Why not secondary ferment in a primary bucket

Williams 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
R

raspberries

Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2010
Messages
17
Reaction score
0
Location
Monroe
Why doesn't anyone secondary ferment in a primary bucket? It sounds like a nice, cheap alternative to glass or better bottle carboys. As long as it's topped up and the lid is air-tight, isn't it the same thing. The only trade-off I can see is that you wouldn't be able to see how clear the wine is.
 
You certainly could do that, it will be the same as doing a better bottle/carboy. I think the reason a lot of people stray away from the buckets for longer term storage is that the plastic buckets tend to absorb a some of your wine/beer and can retain flavors and odors that you don't want going into your final product. Just make sure to clean the bucket thoroughly. If my bucket smells like stout because I always ferment stouts in it I wouldn't likely put a kolsh or hefeweizen in there. Same thing if you had apple/grape/strawberry flavors or whatever.
 
cvstrat said:
You certainly could do that, it will be the same as doing a better bottle/carboy. I think the reason a lot of people stray away from the buckets for longer term storage is that the plastic buckets tend to absorb a some of your wine/beer and can retain flavors and odors that you don't want going into your final product. Just make sure to clean the bucket thoroughly. If my bucket smells like stout because I always ferment stouts in it I wouldn't likely put a kolsh or hefeweizen in there. Same thing if you had apple/grape/strawberry flavors or whatever.
Click to expand...

No, it's not that. It's simple design.

For example, a carboy topped up to the bung has what? two inches of headspace, or even less, across the width?

A bucket, even topped up, will have 11 inches across, or whatever the diameter of the bucket is. You could use a plastic carboy (I use Better bottles all the time) as the SHAPE is the issue.

In secondary, you want to have almost no headspace. In a carboy, a topped up wine will have much more limited headspace than a bucket. The wine would easily oxidize in a pretty short period of time in a bucket.
 
To add to Yoops post, an opened wine bottle needs to sit for 45 minutes to an hour to properly "oxidize" a good red wine (heck, some take hours), but pour that wine into a decanter with a wide base and it only takes a few minutes.

Surface area = more oxygen touching the wine.
 

Similar threads

B
Moving from Primary to Secondary?
Replies
10
Views
590
mac_1103
mac_1103
D
Fermenter buckets lid
Replies
15
Views
637
FloppyKnockers
FloppyKnockers
monkmith
first time brewing and working with blackberries.
Replies
3
Views
2K
bernardsmith
bernardsmith
M
Blowoff tube on mead?
Replies
4
Views
423
macscoot
M
abrewhal
Leaky fermenting bucket?
Replies
4
Views
779
abrewhal
abrewhal
CornyKegs 300

Latest posts

Back
Top