My brewing process

Ok, so because I have less than ideal equipment, I kinda of do things a bit different then they're supposed to be done. So I want to get some feedback on anything within my process that may be significantly hurting the quality of my beer.

Ok so first, I do partial mashing...tend to steep my specialty grains within a gallon pot for about 30 minutes. While that is happening I get the boil going; I do a full boil usually starting with 6 gallons in my 7.5 gallon pot. Usually add the mash into the pot with the extract and first hops just before the boil starts so I don't need to remove from the heat. Then something I forgot last time, I stir before putting into the primary. I just cool it down with water and ice in the sink which tends to take somewhere between 1 and 2 hours. I put the wort into primary just my pouring since I having no siphon equipment.

My primary is also my secondary and my bottling bucket. At the end of fermentation I tend to just boil some water and sugar and throw it in and let it work its way through the wort for 10 or 20 minutes. I'd like to stir but my beers are cloudy enough as it is. After that I bottle and store.

I feel that not having any tubing and not having something separate to bottle might be hurting me even though I'm pleased with my beer so far. Also I haven't been making any yeast starters since my highest OG was in between 1.060 and 1.065.

And just how long have you been using this process?

You don't have less than ideal equipment, you don't have enough equipment. You should have at a minimum: a primary bucket and a bottling bucket (with a bottle filler) along with an auto-syphon, a temp gage and a hydrometer, caps and a capper.

If you're doing a primary fermentation and a secondary (for clearing) and using it also as a bottling bucket (adding priming sugar and stirring) then you're adding whatever sediment and yeast fell out in the secondary stage back into suspension when mixing in the PS.

You need to rack your brew into another bucket to get it off the sediment and yeast. In the secondary it'll clear even more. This you rack into a bottling bucket where you also add the priming sugar and stir in.

The clearer the brew going into each vessel the cleaner your end product will be.

homebrewer_99 said:

And just how long have you been using this process?

You don't have less than ideal equipment, you don't have enough equipment. You should have at a minimum: a primary bucket and a bottling bucket (with a bottle filler) along with an auto-syphon, a temp gage and a hydrometer, caps and a capper.

If you're doing a primary fermentation and a secondary (for clearing) and using it also as a bottling bucket (adding priming sugar and stirring) then you're adding whatever sediment and yeast fell out in the secondary stage back into suspension when mixing in the PS.

You need to rack your brew into another bucket to get it off the sediment and yeast. In the secondary it'll clear even more. This you rack into a bottling bucket where you also add the priming sugar and stir in.

The clearer the brew going into each vessel the cleaner your end product will be.

Click to expand...

Well yes I do have a hydrometer, temp gauge, and bottle filler. Really it seems like my clarity is about the only thing suffering from my lack of equipment. I seem to be getting good taste and aroma out of my beers, but yes I would say my beers are generally cloudy and darker than I'd want.

+1 on not having enough equipment.

I would purchase a carboy to use as your primary. Then crash cool your primary and rack off the sediment into your bottling bucket and you will have much clearer beer.

Going from fermentation to priming to bottling in one bottling bucket is far from craziest thing I have heard. Obviously you're going to kick up a lot of sediment the way you describe your process... and your beer probably wont' suck, but it will have issues. Save up 15 bucks and get another bucket. No need to secondary but you really oughta rack to a dedicated bottling bucket cuz stirring up all that trub while priming is gonna do all kinds of weird stuff. Stop being a cheapass!

Exactly, with a very few extra bucks, you'll greatly improve the clarity of your final product, you'll be real glad you did.

Sounds to me that what you could benefit the most from is a proper racking cane and tubing, and another bucket for bottling.

Also, you said you boil some sugar and water and dump it in the bucket........I assume you cool it? When you get your second bucket, cool your priming solution, pour it into the second bucket, then rack your brew from the fermenter onto the sugar on bottling day.

Don't sweat a secondary, not needed.