oguss0311
Well-Known Member
So I've made several batches in glass carboys, and all has been good. Recently I made a batch in a bucket. With the glass- I'm able to see when the sediment in the beer has settled and things clear up a bit. With the bucket- I'm not, and I just waited for a few days after activity had ceased in the fermentation lock (which was well over two weeks). To me dismay, when I went to bottle it (my one 5 gal carboy was already in use as a secondary) a lot of the sediment had not settled. I thought about putting everything back and letting it settle a while longer- however- I was concerned about the exposure to air causing everything to spoil- so I bottled it........and ran into more issues. I was unable to see clearly where the inactive yeast was on the bottom, and ended up with a good bit of cloudy mess in the bottling bucket. I thought that buckets would be a nice change because they are both easy to clean, and easy to pour wort back and forth (thats how I'm currently aerating) Now I'm rather unamused with them, and doubt I'll do it again unless really necessary. I'd like to know if I was really risking much if I had let things settle further- regarding the exposure to air from removing the lid (remember that all evidence of active fermentation was done, so its not like CO2 from the yeast would be pushing everything out). I'd also like to know if anyone has any tricks or procedures for buckets that would have helped me.
Thanks!
Thanks!