You can secondary in your primary

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cheezydemon

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If you have a bottling bucket. Not anything I have invented, but I thought it might help somebody out.
I have multiple batches going at once and all of my carboys are full. So I will rack into my bottling bucket, clean the carboy, and then rack back into the same carboy for secondary.
 
Yes, this can certainly be done. But I bet this suggestion will generate a lot of opinions about whether the benefits of even using a secondary outweigh the risks of oxidation and contamination (lesser concern) associated with the double-racking.

If your secondary vessels are all full, another option is to simply not bother with the secondary and leave your beer in the primary fermenter for an extra couple of weeks to clear. This doesn't work for every beer, but might be a more preferred option for many brews.
 
Easiest thing to do is buy more carboys!
We are up to eight carboys; two 6.5 gallon and six 5 gallon and yes, we have had them all full at the same time. It's much easier to keep brews until they've cleared or bulk conditioned properly if you have lots of carboys.
This is my advise: buy excessive amounts of equipment! :D
 
I recently ran out of 5 gallon carboys, then remembered I had two 2~gallon carboys in the basement from 10 years ago. I split my mead off into those so I could use the big'un for beer.
 
I have 2 6.5 carboys that need to be cleaned but I have been so lazy that I just went and bought some new better bottles so that I did not have to clean them right now. :D

Get more carboy's, I see from this thread that you need them anyways.:mug:
 
Until you have more carboys, just leave your beer in the primary fermenter. Unless you plan on leaving it there for more than about 3 months, you have nothing to fear.
 
PseudoChef said:
Yeah, I don't secondary anymore. It's not all it's cracked up to be.
Click to expand...

I second that. I stopped using secondaries. Only my lagers are racked into a keg for secondary/lagering purposes. And that is because they are going to be in there for a long times. Ales stay in the primary fermenter, where they might even be dry-hopped if they won't be in there for more than 3-4 weeks.

This is just because I got lazy and don't want to clean so many carboys. I have not seen any ill effect on the beer.

Kai
 
Lol. That is what I love about this brewing community! Everyone has an opinion.

Let me simplify: "If you have weighed the issue carefully, and are willing to sign an affidavit stating that you prefer to rack to secondary, you can primary and secondary in the same vessel."Lol.

That said, I enjoy the commentary. Racking to secondary is to avoid off flavors that probably would not show up until 2 or more months of bulk conditioning....kinda like the possible "oxidation" that the haters of "better bottles" are so afraid of. But how many brews do you condition that long?
I have spoken to one home brewer who stated" I brew 30 gallon batches and drink it all before it is ready...."
Probably not the norm, but still we are all probably a little closer to that than to the guy who forgets his brew for 3 months and then suddenly remembers it and bottles it.
The moral? "Don't secondary, and gank 20 or so empty bottles from the water cooler". Glass isn't necessary and neither is secondary. But some of us go to unneccesary measures just because we are erring on the side of caution to make our beer the best it can be.........or to give us something to do because our lives are not full enough and racking to secondary seems like a labor of love that we are secretly happy to do.
 
cheezydemon said:
Lol. That is what I love about this brewing community! Everyone has an opinion.

Let me simplify: "If you have weighed the issue carefully, and are willing to sign an affidavit stating that you prefer to rack to secondary, you can primary and secondary in the same vessel."Lol.

That said, I enjoy the commentary. Racking to secondary is to avoid off flavors that probably would not show up until 2 or more months of bulk conditioning....kinda like the possible "oxidation" that the haters of "better bottles" are so afraid of. But how many brews do you condition that long?
I have spoken to one home brewer who stated" I brew 30 gallon batches and drink it all before it is ready...."
Probably not the norm, but still we are all probably a little closer to that than to the guy who forgets his brew for 3 months and then suddenly remembers it and bottles it.
The moral? "Don't secondary, and gank 20 or so empty bottles from the water cooler". Glass isn't necessary and neither is secondary. But some of us go to unneccesary measures just because we are erring on the side of caution to make our beer the best it can be.........or to give us something to do because our lives are not full enough and racking to secondary seems like a labor of love that we are secretly happy to do.
Click to expand...


Or I want to get it off the yeast and onto a big mound of hops. :D
 
cheezydemon said:
Lol. That is what I love about this brewing community! Everyone has an opinion.

Let me simplify: "If you have weighed the issue carefully, and are willing to sign an affidavit stating that you prefer to rack to secondary, you can primary and secondary in the same vessel."Lol.

That said, I enjoy the commentary. Racking to secondary is to avoid off flavors that probably would not show up until 2 or more months of bulk conditioning....kinda like the possible "oxidation" that the haters of "better bottles" are so afraid of. But how many brews do you condition that long?
I have spoken to one home brewer who stated" I brew 30 gallon batches and drink it all before it is ready...."
Probably not the norm, but still we are all probably a little closer to that than to the guy who forgets his brew for 3 months and then suddenly remembers it and bottles it.
The moral? "Don't secondary, and gank 20 or so empty bottles from the water cooler". Glass isn't necessary and neither is secondary. But some of us go to unneccesary measures just because we are erring on the side of caution to make our beer the best it can be.........or to give us something to do because our lives are not full enough and racking to secondary seems like a labor of love that we are secretly happy to do.
Click to expand...

EXCELLENTLY PUT!!

Best explanation of why some of us still use secondary yet. :mug: :mug:
 

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