Thinking about a secondary fermentation

Hi-

I've done quite a bit of reading on this site and learned a great deal about home brewing - thanks to all the knowlegable and patient posters.

My first batch has been in a primary fermenter for 9 days now and CO2 production has pretty much stopped. I will take my 1st SG reading this evening. I was considering racking to my "bottling/priming" bucket very soon (assuming it's reached FG) and leaving it in that bucket for a period of time to allow aging/clearing. This is a plastic bucket with a plastic nozzle near the bottom intended to hold beer long enough to mix in sugar and dispense to bottles. Is using it as a "secondary fermentor" prior to priming recommended or a bad idea? By the way, my beer is a brown ale.

I may eventually buy a glass carboy but that's not an option for this batch.

Thanks,
Josh

If you rack your beer to a secondary you need to make sure there is minimal head space to reduce exposure to oxygen to prevent oxidation. Generally a bucket is only used as a primary. Just leave it in your primary for another week if you want or you could rack it to your bottling bucket on top of your corn sugar and then bottle now. Secondarys are always 5 gallons for this reason.

If you don't have a glass carboy yet, leaving the beer in your primary is the best option. Other than some clarity, it won't make a big difference in your finished beer.

Yeah, to expand on what the previous posters said...

The problem with your scenario is this: during the secondary clarification period, particulates, yeast, etc., will fall out of suspension and collect at the bottom of the bucket. Normally, you'd use a racking cane tip so that you transfer the beer from there into the bottling bucket, while leaving most of the particulate behind. However, if you use your bottling bucket, when bottling time comes, you'll need to stir in the priming sugar---which will rouse all that particulate at the bottom, thus pretty much negating the whole clarification process. If you do use the bucket for a secondary (which I have done---don't worry too much about headspace), you'd need to rack it back into another carboy/bucket when it's ready to bottle, leaving the particulate behind in the bottom of the bucket. Then you'd clean out the bucket and sanitize it, and then transfer the beer back into, where you'd mix in the priming solution and bottle it.

You really need another carboy. Until then, just leave it in the primary until you're ready to bottle.

So, I do this, or very similar. I actually ferment in my bottling bucket (meaning it has a valve), then rack to the fermenting bucket for a secondary for a bout 2 weeks. This way when that is done, I have the bottling bucket ready for bottling.

Now, as far as oxidation goes, you open the bucket to take a SG reading you are introducing just as much oxygen as if you racked to a second bucket. So if you are really worried about oxidation you should seal it in your primary and leave it there for as long as you can (do not open it).