another christmas kit question

My wife (she is awesome BTW) got me a kit for christmas. I has
1.Bucket with a hole in the lid and a hole in the bottom
2.spigot
3.racking cane
4.vent
5.siphon tube
6.Bottle capper and caps
7.sugar
8.extract for a Bock
9. 48 new bottles
she also got a huge pot i forgot what size. I am new to brewing obviously so .
I think i still need a hydrometer, thermometer yeast and hops. Am I right? Also is there any way I can ferment in this bucket and bottle out of it? Or do I just need to use it as a bottling bucket and get another. Like I said my wife is awesome:rockin: for kick starting me into this hobby that I have been wanting to do for so long she is the best but I think there is still some things I need to get started right. Oh yeah she got me the home brewers bible to.
thanks in advance

You're off to a good start. Yes, get a hydrometer & a thermometer.

The Bock extract kit might be pre-hopped ( it would say so on the label somewhere) and the yeast is probably under the lid of the extract can.

There are many different methods for fermenting & bottling. Pretty much any of them will make beer. The one that works best for you may not work for someone else. Rather than tell you which one you should do - I'll just say read www.howtobrew.com and decide for yourself which one you want to do.

Good luck with it.

Personally I would get a primary without a hole in the side (use the one you have for bottling). There is not a good way to ferment and bottle out of the same bucket. It can be done but will make an inferior final product.

Your wife does indeed rock!

Congratulations, welcome to the hobby!

It is possible to ferment and bottle out of one bucket, but it's not recommended. When you bottle, you stir in a little corn sugar (4 oz. or so) to the beer so that the yeast can produce CO2 and carbonate your beer. If you add the sugar to your fermenter, you'll probably stir up a lot of the yeast at the bottom when you're stirring it in.

Consider getting a bucket without the spigot at the bottom to ferment in, then when you're done use your racking cane to siphon the beer to the bucket with the spigot (your bottling bucket) and stir in the sugar there.

You should also strongly consider getting a bottling wand. It is a small tube with a valve at the bottom that opens when you push a bottle onto it. It's hard for me to describe, but they're cheap and they make bottling way easier.

Take a look at Revvy's tips for the bottler for some more info about bottling.

Welcome as a beginer my self first batch in primary, I also did a extract kit (coopers lager) and mine was pre-hopped and the yeast was under the lid for the extract.

You might want to consider looking at the instructions on using the Bock extract prior to brew day. Is this a no-boil kit or a boil kit? Will you need to add some dry malt extract or liquid malt extract to the existing kit in order to make this recipe? I am mentioning this because I ran into some of the same questions you asked when I started brewing last spring. If the kit suggests using additional malt extract and you leave this out and use cane/corn sugar instead then you may be dissapointed with the results of your first brew. I ran into this problem with my very first batch where I tried to minimize what I needed to buy so that I could get started right away and the first batch using sugar instead of addition extract was just OK but kind of disspointing.

Do you have any chemical sanitizer to prevent infection on your equipment? I use StarSan now and it works just fine.

If you want a separate fermenting bucket then try looking at a local grocery store that has a bakery or deli. I was able to get 5 gallon buckets there to use with the lid that came with my kit fir just a few dollars.

Two other things come to mind: 1) You might want to boil a couple of gallons of water in your kettle prior to doing any brewing and use this hot water to clean all plastic pieces of your equipment. 2) You might want to look at John Palmer's book (the first edition is free online) to read about rehydrating your dry yeast prior to pitching it in the wort.

Hope this is not too much unsolicited info at once.

msa8967 said:

If you want a separate fermenting bucket then try looking at a local grocery store that has a bakery or deli. I was able to get 5 gallon buckets there to use with the lid that came with my kit fir just a few dollars.

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not a great idea for brewing 5 gallon batches. you need head space in there and a 5 gallon bucket will give you none.

Good point on the size. I should have mentioned that the buckets I found were 6.5 gallons total which leaves some head space for 5 gallon batchs. thanks for catching my mistake. I also forgot to mention to make sure the bucket did not contain a vineger product like pickels or saurkraut which are difficult smells to get rid of.

Thanks for all of the replies. I went home and took a closer look and my extract was pre hopped. And she did get me the bottling wand I just forgot to list that. It is a no boil kit since I am planning on doing much more than this one kit she got me the kettle. it is a 6 gal pot. should I just follow the directions on the can or should I go ahead and boil the hole ectract and water. The directions say to just ad it to hot water? It dosnt suggest using malt extract they sold her corn sugar. Should I get malt extract instead? Im going to get anothe bucket asap so I can get started! Thanks for all the help and im sure i am going to need more soon.

Welcome to the hobby and the forum.

You might want to check out: http://www.howtobrew.com/sitemap.html

Good luck with the brewing!

Nurmey said:

Personally I would get a primary without a hole in the side (use the one you have for bottling).

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I actually like having a spigot in the primary so I don't need to siphon into the bottling bucket or secondary (when I use one). Just attach the sanitized hose and turn the valve. I usually drain a small ammount into a pint glass in the beginning to make sure I am not dumping any nasties into the bottling bucket, but that is probably unnecessary.


oh, +1 on the wife, I had to beg, and when that didn't work, I put my foot down and bought it behind her back!

Welcome to your new obsession.
I to am also new to brewing and am enjoying one of my first brews as I write this. I would also recomend How to brew by John Palmer. I am reading it right now and have discovered all kinds of things that I hope to improve my skills as a brewer. I would read the first section of the book before you brew your first brew.

thanks for all of the advise I think im going to get another bucket or 2 and deff that john Palmer book to. I cant wait Im excited to start just got to find some free time!

jdp said:

I actually like having a spigot in the primary so I don't need to siphon into the bottling bucket or secondary (when I use one). Just attach the sanitized hose and turn the valve.

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That is convenient, but those spigots can be very tough to clean and it can lead to infection problems down the road.

I'm not saying that it doesn't work, but for me's I'd rather use my auto-siphon than have to clean a spigot full of trub.

But, as usual in homebrewing, more than one way to make beer....

AZ_IPA said:

That is convenient, but those spigots can be very tough to clean and it can lead to infection problems down the road.

I'm not saying that it doesn't work, but for me's I'd rather use my auto-siphon than have to clean a spigot full of trub.

But, as usual in homebrewing, more than one way to make beer....

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thats true. I haven't had any problems, but I turn the spigot upside down so it's water tight and I fill the hole up with cheap vodka to keep things in good shape. Then when I am done with the bucket, it disassembles pretty easily.

I have buckets without the spigots as well. I think I just use which ever one I happen to grab.