first attempt. couple noob questions

Hello everyone, long time forum Lurker. Finally decided to give brewing a shot. I got a nice package deal that includes all the essentials plus a bottling bucket and a glass carboy. I went to a local brew store and picked up a brewers best red ale kit. I am pretty much ready to go but I have a few questions.

Is it ok to do my primary fermentation in the 6 gal bottling bucket? I don't see why it would be a problem but thought I would ask. Also while sanitizing the bottling bucket I noticed I have a leak at the drain cock. I tried to tighten it as much as I could but no matter what it has a slow drip where the rubber o ring meets the bucket. Any tips on how to safely seal this connection? Any other advise is also appreciated!

I've used silicone on the outside of my buckets to seal a leak before. works pretty good. could also try a 2 part plastic epoxy. And yes you can primary in your plastic bucket. I primary and short secondary in my plastic buckets. Only use my glass carboy for long secondaries. Like 2 weeks or more

Make sure the O ring is on the outside... if its not already. I would get another bucket for primary just in case it leaks and you can probably keep it a little cleaner. But otherwise it should work.

It has an o ring on the inside and outside. I may remove the drain and come up with a temporary plug for fermentation, then transfer to the carboy for secondary, then install the drain spigot for bottling.

IMHO, a bottling bucket is good as a bottling bucket and not much else- it's a bottle with a hole in it . My first and only bottling bucket with a spigot leaked right off the bat. I never even used it to bottle.

Anywho, a "regular" non-spigot'ed bucket is pretty cheap, especially if you are considering spending more $$ on silicone or epoxy to try and fix the leaky bottling bucket. Plus, you can always use the leaky bottling bucket to only bottle with, and in doing so you'll lose far less beer since you'll only use it for 20 minutes or so anyway during the bottling process.

FYI all of my plastic fermenting buckets have spigots on them. I find it makes life far easier to transfer to a secondary bucket and then into a keg. Again, part of the reason why I rarely use my glass carboy. I just don't like having to deal with siphoning. its a hassle

Thanks for all the responses. I think as long as I can get a good seal at the spigot it will work fine as my primary fermenter for my first batch. I will more than likely buy another bucket for the next batch.

You'll be amazed how fast your bucket collection grows. I have 8 buckets with spigots installed for primary/secondary fermenters and one glass carboy.

92greenyj said:

You'll be amazed how fast your bucket collection grows. I have 8 buckets with spigots installed for primary/secondary fermenters and one glass carboy.

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lol, yeah I can already see this hobby spinning wildly out of control My fiance thinks I am crazy but hopefully I can change her way of thinking with a good first batch

nebben said:

IMHO, a bottling bucket is good as a bottling bucket and not much else- it's a bottle with a hole in it .

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All my bottles have a hole in them, that's where I drink the beer from.

Do you have an auto-siphon? I find it makes the job a lot easier.

ericpennock said:

All my bottles have a hole in them, that's where I drink the beer from.

Do you have an auto-siphon? I find it makes the job a lot easier.

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I have the siphon that came with the kit. I dont think its and auto-siphon. I don't know what to do. Now I am reading that many think it is not necessary to rack to a seconday at all. If that's the case I could just use the Glass carboy as my primary and just bottle after a few weeks.

brew2enjoy said:

I have the siphon that came with the kit. I dont think its and auto-siphon. I don't know what to do. Now I am reading that many think it is not necessary to rack to a seconday at all. If that's the case I could just use the Glass carboy as my primary and just bottle after a few weeks.

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If it's a 5 gal carboy (which it probably is in that kit), there might not be enough headspace for a 5 gal brew - you'll lose volume to blow-off (foam coming out of the top), and in that case you'll need a blow-off tube (so your airlock doesn't get clogged by all the krausen going through it).

Is it common to have kits that come with a 6 gallon bottling bucket and a 5 gallon carboy? That seems backwards to me.

ericpennock said:

Is it common to have kits that come with a 6 gallon bottling bucket and a 5 gallon carboy? That seems backwards to me.

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Ya. I didn't read close enough and assumed that it was a primary fermenter not a bottling bucket. OP do you know the volume of the carboy? If it's 6 or 6.5 gal then you'd be fine just fermenting in that, and forgetting the secondary fermentation.

brew2enjoy said:

lol, yeah I can already see this hobby spinning wildly out of control My fiance thinks I am crazy but hopefully I can change her way of thinking with a good first batch

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you have no idea man. I hve pretty much a whole wall in my garage dedicated to my brewing system and all my equipment. an 8 tap kegerator I built, 4 tap jockey box. Yeah it can get out of hand fast

I just checked, the carboy is 5 gallons. I guess I still need to either use the bottling bucket or get a new bucket for primary.

brew2enjoy said:

I just checked, the carboy is 5 gallons. I guess I still need to either use the bottling bucket or get a new bucket for primary.

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Or scale your batch down to maybe 4 or 4.5 gallons to reduce the chance of loss out of the carboy.

I'm just a mere mortal among the brewing gods here on the forum, but I think getting a 6 or 6.5 gallon bucket or carboy (or better bottle) would be a good idea if you are planning to do this for a while. What sort of package did you get? I am still confused on the reason a kit would include a 5 gallon primary fermenter and a 6 gallon bottling bucket. When you rack off of the fermenter to the bucket you will have somewhat less liquid so it would seem that you would want/need a larger primary.

My kit came with a 6 gallon primary fermenter, a 5 gallon glass carboy for secondary and a bottling bucket. I picked up 6 gallon better bottle to do my primary and I use the 6 gallon bucket for my sanitizing solution. I am glad I got the better bottle. It is nice to be able to see that is going on inside. It is kind of mesmerizing, like a lava lamp. I will be doing the secondary in the 5 gal. carboy. Another nice thing about the better bottle is that the bottom is crowned to make it easier to to avoid transfering the trub to your secondary. You should be able to pick one up for under $30.

This is the kit I got. It says its a 6 gallon carboy but something I read in the kit said 5 gal. I guess i need to figure out which one it is.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BU7CVM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

brew2enjoy said:

This is the kit I got. It says its a 6 gallon carboy but something I read in the kit said 5 gal. I guess i need to figure out which one it is.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BU7CVM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

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Looks like 6 gal to me. You'll want gallon marks on the carboy anyway, so just add a gallon at a time, and mark the glass with nail polish as you go. The top "ring" below the neck is where the carboy is "full" and whatever your volume is at that point indicates the size of the carboy.

Frodo said:

Looks like 6 gal to me. You'll want gallon marks on the carboy anyway, so just add a gallon at a time, and mark the glass with nail polish as you go. The top "ring" below the neck is where the carboy is "full" and whatever your volume is at that point indicates the size of the carboy.

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Great tip! Thanks, I will do that tonight. I would like to start this batch on Saturday. I can't wait!!

Just wanted to update this thread. I had my first brew day today. I am very happy with how everything went. My beer has been in the primary for about 7 hours now and I am getting lots of airlock activity! I will update again in a few weeks.