will yield 5 gallons and had some questions on the equipment so I called two places in town and got two answers.

The first place told me that I could utilize the glass carboy as the primary and only fermenter then transfer the beer to the bucket with the spigot to do the bottling. He did say however that I would have to create a blow off valve because there would not be sufficient head room and if the pressure built up too much, the carboy could even explode.

The second place I contacted (the place the kit came from) said the bucket with spigot would function as the primary fermenter, then after 3 to 5 days, I would siphon the wort to the glass carboy to complete the fermentation process, then siphon the beer back to the bucket (which was the primary fermenter) to bottle.

The second option seems to involve much more work, but some posts I have seen say that secondary fermentation would result in a cleaner beer. Some others have said a secondary fermentation could disturb the wort and result in a lesser quality beer. Which one would be the best recommended?

My second question is on the sanitizer. I have C Brite which says to rinse after the solution is made. What brands of no-rinse sanitizer are out there? I don't really want to have to rinse all of my equipment and bottles.

Thanks everyone for the help.

i'd recommend the primary only method. ferment at least until your FG is reached and stable over a few days. search the site for the secondary/no secondary debate. tons of info.

as far as a sanitizer, starsan. after you use your c brits to clean, rinse with a starsan solution to sanitize and rinse off the chlorine.

I've never used a bucket for fermentation. Nothing against it, just my starter kit included carboys so I used them. It did come with the bottling bucket and I've used that.

That being said, use the carboy for fermentation. Then you can peak in on the yeast while it's working. Concentrate on primary fermentation. Secondary isn't necessary for most beers. (I've used secondary for a barley wine that takes 6 months and a fruit beer)

A blow-off tube is nice. Not only do they prevent bursting and having to clean a mess, but they also allow a lot of bitter krausen to exit the fermenter.

For sanitation I love using Star San. It's so easy and it works.

If you use your carboy for your primary chamber be sure to put a large towel/sheet/dark t-shirt over the carboy to prevent UV light from penetrating through the glass and affecting the taste of your beer.

I use buckets for primary just because it is much easier to clean. If you want to skip secondary, then going with the carbon only makes sense. My impression the bucket for primary and carboy for secondary is more common.

If you do use a secondary, make sure the fermentation is complete. There should be little to no activity while it is in the secondary. Secondary "fermentation" is a misnomer. Racking to a secondary vessel is good for getting a clearer brew or to add flavors. If you aren't interested in either, just keep it in the primary for a couple weeks. 3 to 5 days sounds way too soon to me, and you run the risk of stopping the fermentation going on at that point or of contamination.

I'd say you got a little bit of bad information from both places. Instead of starting in the bucket with the spigot and transferring too soon to the carboy and then back to the bucket or starting in a carboy that is a little too small and will most likely spill over or need a blowoff tube, blow next week's paycheck on a fermenter bucket with lid and airlock (about $15) and ferment in that for the approximately 3 weeks that your beer really needs and then rack it onto the sugar priming solution you boiled in the bucket with the spigot and bottle from there.

I primary my beer in pales and rarely do a secondary. When I use carboy's or better bottles, I cover them. I use Freecycle to find the carry bags that many air mattress's come with. People seem to have them all over when the mattress's eventually start leaking. All you need to do is make a hole in the closed end for the airlock and/or blow off tube, and they fit right over the carboy/bb and block out all possible light. Helps maintain temp also.

Everybody has a method of producing great beer. I'm no exception. I always do 4 weeks primary, 4 weeks bottle conditioning, and have never had a cloudy beer. In fact, I can upend the bottle completely into the glass and get no sediment whatsoever. I have to shake some clean water in the bottle twice on order to get the yeast cake out of them.

I use buckets for my primary fermenter. Lots of "does this fermentation look right" threads are started by newbies using a carboy and obsessing over what they see. Fermentation isn't pretty.

