Bottling

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pirate252

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I have been browsing around and have two quick questions about bottling...

1. Is it ok to use a five gallon bucket to mix the beer with the priming sugar? They sell buckets for this but they are 20 bucks vs 5 or so, just wondering if a regular new white 5 gallon bucket is ok if I sanitize it.

2. What is an easy way to tell if you have finished carbonation? Can you see the bubbles in the bottles like you can in the carboy and just wait for them to stop or how do you tell?

Thanks
 
Any food grade bucket will do. However, it is MUCH easier to bottle with a bottling bucket. The bottling bucket has a spigot and you hook your tubing up to the spigot and then a bottling wand on the end of the tubing controls the flow. No leaking, no oxygenating, no spills. Most people bottle with this set up.

To see if you have carbonation, there is really one one way- try it and see. Some people bottle a few bottles in soda bottles. Fill the bottle, and squeeze the air out and cap. When the bottle feels hard to the touch, it's probably carbonated. It won't be as hard as carbonated soda, but it will feel harder than before.

Lorena
 
You can use any food grade bucket. You can turn it into a "bottling bucket" by getting a spigot, drilling a hole in the bucket and installing the spigot. I've had to replace mine a few times, for various reasons, and they are prety cheap, around $3.50.
As for knowing when they are carbonated, I usually let them sit at room temp for about 2 weeks and then put one in the fridge and sample. If they are good, I move the batch to the basement and put them in rotation with the rest.:tank:
 
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