Emergency primary-carboy or bottling bucket?

Edit: I have continued the thread to report back on a number of things that "went wrong" on brew day, to see if we can learn something from my mistakes. Original post below:

I am sanitizing my equipment to prepare for a brew day, and discover that the bucket I use as a primary is cracked. I'm brewing a partial mash gumballhead clone, I was planning on ~one week in (bucket) primary, racking to secondary (glass carboy) to dry hop for ~two weeks.

I really want to do this brew tonight, and do not want to run out to my lhbs today for a new bucket if I can avoid it. Can I use my bottling bucket for the primary? It won't be needed during this time but I dunno about the plastic spigot? Alternatively, I just do the entire fermentation in my glass carboy and just toss in the hops after fermentation slows. Thoughts?

Use the carboy as primary,& dry hop after FG is reached & it settles out clear or slightly misty. It'll be easier to use the bottling bucket as such. By the way,Midwest has a 10% off everything sale going on right now for 24 hours. If you have any Midwest points,you can save even more. I ordered a new 7.9 gallon pail with lid seal & grommet & a stick on temp strip wit 10% off,or $2.10 coupon savings. My 200 Midwest points knocked off another $5.00,so I saved $7.10 on my order of $30.51. Not too bad. I was gunna wait till Friday on Retiree payday,but this way I save on a couple gallons of kerosene for the heater. Don't want my bottled beers getting too cold...

I'd be a little worried about all the blowoff in the carboy.

How big is your batch and how big is your carboy?

Yes you can use your bottling bucket for a primary with no issues. Just remove the spigot, sanitize around it and put the spigot back on. Then fill with water to ensure no leakage. You will be good to go.

Just make sure you clean all the spigot parts & the mounting hole before rinse & sanitize. then reassemble. Otherwise,you're just sanitizing dirt.

skunkfunk said:

I'd be a little worried about all the blowoff in the carboy.

Click to expand...

Yeah I agree. If it is a 5 gallon carboy, you will see a lot of the fermentation byproduct coming out of the top. This can negatively effect the final product.

Both the carboy and the bottling bucket are 6.5. I ended up using the bucket after a thorough sanitization, as this turned out to be a rather difficult brew and I want to be able to try to rack off of the trub later on. I used an entire whirlfloc tablet instead of a half or quarter, because I trusted the packaging. Mistake, and as a result had about two gallons of fluffy trub even after whirl pooling and letting it sit for 45 min. I don't even know why I decided to use whirlfloc for the first time on a wheat beer, I wasn't really thinking, just excited to try out something new. I also cracked my three piece bubbler, so fashioned one out of a section of clear PVC and a cup of starsan solution. Ended up dumping the majority of the trub in to the bucket (all but the really dense stuff that settled out) , wound up with 5 gal @ 1.050 the first two gallons were crystal clear, the last two I couldn't even suction, had to pour as the trub kept clogging the line. It was also my first time trying a yeast starter (wyeast) and I did not successfully break the inner packet even though I thought I did, so it was mixed together in a sanitized pint glass before being added. Roughly 15 hrs later, it looks like fermentation is starting, my apartment is hovering at 67 degrees. All in all, it was a more frustrating batch, but I am hoping that the yeast will do their job and the trub will settle, hoping to have this beer kegged (in a keezer which I am also working on right now) for a holiday party on December 15. I should have brewed this batch a week ago or more, but life got in the way so fingers crossed. I plan to rack to the carboy in a week so if it is still mostly floating trub or under fermented by then, I'll just have to resign myself to buying a few cases for the party. Whatever happens, I'll report back so hopefully we can learn something from my mistake(s)

Still better than the average Monday night , hoping that everything turns out alright, but a good learning experience for next time:rockin:.

Using the bucket will be fine -- assuming good sanitation practices. I do it all the time, & so does my LHBS owner. Makes racking a piece of cake!

The water level in the blow off tube has changed, so it seems that the yeast is starting to do its job. Hopefully everything else works it's way out too.

And now it is bubbling away nicely, constant stream but no blowoff/crazy krausen yet. Whatever I've got, is turning into beer. Will report back over the weekend regarding how much fluffy trub is still present when I rack to secondary and dry hop.

Since your carboy is 6.5 you might want to rethink about using it as a secondary in future batchs; the head space you'll end up with can give you problems with oxidation. If you can I would go out and buy a 5 gallon carboy/better bottle before you plan to move your beer over if your going to do a secondary.

As long as your bottling bucket is the right kind of plastic and food grade and has a lid that seals ok it is usable. The main problem is too much head space but if it's only in there a week and actively fermenting this is not an issue as CO2 is pushing out the air

I have been using the carboy thus far with no noticeable oxidation issues over 5x 5 gal batches, but I suppose I could always displace the oxygen with some CO2 before putting the bung/airlock in place. I may have misspoke, it is a glass carboy, and may be just 6 gal not 6.5.