Brewing in and bottling from spigot buckets?

I've done some reading on the bucket vs. carboy debate. One thing I saw was that spigot buckets have the advantage of simplifying bottling by eliminating the need to siphon. I'm probably going to do my second brew (a pumpkin spice ale from the local shop) in a bucket since the carboy's busy with the Scottish ale.

I have a 6.5G glass carboy (in use; I'm giving it another week or so), 6.5G Brewer's Best bucket, and 6.5G True Brew bucket with a spigot. I also picked up an autosiphon last night and I have a manual siphon with wand and one of the automatic shutoff bottling tips.

How is the sediment transfer with the spigot on a bucket? Do you find that it's high enough to not transfer trub? And would I be bottling directly from the primary to the bottles or is the spigot intended to transfer to a separate bottling bucket? How would you do it with the equipment I had listed above?

Word to the wise: the answer to the carboy/bucket question is a Better Bottle. I exclusively use Better Bottles.

That being said, I would ferment in the bucket, siphon to the bottling bucket on top of corn sugar solution, then bottle.

I would be concerned with sediment transfer (who wants to go through all the work of making beer just to get crap in your glass) as well as proper mixing of the priming solution without stirring and aerating the fermented beer.

For my second go I want to minimize sediment as much as I can since it'll be lighter.

To get the well-compacted trub I should give it an extra week? The current brew started at OG 1.040 and was in primary for 7 days and has been in secondary for 2 days. The bubbling rate was never much throughout the process but I could see krausen around the top of the primary bucket (didn't take a reading). It is still bubbling in secondary albeit like two bubbles per hour. I was thinking of checking the FG for bottling on the 14th day, but I've seen some things saying the whole process should take 3 - 4 weeks.

The ABV of the original kit was ~3.5% so the homebrew guy at the shop said I should add in an extra pound of amber DME to get the ABV up to ~4.5 or 5% so I've been waiting since I'm not sure what to expect for an FG.

I didn't mean to rush it. The kit instructions said two weeks in primary, or one week in primary and two in secondary. I see now that secondary is not as necessary as first perceived.

I've been using a bottling bucket for each of my brews. I have 4 under my belt that I have bottled and a 5th that is sitting in primary still. For all of the ones that I bottled I made the priming solution and put it in the bottling bucket and then just racked from the secondary and avoided the trub on the bottom of the carboy. I had no sediment transferred from the carboy to the bottling bucket. Just make sure to mix it well once it is in the bucket to ensure that each bottle is carbonated the same. Thats one mistake that I have made.

"as well as proper mixing of the priming solution without stirring and aerating the fermented beer"


Could you elaborate on what the proper method is? Or did you just mean put the corn sugar water in the bottom of the bottling bucket, siphon from fermenter bucket directly on top of the corn sugar water, and that is all that needs to be done, it mixes itself?

I wouldn't use a bucket with a spigot for anything other than bottling, they have tendencies to leak. A batch of beer isn't worth that risk for the minimal gain and slight if any convenience factor of using a spigot to transfer. Plus bottling off a siphon I would imagine as being a pain in the ass. Just use your bucket with the spigot as a dedicated bottling bucket and save yourself the hassle.

nebbrewer said:

"as well as proper mixing of the priming solution without stirring and aerating the fermented beer"

Could you elaborate on what the proper method is? Or did you just mean put the corn sugar water in the bottom of the bottling bucket, siphon from fermenter bucket directly on top of the corn sugar water, and that is all that needs to be done, it mixes itself?

Click to expand...

The method you described is all that I have ever used. Try to siphon so that the beer swirls around in the bottling bucket and mixes with the priming sugar. Do NOT splash it around though, oxygen at this point is bad. I usually try to avoid any stirring or sticking anything foreign into the beer at this point, for the risk of oxidation or possible infection (which is less likely at this point, but still possible).

[FONT="Verdana"It doesn't hurt to gently stir the beer in the bottling bucket. & spray the spoon with starsan 1st. Then you'll be fine. It doesn't mix 100% perfectly in my experience. & I do the swirl thing.[/FONT]

I feel like everyone here has secretly tried to budget an industrial clean room.