Makeshift Bottling Bucket

When my wife was in Kentucky on business she took advantage of some of the local shopping (great prices I must say) and went to a Big Lots. We New Yorkers have never seen such an establishment before.

When she got home she proudly showed off 2 1.25 gallon clear plastic (BPA Free!) "beverage holders" with pouring spigot and handle... for $10 total.

"Can you use one for your stuff? I'm going to make ice tea in the other"


Can I indeed. Since I only make 1 gallon at a time, this is going to be my bottling bucket. I'm going to make my simple corn syrup, chill it a bit more than I would when I was priming out of a kitchen pot, and then pour into my new "bottling bucket". After racking my beer onto the priming sugar and giving the vessel a few swirls to distribute the sugar, I can now bottle with the spigot like an adult all myself if I need to.

This is awesome

that will be handy forsure!!

I hope you're not pouring from the spigot into the bottles without a bottling wand/tube assembly. O2 from spalshing into bottles is bad at this point.

unionrdr said:

I hope you're not pouring from the spigot into the bottles without a bottling wand/tube assembly. O2 from spalshing into bottles is bad at this point.

Click to expand...

I knew there was something I wasnt considering. Is there an easy way to jerryrig such an assembly?

See if a 3/8" tube will connect to the spigot to atach a bottling wand.

Do I have to go out and buy a bottling wand if I dont have one? its not so much a matter of price as of convenience... I would have to take a trip to the LHBS (none are "L") and ordering 1 bottling wand on line would cost more for shipping...

You could just turn the spigot on and off to start and stop the flow but it may get messy. Bottling wand is pretty much a must if you're going to be bottling.

Well,it would ensure properly filling the bottles in a way that limits oxygenation. some have used a siphon tube & stopping flow to place it in the next bottle. Seems like more hassle to me than to just get a bottling wand.

Maybe Im just not understanding something. I thought, since the spigot fits pretty neatly in the bottle mouth, that I could use the spigot handle as a gasket to cut the flow and allow the liquid to run down the inner side of the bottle. Just that little amount of splashing contributes enough to oxigenation to worry about?

It can,since it's hard to get "just a little". At least connect some tubing to it to go into the bottom of the bottle to reduce oxygenation...

A bottling wand is worth it, even if you pay for shipping and its 15 total, it's worth it. I bottled like 3 batches without it. I was using my old mr beer fermentor to bottle and just tilting the bottle to reduce oxygen and turn on and off the spigot. WHAT A PAIN! It was messy, I lost beer. My bottles were not uniformly full so not carbonated equally. Bottling wand is amazing. Turns bottling from a chore into a relaxing task in homebrew.

It will be fine. Just pour the beer down the side of the bottle. Plenty of batches have been bottled this way and it's fine.

For future reference, where you messed up was in asking The Internet. When you ask The Internet "will this work" what you are really asking is "how well does this mesh with current Internet Expert orthodoxy"?. The answer to your actual question "will this be ok" is "yes, it will work great". The answer to your question when addressed to The Internet is "OMGWTF use a bottling wand or every molecule in your body will explode at the speed of light in total protonic reversal".

No no I appreciate everyone's input. If a bottling wand is really worth it I will get it as soon as I can. This just seems like a decent and reasonable stop-gap measure... a lot easier than using an autosyphon with a hose clamp and having my gay pastry chef friend shouting "pump harder! no... stop! ok PUMP!"

true stoy by the way.

No,atom smashing won't occur. But the risk of oxidation from not using the proper equipment is a risk.

Once you use a bottling wand for bottling, you will always use a bottling wand.

Technically, with a 12oz bottle, could I use a racking cane sans-black bottom cap in a pinch?

Put the racking cane in the beer & the tube connected to it in the bottom of the bottle. Problem is stopping the flow to transfer to the next bottle without a mess.

Because of my stupidity I have found that oxidation while a real risk is vastly overrated at least in the short term storage.

I was filling a small keg a gallon and a half I believe it was and when I went to put the bung in the bung hole I pushed hard enough the whole thing plopped in the beer. I poured the whole thing back into a bucket fished the bung plugger thing out and put the beer back into it. I had so much foam going on because of aeration that foam was flowing out the bung hole.

3 or 4 months later after it had carbed it was fine. Not even a hint of cardboard just sweet somewhat undercarbed beer

I cannot see a gallon of beer lasting that long so go ahead and pour it into the bottle very carefully.

Seriously I appreciate all the input.