Auto-siphon vs spigot for bottling

[thisisjohnbrown]

I am fermenting in a bucket with a spigot, and not racking to secondary. I have bottled a couple batches using the auto siphon in the top, but that's a bit of a pain. Moving the beer to another bucket just for bottling so I could use a spigot would have the same sort of possible issues as racking to secondary, though.

I am afraid to use the spigot because I don't want to suck up trub or create "glugs" that would possibly oxidize the beer in the fermenter. Should I be? Can I use the spigot in the primary fermenter for bottling?

 

[dfc]

Get a different bucket for primary and use the bucket with the spigot for bottling. As long as you carefully siphon from your primary to your bottling bucket you'll be fine.

 

[unionrdr]

It also depends on how flocculant your yeast is. Highly flocculant yeast makes the yeast cake tighter on the bottom. So the spigot won't pic up much if any trub from the bottom. They don't flow that fast so as to pick up tons of trub. Both my fermenters & bottling buckets have spigots that I use all the time.
Toward the end of racking,I gently tip the fermenter to get all but the last little puddle of beer out to the bottling bucket. It's clear or slightly misty at that point. When I'm done bottling,all but maybe 2TBSP are left in the bottom of the bottling bucket with a tiny bit of gritty hop particles & such.
The bottles settle out clear in a couple of days with just a light dusting of yeast dregs on the bottom of the bottles.
So go ahead & use the spigot,just be careful. I do it all the time & get good results.

 

[Homercidal]

Get a different bucket for primary and use the bucket with the spigot for bottling. As long as you carefully siphon from your primary to your bottling bucket you'll be fine.

I second this. It's much easier to bottle when you have a dedicated bottling bucket that you can rack into, and has a spigot for filling bottles. Just add a bottle wand and it's easy peasy.