Primary to secondary
- Thread starter DangerDad
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Most likely you opted to use your bottling bucket as the primary, hence the spigot. That being said, it's really not a big deal, until, of course, you go to bottle
Once the beer is done fermenting you can rack to secondary and let it clear and then rack it back to bottle. Not the most ideal way to go about things but all will be fine and you will have beer!
Once the beer is done fermenting you can rack to secondary and let it clear and then rack it back to bottle. Not the most ideal way to go about things but all will be fine and you will have beer!
zeg
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I did a fermentation in my bottling bucket once. I went to secondary with it for a while, then racked back to do the bottling. My notes are incomplete on the matter, but I think I used the spigot to rack to secondary rather than using a siphon.
If you did not thoroughly sanitize inside and then bag or otherwise cover your spigot before filling, I'd be inclined to go the siphon route. Otherwise, the spigot is certainly convenient, and is probably located above most of the trub.
If you did not thoroughly sanitize inside and then bag or otherwise cover your spigot before filling, I'd be inclined to go the siphon route. Otherwise, the spigot is certainly convenient, and is probably located above most of the trub.
BansheeRider
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Yeah that's a bottling bucket. Those buckets have a spigot and do not come with a lid that is drilled for use of an airlock. Did you buy a lid and drill a hole in it for the airlock?
I've read that some people do use their bottling bucket as a primary in tight situations. Like the poster above said, you will still have beer. In your situation I would leave it in the bucket for 3 or more weeks then go straight to bottling. This way you can avoid transferring your beer to secondary then back to the bucket.
Most places like midwest do sell primary pails with spigots on'em for those that preferr them. And bottling buckets are listed as such,seperate from primary fermenters with spigots. Both my plastic FV's came with spigots intentionally. So some of us have primaries with spigots on purpose,not using bottling buckets to ferment in.
It does bug me that most kits primary pales do not have one. Should be an option. My auto siphon is pretty hard not to get a small stream of bubbles in the tube while racking. Using the spigot & a short peice of tubing prevents this.
It does bug me that most kits primary pales do not have one. Should be an option. My auto siphon is pretty hard not to get a small stream of bubbles in the tube while racking. Using the spigot & a short peice of tubing prevents this.
I did have to drill for the air lock and that's when I started thinking about the spigot I knew I was going to use the same bucket for bottling my biggest question would be now is why wouldn't I transfer through the spigot instead of a siphon?
BansheeRider
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You might as well ferment the beer all the way and then bottle from that bucket. You would use the spigot for bottling, however since you used it for primary fermentation you might get some trub in your bottles. The idea is to transfer either from primary or secondary into the bottling bucket with the siphon. This method helps keep the trub out of your bottles.
The only reason to transfer to the carboy is so you can dump the trub and then put it back in what will now be the bottling bucket. Use a siphon both times to minimum the amount of oxygen you add to the beer. Then go buy another bucket for your primary. Might want to pick up a few primary's as sooner or later you'll have more than one brew fermenting in your "pipe line".
zeg
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There are two sanitation-related reasons you may not want to do this. First, if you did not disassemble the spigot and completely sanitize the interior, it may be harboring some nasties. This is probably a very small risk if this is a new, unused spigot. If you previously used it for bottling or ran beer through it, I would be worried about this one.
The other is that if you didn't cover the spigot or keep it in a clean location, something (dirt, bug) may have found its way into the spigot. You can probably mitigate this by washing it and sanitizing from the outside, but it's a bit harder than removing/sanitizing the thing.
Otherwise, I think it'd be your better option. It should provide less opportunity for aeration (bad!) than a siphon, and is certainly easier. Whether you want to bottle directly out of primary or go to a secondary for brightening is up to you. I'd go through the brightening just to be sure there wasn't 6 inches of trub waiting to be kicked up when you move the bucket. (I am extremely sediment-averse with my beers.)
Not a good idea, you have to add priming sugar when bottling, you will stir up all of the trub getting the priming sugar mixed in.
It would be best to either transfer to a secondary for a while then back to the bottling bucket or buy another bottling bucket to transfer to when ready to bottle.
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