Do I really NEED a bottling bucket?

Hi All,

I'm new to the forum and to home brewing, but so far I'm having a blast with it. I got a deluxe kit from my local home brew supply shop in Houston, TX and was off and running with my very first brew - my favorite - an IPA!

So, I've made it past the primary fermentation and it's sitting in a secondary now (I know, I've done a TON of reading here on skipping this process and may do that with my next brew... ) so this weekend I'm planning to bottle and have a question. I don't currently own a bottling bucket (with spigot). So my question is twofold.

1. Do I really HAVE to have a bottling bucket, or can i transfer it back to my primary and use my auto-siphon/tubing attached to my racking/bottling wand and just leave that in the bucket? Will the siphoning action be maintained between fillings, or will I have to 'restart' the siphon each time. If so, that sounds like a pain and I'll just get the bottling bucket with spigot. I'm ok with purchasing one, but I'm also trying to minimize expenses whenever I can.

2. I added another 1/2 oz of flavoring hops to my secondary per my brew instructions. When I transfer this to my primary or newly purchased bottling bucket, how can I best 'filter' out all the hops and other stuff in the secondary? I see a lot of yeast on the bottom of the secondary as well as on the ridges of the plastic carboy, and I want to minimize the transfer of this gunk as much as I can.

Any advice would be great. I look forward to hanging out here in the forums and learning a ton from all you home brew veterans out there.

Thanks!
Tim

How are you integrating the priming sugar? If you're using a prime tab, then yeah going directly from the fermenter is fine...BUT unless yours is equipped with a spigot, trying to manitain a siphon from the fermenter and manipulating a spring fed bottling wand can be tricky.

Tricky enough that many folks end up hating bottling after trying.....

Even with adding prime tabs to the bottles, it's easier to fill with a spigot and bottling wand, rather than a siphon and bottling wand.

If you're not using prime tabs, and are planning to use sugar, then it is best to make a sugar solution and integrate it with the beer at bottling time. Adding dry sugar to bottles is very tricky, it can lead from under carbd to over carbed beer to even bottle bombs. Also dry sugar and the co2 in the beer already can lead to gushers while filling. The sugar acts as nucleation sites, and you get what amounts to the mentos/diet coke effect, all the beer shooting out of the bottle.

So then the issue is how to do that.....Do you add it to the fermeter or secondary? How to you get it all to mix?

The problem with bottling from a primary or secondary instead of using a bottling bucket, is that since you have patiently gone and let your beer settle and clear, in order to mix the priming solution and beer effectively, you would have to stir it in the carboy which would a) kick up all that nice sediment you have patiently let fall, b) possibly oxydize the beer.

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.

Why don't you just go to the hardware store and make a bottling bucket? You can find everything you need, including a spigot there.

With my bottling bucket and my dip tube, I leave no more than about 3 ounces behind, which means I can get about 52 to 54 bottles per 5 gallon batch.

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.



One of my dip tubes and what gets left behind.



You'll find a ton of good info here to make bottling easier.

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

Hope this helps you understand better.

But in truth, you'll really thank us if you if you go ahead and make or buy one.....

You don't need a bottling bucket, but it does make it much easier to bottle, especially if you're doing it by yourself.

When you rack (siphon) to the bottling bucket (or wherever you're bottling from), careful racking will avoid sucking up any hops debris and trub. What I like to do is start the siphon in the middle, under anything floating and above the trub. As the beer level lowers, I lower the racking cane to just above the trub level. It helps if you've got a small notebook or wedge under the carboy to tilt it some, so you can suck up the beer without sucking up the trub. When you gently put the racking cane to the bottom, the yeast shouldn't move and you can suck up clear beer without getting debris.

Most racking canes have a black tip over the end, to strain out debris.

Ok - thanks guys for this info. I plan to use a priming sugar solution which I'll add to my bottling bucket, homemade or purchased, to carbonate. I don't disagree at all about transferring to a different bucket prior to bottling at all. I almost have no choice due to the amount of yeast settling in the secondary. I am a little concerned about the yeast settling on the ridges of the carboy - hoping it won't fall back into suspension when I'm transferring to the bottling bucket, otherwise I may be leaving it in whatever bottling bucket I choose another week before I bottle. Ugh.

Revvy - do you happen to have a materials list for how you made the spigot? I'm more than happy to head over to Home Depot and see if they have a 5 gallon bucket I can use for this, but I'd like to not screw up the home made spigot - maybe they have spigot kits for other uses I could find?

What do you guys think?

Yooper - thanks for the tip - it confirmed my suspicions in that it's going to come down to my techniques - just gotta be careful!

I've used a bottling wand attached to an autosiphon for bottling mead. It works fine, and I had no trouble whatsoever maintaining the siphon; as long as you keep the wand lower than the siphon, you shouldn't need to restart the siphon between bottles.

While it works for still brews like mead, I would never do that with beer. Homogenizing the bottling sugar would be nearly impossible. Better to use a bottling bucket.

I bottle small 1 gallon batches directly from the jug with a siphon. Put a clamp on the end of the hose, start the siphon, clamp, attach the wand and go to town.

I heat sugar on the stove, flame a teaspoon, and add sugar direct to the bottles. I err on the low side. I've never had beer foam from the sugar.

You can't expect even carbing doing this, but I'm usually doing it to test a batch before scaling up, or to bottle off a few after a keg reaches capacity. I wouldn't do a large batch this way, not worth any perceived time savings for a full batch.

Thanks again you guys. I've got 5oz of priming sugar I'm going to add into a little boiling water to dissolve, then cool and add to the bottom of my newly purchased bottling bucket - it was less than $15 at my home brew shop ready to go. I also got a short piece of tubing to go with my bottling wand, so I should be good to go. My numbers are below - what do you guys think?

O.G. - 1.062
Today - 1.008

I think it's ready for bottling, no?

One thing I like about using my bottling bucket is getting accurate measurement on how much beer I'm bottling so I can be pretty precise with my priming sugar measurement. Find in some beers I'm leaving almost half a gallon of yeast and trub, in the fermenter, others less s
And can't be sure how much it will be until I rack.


My bottling bucket is clear plastic from Coopers and measured in liters. Racking into that bucket tells me exactly how much I'm bottling. Only problem is I can't do the old add the sugar to the bottling bucket and the beer to the sugar, have to add the beer first, and then stir in the sugar. Seems to work and my carbonation levels have really been more predictable.

Yooper said:

You don't need a bottling bucket, but it does make it much easier to bottle, especially if you're doing it by yourself.

When you rack (siphon) to the bottling bucket (or wherever you're bottling from), careful racking will avoid sucking up any hops debris and trub. What I like to do is start the siphon in the middle, under anything floating and above the trub. As the beer level lowers, I lower the racking cane to just above the trub level. It helps if you've got a small notebook or wedge under the carboy to tilt it some, so you can suck up the beer without sucking up the trub. When you gently put the racking cane to the bottom, the yeast shouldn't move and you can suck up clear beer without getting debris.

Most racking canes have a black tip over the end, to strain out debris.

Click to expand...

For me, this is one of the main reasons for letting beer sit in the primary for 3 weeks. The sediment compacts and makes siphoning much easier and cleaner.