Can I use my bottling bucket as a secondary?

Pretty self explanatory: Can I use my bottling bucket with lid as a secondary?

Would I be able to just bottle straight from it after its done aging or would I just end up sucking a bunch of the sediment into my bottles?

Anyone do this before?

i have done this many times. if all my carboys and buckets are full i use to do my primary fermentation in. when i use it as a secondary i have never bottled it strait from it. i dont see a problem with it. you might get some yeast but not much. i just rack into a keg. try it and find out. let me know.

I've also done this a few times. My biggest concern was nasty stuff being on/in the spigot. I would run one step through the spigot before racking and then take a slightly modified cup and submerge it before I bottled. Never had a problem.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/first-batch-blunders-some-advice-needed-166200/
Consider reading the above before you decide on secondary. This may just be someone's opinion, but makes sense, especially for the new brewer (myself included). Racking to a secondary, especially one with potential to hide nasties, may be superfluous, unnecessary, and potentially detrimental to your beer, and your wallet. Just worth considering.

Make sure your spigot and all is sanitized & I don't think there's any issue. I bottled a batch over the weekend that I primaried in my bottling bucket without transfering to a secondary. The beer was fine, I even drank a few pints while I was bottling because it wasn't bad flat. I had to leave some unbottled (and drank instead), due to not wanting to tilt the yeast cake into the last of my bottles, but you likely wont need to worry much about that if you're using it as a secondary.

Main things I see: Make sure it's sanitary & make sure it has a good seal - a really small/light leak isn't a big deal on bottling day, but wont be good for sitting a couple weeks.

DavidHawman said:

Would I be able to just bottle straight from it after its done aging or would I just end up sucking a bunch of the sediment into my bottles?

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Yes, you will definitely get a little more sediment, but let your bottles rest and pour into a glass like any other time (leaving as much sediment behind). It's been a while since I did that, but I don't remember throwing any out.

I wouldn't and learned the hard way with a batch on the ground. At some point the threads on the spigot cracked and slowly let about three gallons out on the ground. I will never use it again for storage. It sucked to have to toss that batch (fruit flies and the like). ~Diz

Thinking about this a bit more: one thing that may be an issues, though likely small, is the amount of head space along with the fact that you wont have your blanket of CO2 on top of the brew since this is a secondary instead of primary. You'll basically have a wide area exposed to oxygen. Normally you would secondary into a smaller vessel instead of a larger one, or just keep in the larger primary without going to secondary. Not sure how big of an issue going to what would be considered a large/larger primary is, or if your brew would still be emitting enough CO2 to make it not matter. Hopefully one of the more experienced folks can answer that.

Think of it as just another place something can, and will go wrong. Another avenue for infection etc...

Catch-22 said:

Think of it as just another place something can, and will go wrong. Another avenue for infection etc...

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I agree. I only did it when I didn't have a glass carboy and wanted to get my primary freed up for another batch. If you can just keep in your primary longer and then rack to the clean bottling bucket for just for bottling, that is much better.

Hmm interesting points. My main reason for considering this was seeing if I could save money by racking to my bottling bucket to free up my primary for another batch(instead of buying another primary). The batch in the primary now I had plans to let sit for a month before bottling so until then my one and only primary is tied up.

Its more of a space issue than a clarity/taste issue since my first batch sat in the primary for 1 month until I bottled it and its crystal clear and tastes awesome. And now that I have the homebrew itch I wanted to get another batch in the pipeline.

Guess I'll just get another bucket/better bottle.

In the future if I wanted to add flavorings to the beer can I add them to the primary? For example if I wanted to add coffee beans, vanilla pods, etc can I just toss them into the primary or would I need to rack onto a secondary to do that?

Believe me, once you have been brewing for a while you will have collected many a bucket and/or carboy.