Either method would work, but if you're just getting started, stick with a primary-only fermentation in the carboy. The less you have to transfer your beer between containers, the less potential there is for it to get oxidized/contaminated. If you are worried about the clarity of your beer but want to skip secondary fermentation, you can always cold crash it by putting the carboy in a refrigerator or tub of ice for a couple days before bottling.

5 gal. of beer in a 6 gal. carboy should leave plenty of headspace, but running a blow-off hose from the neck of the carboy to a smaller container filled with vodka or sanitizer & water will allow for some extra space for byproducts of fermentation to go.

I've never used C-Brite for sanitizing. I started off with bleach and water, but moved on to StarSan, and it is far easier to use.

Here's what I do. Ferment in the carboy 2-3 weeks with a blow off tube. Transfer it to the bucket with the spigot for bottling. I prefer Iodophor as a no rinse sanitizer. Never a problem.

Sounds like you got exactly the same kit that I did for Christmas. I did my first batch last Saturday and used the carboy for for the fermenter since I wanted to watch it happen and I wasn't sure that the 6.5 gal "bottling bucket" with the spigot qualified as a fermenter. I got lucky that I had just enough space (2-3 inches to space) to not need a blow-off tube, but I improvised one from some of the other tubing that came with the kit. I attached the siphon tube to a piece that fit snugly into the carboy plug, and ran the tube to a container of sanitizer.

After reading more since then I think I'll use the bucket for the next batch, so I don't have to worry about protecting it from the light or using the blow-off tube. My long range plans involve having two batches going at the same time, one in the bucket and one in the carboy.

Mike

I'm new here and at brewing, so please go easy on me. LOL How are you guys transfering the brew from the "kettle" to the carboy primary?

Balto said:

I'm new here and at brewing, so please go easy on me. LOL How are you guys transfering the brew from the "kettle" to the carboy primary?

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First off, welcome! Second, there are a lot of different possibilities. There will be some grain and yeast sediment in your brewpot, so you can pour the wort through a funnel with a strainer sitting inside it (both sanitized, of course) and into your primary fermenter. Or, if you have an auto-siphon, you can rack the wort between containers and try to avoid the sediment. I'd recommend searching the forums to find out more about other people's setups.

I was always wondering, why the blow off tube... We use carboys for fermentation and have never had one explode or need anything else but the airlock...doesn't the airlock push out the co2

MuchoGusto said:

Here's what I do. Ferment in the carboy 2-3 weeks with a blow off tube. Transfer it to the bucket with the spigot for bottling. I prefer Iodophor as a no rinse sanitizer. Never a problem.

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There is nothing wrong with using a primary and or a secondary. This topic gets debated on here probably every 3-5 hours. That being said. Some use a secondary for fruit and other flavor additions and or bulk conditioning. I have used both methods and will be using a secondary for a Rochefort 10 clone that I'm brewing tomorrow. That one will sit in a secondary for at least 6-8 weeks after being in the primary for 2 weeks. I primarily ferment for 3-4 weeks for most average ales in plastic and then bottle. Sometimes I go shorter if it's a wheat beer. Usually 2 weeks is plenty for those. So it all depends on the beer style and what you're trying to accomplish.

beerloaf

Firebat138 said:

I was always wondering, why the blow off tube... We use carboys for fermentation and have never had one explode or need anything else but the airlock...doesn't the airlock push out the co2

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Depends on the beer style and fermentation temps. I primarily brew Belgians and they do ferment quite violently sometimes and most have required a blow off tube at least for the first few days. After about 3-5 days I switch over to an airlock.

beerloaf

'Tis definitely the season for new folks, isnt it? I'm glad I found this place when we started brewing - if we'd have followed those kit instructions, we'd have been screwed...

Firebat138 said:

I was always wondering, why the blow off tube... We use carboys for fermentation and have never had one explode or need anything else but the airlock...doesn't the airlock push out the co2

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Some brews can be extremely active and bubble and foam right out of the carboy. This would be the case if, say, you had 20 litres in a 21 litre carboy. Not much head room can mean a foamy mess. I have even seen the foam block the airlock and blast it out of the carboy. Lesson learned ages ago.

B