Any reason NOT to use my MLT cooler as a bottling bucket?

[JetSmooth]

As I've been accumulating equipment for my new hobby, I realize that space is a precious commodity in my home. Everything for my brewing needs to fit under the stairs in the basement. This includes gear and beer.

I picked up four cornies this weekend with an eye toward future kegging, but I need to bottle the Blonde Ale that's about three weeks into fermenting this weekend. A friend gave me his old bottling bucket, but it didn't appear to be cleaned very well the last time he used it, so I used it to clean the dirt and gunk off the cornies.

Now I'm stuck with no bottling bucket. I can pick one up at the LHBS when I go to get caps and priming sugar. But i'd love to not have another piece of equipment taking up valuable beer space.

I was thinking, my 10 gallon cooler has a spigot on the bottom. Is there any reason I can't just use that for bottling? I have a SS braid on it that can easily be removed. I'd need to fashion some sort of reducer off the brass quick disconnect down to racking tube size. Hope I'm not complicating things. But ain't a cooler just an insulated bucket? :rockin:

 

[wyzazz]

As long as it's clean and sanitary you should be good to go!

 

[JetSmooth]

It's been used once and I cleaned it pretty well afterward. I'll let ten gallons of Star San sit in it and run through it to get to the whole thing clean.

If this works, it'll be a way to reduce the footprint of my equipment further.

 

[Ohio-Ed]

The only thing I can think of is to make sure everything is sanitized... Most folks (I think), clean their MLT but don't worry too much about sanitizing it because every then out of it is going into the boil.

In this case... every thing is going to be post boil, so any nook or cranny in the valve/braid/manifold/barb/etc... is a potential hiding spot for nasties.

You may also need to fashion a siphon tube to avoid leaving to much beer behind.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Sure it can be done, but IMO it is a bad idea. The mash is loaded w/ all sorts of lacto bugs that can sour the finished beer. Best not to mingle the "hot side" vessels w/ the "cold side" vessels. Perhaps through cleaning and sanitizing you will be fine, just IMO it is fundamentally a bad idea for the cost and inconvenience of storing a dedicated bucket. Sorry, not what you want to hear.

 

[JetSmooth]

Yeah, you guys are probably right. Even if it worked this time, the more I used the cooler as a MLT, the more likely I am to get bugs in seams and lining. Probably not worth it.

I wish I had a CO2 tank and reg. Then I'd just rack to one of the cornies and pressure transfer into bottles. Maybe I can convince SWMBO that a 5lb tank, reg and cobra tap is a wise investment over a $12 bottling bucket?

 

[schmagy]

Just use one of your cornys as a bottle bucket. Vent the lid and pull a vacuum on a siphon hose and you are in buidness.

 

[JetSmooth]

Just use one of your cornys as a bottle bucket. Vent the lid and pull a vacuum on a siphon hose and you are in buidness.

Doh!

 

[Homercidal]

Good call on the keg for bottling! I usually have 1 extra sitting around and never think about using it for bottling. I bet it would work great!

 

[Bobby_M]

It does work great. You can seal it up and dispense into bottles with a couple PSI so that it doesn't even have to be gravity fed.

 

[JetSmooth]

Bobby, exactly what I decided to do. Even though I can't get a CO2 and reg setup right now, I picked up a hand-held CO2 Cartirdge Corny Charger thingy and picnic tap with line and the IN/OUT couplers. I'll siphon the beer into the corny keg after running Star San through it, pressurize the thing and then fill each bottle with a bottle wand stuck in the picnic tap.

Should go pretty easily. . . I hope.

 

[MikeRLynch]

Jeebus, sometimes the simplest things are the last ones you think of... good work guys! Going to use this this weekend.

 

[steinsato]

I've been brewing for about 3 years now and I have never owned a bottling bucket. I'm sure people will find problems with this but I bottle/keg straight out of the primary/secondary.

 

[JetSmooth]

Well, I ended up bottling, but not using this method. I wasted a co2 cartridge figuring out if this would work and pushing StarSan out of the keg. They run our really quickly.

When I started googling to find out how many carts I'd need to push a whole five gallons of beer out, I figured it would be between 6 and 10. This thing wil be nice to seal kegs, but not really practical to move beer around.

So I took a look at the bottling bucket my friend gave me and gave it a cleaning with a vengeance! Mega-hot water and Oxyclean, several rounds in fact. When I was done, I was pretty confident it was really clean. Then sat StarSan in it over night. Bottled like normal.

Next batch, I should have enough to get a tank and regulator and use the corny keg method.

 

[EricT]

I'm in the same boat as far as space and equipment. I have a Corney on the way and plan to get my Co2 and all the other stuff by the time its ready to be filled. I got to lay low on my hobby for a week or two, SWMBO is making more comments on the cost of this little hobby more and more now days.

 

[MacBruver]

Well, I ended up bottling, but not using this method. I wasted a co2 cartridge figuring out if this would work and pushing StarSan out of the keg.

You don't have to use that much CO2.

like schmagy said:

Vent the lid and pull a vacuum on a siphon hose and you are in buidness.

just put the keg up pretty high, charge it once with just enough pressure to force the beer down to your bottling wand, and carefully vent it. The vacuum will do the rest for you. If you can figure out a sanitary way to pull enough vacuum on the out hose (aka not using your mouth ) then you wouldn't even need the co2.

 

[Ohio-Ed]

I'm in the same boat as far as space and equipment. I have a Corney on the way and plan to get my Co2 and all the other stuff by the time its ready to be filled. I got to lay low on my hobby for a week or two, SWMBO is making more comments on the cost of this little hobby more and more now days.

Tell her you've been thinking of taking up smoking cigars, gambling and hanging out with prostitutes... suddenly staying home and making beer won't seem so bad.

 

[JetSmooth]

Ahhhh. That makes sense! Would have to know much much beer is left by weight or counting bottles then?

Ed, if I did that, she'd jsut cut off my allowance.