Using single bucket for entire fermentation?

[Bonjourmate]

I recently brewed a Dawson's Kriek kit from Northern Brewer and it's fermenting nicely in the primary fermentation bucket. In two weeksish, the instructions state to move the brew into a secondary with six pounds of cherry puree.

Question: can I just add the cherry puree to the primary fermentation bucket? I don't see why I should bother moving this to an entirely new vessel. Am I missing something?

 

[davis119]

alot of people only move to a 2ndary when adding fruit and dry hopping.... id rack to a secondary it will help clear and be less of a mess when bottling

 

[Quaker]

I've never used a those purées, but if they are smooth and pour easily, I'd think you could add it to you primary with less oxygen added than racking everything over into a secondary onto the purée. With whole fruit, I always fear the plop, plop agitation and so rack onto them in secondary. Considering the aging yet to be done with a Lambic, clearing shouldn't be an issue. just my thoughts on it.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

The greater concern with keeping a beer in a bucket for that long is oxygenation.

 

[basilchef]

The greater concern with keeping a beer in a bucket for that long is oxygenation.

+1 on that. better bottles and glass carboys dont "breath". too much O2 and you will get a stale flavor.

 

[Bonjourmate]

Has anyone actually tried fermenting in a bucket for 12 months? Oxygen concerns keep coming up, but the only thing I could find about someone using buckets was TheMadFermentationist stating his friends had used them to no ill effect (11/6/2009, Brewing Sour Beer at Home).

 

[zing]

I've gone about 16 months in a bucket. The beer was alright, definitely not stale, but I think I like the results better using glass/Better Bottle (actually been using a 6gal Vintage Shop plastic carboy that I like a lot better than the Better Bottle—no ribs and thus thicker walls!)

That said, I brewed a batch of the 'Can You Brew It' Bam Bier recipe with different hops, and using only JP dregs from more sour beers (Weizen Bam and Luciérnaga) and fermented it in a bucket for three months. The extra oxygen pickup from the bucket gave me a great sour really quickly.

 

[Bonjourmate]

Thank you. It's nice to hear from someone speaking from experience.

I'm going to brew a second batch of this beer and put it in a glass carboy for a year to compare glass vs bucket.

 

[zing]

I've often wondered if putting the fermenting bucket into another larger bucket (or even stacking it inside another of the same size) filled with water would reduce the rate of oxygen pickup, and thus keep the sour fermentation slower (the ultimate goal). It sure would be nice to have the ease of using a bucket for aging on whole fruit, but still maintaining a slow fermentation.

 

[zing]

I look forward to hearing the results of your test! I'm hoping to try something similar with a single batch—half in glass half in plastic, but at the moment I have way too much souring, and not nearly enough clean beer ready to drink.

 

[bradjoiner]

the hdpe should be fine for about a year i just started a solara out of a lme container. the greatest concern will be the gasket on the lid. if i were doing this i would take a rubber mallet and really make sure the lid was on tight

 

[Bonjourmate]

After fermentation with the fruit settles down, I'm planning on switching to an undrilled lid to minimize that concern.

EDIT: But that brings up an additional question, would using a solid lid cause any issues after the visible fermentation has ended. The sour is in my first bucket, but it sure would be nice if I could get three of these fermenting and stack the buckets on top of one another.

 

[bradjoiner]

that could actually be worse if you are not maintaining constant temp. influxes of temp will cause gasses to expand making them want to escape plus you will probably have a pellicle to protect the top. on a side note and i looked this up but could not find what i was looking for, i thought i read somewhere once that pellicles can form in the tops and bottoms of barrels to protect the beer where the barrel is more permeable to oxygen, i do not se how this could also be the case with hdpe buckets. of coarse i could be senile and this could have came to my mind for no reason. i will try looking some more but i think it was actually suggested in wild brews. either way i wouldn't worry to much acetobacter is not introduced like in a lambic so is much harder to take hold than what the belgians are worried about. i actually have one blonde fermenting that i throw dregs in about once a week and use to pull out of with a theif to impregnate other beers with and have no vinegar whatsoever.

 

[tkm]

You want to use a secondary vessel to get the beer off it's primary yeast cake.

 

[Bonjourmate]

that could actually be worse if you are not maintaining constant temp. influxes of temp will cause gasses to expand making them want to escape plus you will probably have a pellicle to protect the top.

Yeah, I looked into that after posting ; seems like it'd be an easy way to have the fermenting bucket burst.