Primary bucket ?

My primary bucket is a 40 liter food grade container. It has a lid but no seal or air lock. My brother inlaw gave it to me & he used it for years. Is this sufficent for a primary or should I use my 24 L. carboy?

It should be OK for a primary. Being air tight isn't tremendously important for a primary. Since you'll only be keeping the beer in it for a week during the most active portion of the fermantation process. It'll have positive pressure most of the time. You might not see a lot of air lock activity if it has a great deal of leakage around the top. I would leave any beer in there past 7-10 days however.

Thanks abracadabra,
I'm thinking of skipping the secondary on my next batch so will go with the carboy for the fermenting.

Kieth,

I single stage in a similiar fermenter. All I do is place the lid on, cover w/ a plastic bag. and then wrap a sting twice around the bucket and tie snug. It will maintain a "good" seal and keep positive pressure for 7-10 days easily. After that I cold crash, keg /purge w/ co2 and cold condition.

IMHO, for ales that mature reasonably quickly, this provides less exposure than opening fermenters for sampling. transfers to secondary, bottling etc.