Racking with limited equipment

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LurchBrewBeer

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I am in Rockport, TX with a summer job. I am brewing a Chinook IPA and need to move to secondary fermentation. All I have is a 5 gL carboy and a 8 gL brew kettle.

I am planning on siphoning from the carboy to the sanitized brew kettle, while I clean and sanitize my carboy. Then siphoning back to the carboy for secondary fermentation and dry hopping.

Is this too much movement in fear of contamination and flavor loss?
 
Don't bother racking to secondary. That is rapidly becoming a thing of the past as people realize it is unneccessary. Leave it in the carboy and leave it alone until time to dry hop. No contamination or oxidation worries that way too. You can dry hop in primary, and will likely have better beer for it.
 
Secondary is only used if beer will be sitting for more than a month before bottling (lagers and other long aging beers) I dry hop in primary now and love it. I get to keep more beer that way lol
 
KuntzBrewing said:
Secondary is only used if beer will be sitting for more than a month before bottling (lagers and other long aging beers) I dry hop in primary now and love it. I get to keep more beer that way lol

This isn't true and only a personal preference. Many people rack to secondary. I've used a secondary for the majority of my beers with no issues. There is no "more beer" scenario by letting it sit/dry hop in primary.
 
ShinyBuddha said:
This isn't true and only a personal preference. Many people rack to secondary. I've used a secondary for the majority of my beers with no issues. There is no "more beer" scenario by letting it sit/dry hop in primary.

I think he was saying he gets to keep more beer bc you can't siphon everything out of primary. There will be that little bit that sits on top of the yeast.
 
boxofjibboo said:
I think he was saying he gets to keep more beer bc you can't siphon everything out of primary. There will be that little bit that sits on top of the yeast.

Hit the nail on the head.
 
I don't care what anyone says, secondaries keep crap out of my bottling bucket, period. As far as your beer though, OP, I would avoid transferring it twice. Is there any way you could make it to the hardware store and find a food safe bucket? It doesn't have to be drilled/air locked for a secondary.
 
Just about all 5 gallon buckets sold at home improvement stores are fine for fermenting. Clean well, sanitize, made from same plastic as ale pail.
 
Home Depot and other stores have food safe 5 gallon buckets for about $6 and lids for a few bucks more. Obviously you won't have a lot of head space, but that's not a problem after you lose some water too the trub.
 
The Homer Buckets are the same HDPE material as an ale pail, fwiw. $2.50, lid, 3/8" grommet, done.
 
Hmmm I recenetly fermented in a homer bucket from home depot and it worked just fine but I freaked out after the first 48hours because their was no airlock activity. Found out the lid is not air tight because it does not have a gasket. Would this be a problem if you used it as a secondary?
 
Hmmm I recenetly fermented in a homer bucket from home depot and it worked just fine but I freaked out after the first 48hours because their was no airlock activity. Found out the lid is not air tight because it does not have a gasket. Would this be a problem if you used it as a secondary?

I'm doing it right now. I think as long as the bucket is filled all the way up there will be just enough pressure to keep most critters out. Adding the airtight lid (with gasket and screw-on top) is a good idea though.
 
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