Question about moving to secondary

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

marubozo said:

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.

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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.



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

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.

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.

Revvy said:

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

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

marubozo said:

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

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

mikefranciotti said:

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

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You're welcome.

Look at the rest of the tips I, and others put in that thread....add the dip tube inside and you'll never lose more than a couple ounces of beer again...

Revvy you're the man! So glad people think outside the box making other peoples lives easier!

mikefranciotti said:

Revvy you're the man! So glad people think outside the box making other peoples lives easier!

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Thanks alot..I just try to make things easy, especially since this is a hobby and we're supposed to RDWHAHB, you know.