Open fermentation (a bucket)

z-bob · May 12, 2017

I posted this in another thread; moving it here because I didn't want to hijack that other discussion.

Jim311 said:
Yep, for pale ales and IPAs you are doing yourself a disservice. Transferring to a secondary will only waste those valuable hop aromas and expose it to additional oxygen and oxygen is bad. Still, it's gonna make a fine beer. There is almost never a need to use a secondary IMO.

z-bob said:
I'm fermenting in a bucket for the first time; just a lid sitting on top w/o an airlock. I pitched Sunday morning.

The beer is still covered with a thick layer of Krausen but should be about done (I haven't wanted to disturb it to take a gravity sample.) Shouldn't I transfer to a carboy pretty soon?

kh54s10 said:
Leave it alone to 10-14 days after your fermentation started then check the gravity. If it is stable for 36 hours, the same number, bottle it. There is no need to transfer to a carboy at all, unless you are adding something that you don't want in the primary. Long aging is the only time I use a secondary.

z-bob said:
Can I bottle it straight from the bucket?? (that's what I do when I primary in a carboy; I prime the bottles with sugar) I was planning to fine this with gelatin but not cold-crash it.

Jim311 said:
Nah whatever. A bucket with a lid but no airlock is not ideal. Do you have a local brew shop? You can probably just drill that lid you have an install a rubber grommet that will accept an airlock. Total cost 4 dollars. I highly recommend this approach. If you're priming the bottles individually with sugar you *can* bottle from the bucket, but it's not easy unless the bucket has a spigot. What I like to do though is mix up all that sugar you're going to prime with in like 8 ounces of water and bring the sugar/water mix to a boil on the stove top. Then I pour the sugar water mix into my bottling bucket, and then I transfer the beer with a siphon from my fermenting vessel to the bottling bucket. That way the sugar solution gets WELL mixed into the beer. It's less work and more consistent than priming each bottle individually.

seabrew8 · May 12, 2017

Cod crashing if you can. Gelatin apparently doesn't work well with warm beer but i never tried it.

I suggest since its an open bucket to transfer to a secondary with an airlock in 3-5 days after you pitched the yeast.

I have used open buckets in the past i usually bottled within a week post pitch - after the foam died down, if your going to skip the secondary.

z-bob · May 12, 2017

I know the gelatin won't remove chill haze if there is no chill haze cuz I didn't chill it.

I thought it would remove everything else and stick it to the bottom of the carboy like the time I used gelatin in wine. Maybe I ought to forget about the gelatin in this batch and work on the rest of my process.

Last time I used a German yeast (WY-3333) the beer was still cloudy after over 3 weeks in the fermenter. I bottled it, and it quickly dropped crystal-clear in the bottles.

seabrew8 · May 12, 2017

Sounds like a good reason to use the gelatin.

Gelatin is cheap and easy to use so i would just throw it in and see how it goes.

Open fermentation (a bucket)

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