Hardware store 5 gallon bucket, 2-3 bucks, if you're lucky and can find a large enough frosting bucket from the grocery store, free Spigot 2 bucks, bottling wand 2-3 bucks or so, auto siphon 10 bucks.
Making a bottling bucket is easy and you don't need to spend 15 bucks on one with a predrilled hole (I've seen them for as high as 15 bucks, for just the bucket itself, no spigot, nothing.)
I've made several. And they've been cheap and simple to do. It takes 5 minutes to do, really.
My main one is the translucent Leaktite brand 5 gallon container with the gallon and liter markings from Homedepot. Under 5 bucks.
I also have one for small batch brewing that I made from a FREE cake frosting bucket.
Cutting the hole is not hard, all you need is one of these variable sized hole saw bits for a hand drill.
Most folks have one of these in the bottom of the tool drawer, if not you can even get them at some dollar stores these days.
If you don't have one, you can also just carefully cut the hole with an exacto knife. Just hold the threaded back part of the spigot up to the bucket, at the height you want the spigot, and trace it with a sharpie, then carefully cut it out (I usually cut INSIDE the line so it's smaller, then I can trim as needed. Better to cut too small and trim to fit.)
Hell you can even cut the bucket plastic with a pair of slightly curved fingernail scissors if that's all you have.
If you're using a hole saw and a drill, just trace the hole. Then draw an x through the circle to determine the center of the hole, and push a pushpin through the center to start a pilot hole for the center bit of the hole saw to go through.
You also need a spigot. They're about 2 bucks at any homebrewshop.
But you can also find a beverage one for the same price at most hardware stores as well.
Just make sure that the beverage replacement spigot has a "locked open" position, so you don't have to hold it open all the time.
You also need a spring loaded bottling wand.
In the old days the bottling wand was connect to a bottling bucket spigot by a lenght of tubing, but a lot of us mount it right to the spigot (I use a little piece of tubing as a "bridge" connector.
Optional, but handy, I have a dip tube in my bucket so I get all but about 4 ounces of stuff from my bottling bucket.
What that means in my case is about another 6 pack of beer- 54 bottles instead of 48.
And the biggest thing about a dip tube is that there is no need to tilt to get the last few dregs of beer. It is easy to make, all you need to do is find a drilled stopper (or drill your own) that fits in the back part of your bottling bucket spigot (I got mine from my lhbs) then you need to find a tube that fits on the hole...It could be a piece of bent copper tubing, it could be the body of a ballpoint pen, it could even be a bent piece of racking cane....I made my latest one out of broken racking cane that I heated and bent over an alcohol spirit lamp, heating and cooling until I got the right bend. (One tip, bend it until the back part of the bottom of the tube touches the bottom of the bucket, leaving a tiny gap in the front for the beer to flow through.)
I don't use the copper one any more. I just took a piece of plastic tubing (A broken racking cane) and softend it over a candle flame and bent it to shape. And you just need a holed stopper that you can shove up the back side of the spigot.
If you look in my
bottling thread you can see other folks versions of the dip tubes they've come up with some very ingenious stuff.
You can make your own bottling bucket for a lot less than the 12 dollar holey bucket someone earlier said. Especially if you can get a bucket for 2 bucks OR free.
And you don't need to be a surgeon to cut the hole for the spigot.
Hope this helps...
