Yeast Farmer
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- Joined
- Jun 7, 2021
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When I recently started brewing again after eight years off, I discovered that a lot of things have changed in the home brewing world. For one, racking to a secondary fermenter is apparently something that most people don't do anymore. When I started brewing in 2012, it was still considered necessary. The guy at my local home brew shop said that leaving it in the primary for more than 10-14 days would cause "off flavors." Now, a secondary fermenter is considered unnecessary and potentially harmful.
It seems that, generally, the trend is increased awareness of oxidation and avoiding things that could unnecessarily oxidize or contaminate our beer. Which makes me wonder, are bottling buckets still a thing? The way I used to do it, back in 2012-2013, was siphon into the bottling bucket, and fill my bottles straight from the spigot. Next week, I'm going to bottle my first batch of beer since then. I got a bottle filler, that came with my new auto-siphon, which I am planning to attach to the bottling bucket with a short piece of tubing, which I figure will reduce oxidation compared to filling straight from the spigot.
I'm also considering cutting out the bottling bucket entirely, by adding the priming sugar to the fermenter and attaching the bottle filler to the auto-siphon. I'm a little worried about getting crud in the bottles this way, though.
What is the consensus these days on best practices for bottling?
It seems that, generally, the trend is increased awareness of oxidation and avoiding things that could unnecessarily oxidize or contaminate our beer. Which makes me wonder, are bottling buckets still a thing? The way I used to do it, back in 2012-2013, was siphon into the bottling bucket, and fill my bottles straight from the spigot. Next week, I'm going to bottle my first batch of beer since then. I got a bottle filler, that came with my new auto-siphon, which I am planning to attach to the bottling bucket with a short piece of tubing, which I figure will reduce oxidation compared to filling straight from the spigot.
I'm also considering cutting out the bottling bucket entirely, by adding the priming sugar to the fermenter and attaching the bottle filler to the auto-siphon. I'm a little worried about getting crud in the bottles this way, though.
What is the consensus these days on best practices for bottling?