Can I add a spigot to an old plastic carboy?

I've searched the site some but haven't found how to do this. My first batch is getting close to bottling, and I have a couple questions. My father inlaw just gave me an old plastic carboy he used to use for his wine and home brew. It doesn't have a spigot/bottling valve on it, and neither does my fermenting bucket.

1. What should I do?
2. Should I even transfer my beer, or just use a syphine from the primary?
3. Can I drill a hole and install a spigot on one of these vessel?
4. If so, how did you do it, and what supplies do I need, and what size?

Sorry for all the green horn questions, just don't want to screw up my batch.

I would just ferment in the bucket then siphon over to the plastic carboy after its done fermenting to clear the beer. adding the spigots in the fermenter just adds one more thing to clean. thats just my opinion alot of these guys use them.do yourself a favor and make sure that old plastic carboy doesnt have any small scratches in it because if it does its impossible to clean and sanitize properly.

Thanks, just do a visual inspection I guess as the opening is small and i wouldn't be able to feel in there. So just bottle using the auto syphon and beer wand from the carboy?

the carboy looks good cleaned and sanitized it held up to a light ,no visible scratches

Ask a local bakery if they have any empty 5gal icing buckets and put a spigot in that.

Ah, good idea

You could just order a bottling bucket, they're relatively cheap. Not trying to be a smarta$$ but sometimes the simplest solution is to just buy what you need.

ok, maybe I'm missing something but how would you actually add the "nut" to the backside of the spigot??? I know my hand and arm will not fit inside a carboy lol

BradleyBrew said:

ok, maybe I'm missing something but how would you actually add the "nut" to the backside of the spigot??? I know my hand and arm will not fit inside a carboy lol

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You can use a 3/8" PVC pipe to attach their raking adaptor fitting.

BradleyBrew said:

ok, maybe I'm missing something but how would you actually add the "nut" to the backside of the spigot??? I know my hand and arm will not fit inside a carboy lol

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Talk to a farm boy who has had to fix his own equipment. He'd find a way.

It's much easier to just get the proper equipment for the job. That spigot needs to be completely disassembled and cleaned after each bottling because it has places to hold a little material that can harbor bacteria which can spoil the beer in your bottles. Bottling buckets with spigots are relatively cheap and easy to use.

i'll be sure to contact my local farmboy

BradleyBrew said:

i'll be sure to contact my local farmboy

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That's great

true that

RM-MN said:

Talk to a farm boy who has had to fix his own equipment. He'd find a way.

It's much easier to just get the proper equipment for the job. That spigot needs to be completely disassembled and cleaned after each bottling because it has places to hold a little material that can harbor bacteria which can spoil the beer in your bottles. Bottling buckets with spigots are relatively cheap and easy to use.

Click to expand...

but not always easy to get when you live in a town with no LHBS. Didn't want to pay shipping for an item like this. I'll figure something out.

probably just bottle from primary bucket and use carb tabs in the bottles.

30,750ml of my first brew bottle.

Congrats. Just a hair under 6 gallons. What was your solution?

I just syphoned from the primary using as auto syphon and bottling wand. I put 2 Coopers bottling tabs in each bottle. Will let it carbonate and mature in the bottles. It wasn't bad doing it, and actually kind of fun. My 15 year old son was helping me, so I'm sure he was taking mental notes for future reference, haha.