Using the spigot to transfer to secondary.

Can you transfer from a primary plastic bucket to a secondary carboy using the spigot? I'm assuming yes but don't know if there are any problems that I might incur.

side note:
Just got back into brewing after a loooooong hiatus. And I'm setting up things for my first batch. 'Back in the day' I went from glass carboy to glass carboy with a siphon. Now I scored an Ale Pail with a spigot and I'm not really familiar with its uses and limitations. Thanks in advance for any advice. Cheers.

You could, yes. The problem here is that the buckets with spigots aren't really recommended as fermentors, because over time those spigots can develop leaks. If you're comfortable using that bucket as a fermentor, then by all means go for it.

I too use a plastic bucket with spigot as primary and glass carboy as secondary. I used a racking cane to transfer so that I would avoid any aerating(unless you attached a hose to the spigot), and also to limit the sediment that might be carried over to the carboy. I think those might be the only concerns associated with using the spigot.

If you are going to do that, I would recommend using a length of sanitized hose attached to the spigot, and that you put the end of the hose into the bottom of the seondary and fill from bottom to top slowly, rather than let the beer fall through the air and fill the secondary. That way you are having the beer get introduced to too much oxygen, that way you will be less apt to oxygentate the beer and end up with wet cardboard.

Yep, no problem with it at all. I do it all the time. If the spigot is mounted a bit high you will leave beer behind. If too low just drain the first yeast filled runnings into a dump bucket. Buckets scratch easily so use no more abrasive than a towel to clean them. Spigots will fail after a few years, but new ones are like $2 from usplastic.com (also a good source for buckets and tubing, anything plastic).

Welcome back to brewing my friend.

EDIT: Of course use a hose as Rev said!

Sometimes my fermenters are full, so I use my bottling bucket as a fermenter. Usually, there is plenty of sediment in that spigot, so I will simply siphon out of it, above the trub.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Looks like there are some good and bads with using the spigot. I have some other pails that do not have the spigot. I may just siphon into the secondary carboy and use the spigot pail for bottling. Appreciate the input.

chillHayze said:

Yep, no problem with it at all. I do it all the time. If the spigot is mounted a bit high you will leave beer behind. If too low just drain the first yeast filled runnings into a dump bucket. Buckets scratch easily so use no more abrasive than a towel to clean them. Spigots will fail after a few years, but new ones are like $2 from usplastic.com (also a good source for buckets and tubing, anything plastic).

Welcome back to brewing my friend.

EDIT: Of course use a hose as Rev said!

Click to expand...

I just got an ale pail to use as a primary. The spigot hole is a little low, so I plan on tilting the pail back to elevate the spigot about 2 inches a day before bottling (no secondary for me.)

I dont know how true it is but I have heard that the spigot gives the bucket a little more oxygen permeability, I have no idea its just something I heard when I was thinking about doing this.

Revvy said:

If you are going to do that, I would recommend using a length of sanitized hose attached to the spigot, and that you put the end of the hose into the bottom of the seondary and fill from bottom to top slowly, rather than let the beer fall through the air and fill the secondary. That way you are having the beer get introduced to too much oxygen, that way you will be less apt to oxygentate the beer and end up with wet cardboard.

Click to expand...

I must agree with Revvy here. Using a hose attached to the spigot works fantastic for me when I rack to my bottling bucket.



As for those who suggest that fermenting in buckets with spigots isn't so good... I think perhaps it depends on the bucket and spigot. For example some fermentors are designed for such a thing (Coopers fermentor). Never had a leak with that thing and I wouldn't trade that fermentor for any bucket. The only time I've had a problem with racking to a bottling bucket through the spigot was my last brew. It was a wheat beer with corriander seeds and I foolishly forgot the extra little filter-thingy for the spigot. So I ended up with way too many corriander seeds in my bottling bucket. Which of course ended up clogging my bottling wand. The first 24 bottles took me 20 minutes to bottle...the last 28 bottles took me well over an hour because the wand was dispensing the beer extremely slow.

lkondolian said:

I just got an ale pail to use as a primary. The spigot hole is a little low, so I plan on tilting the pail back to elevate the spigot about 2 inches a day before bottling (no secondary for me.)

Click to expand...

I hope you are planning on using carb tabs. Because if you are not, how are you going to mix the priming sugar into your beer without disturbing the trub?

double_e5 said:

I hope you are planning on using carb tabs. Because if you are not, how are you going to mix the priming sugar into your beer without disturbing the trub?

Click to expand...

Yep, never used anything but carb tabs.

Someday when I get sick of bottling, I'll switch to forced CO2 in kegs. My homebrewing addiction is not that far along, though. Yet.

lkondolian said:

I just got an ale pail to use as a primary. The spigot hole is a little low, so I plan on tilting the pail back to elevate the spigot about 2 inches a day before bottling (no secondary for me.)

Click to expand...

Worked perfectly. Trub looked intact in the tilted back bucket.