Bottling from a carboy / siphon?

[DizzyPants]

I made a logistical error as I was setting up for bottling today. I have a friend coming in the first week of Oct and I brewed up a Hoegaarden clone (his fav) to show him how good homebrew can be.

My question is b/c my bottling bucket is in primary with a nice lemon wheat right now I have two carboys, the one with the Hoegaarden and an emtpy. I could transfer the beer on to the priming sugar in the empty carboy, but can I bottle using a siphon?

Not ideal but is it going to be a gigantic headache?

I appreciate your help.

-Diz

 

[Vuarra]

I always use a siphon. None of my beers have gone bad yet.

 

[pizzaman]

it's not too much of a headache one you get the timing down, hopefully you have either a spout on the end of the tube or some type of tube clamp to stop the flow when moving from one bottle to the next. i've always bottled this way, even after I sprung for a bottling bucket i prefer my trusty old syphon wand.

 

[Revvy]

The problem with bottling from the secondary is that since you have patiently gone and let your beer settle and clear, in order to mix the priming solution and beer, you would have to stir it in the carboy..which would a) kick up all that nice sediment you have patiently let fall, b) possibly oxydize the beer.

Go to a hardware store and get a translucent or white bucket,,,but look for one where the 5 gallon mark falls way below the top of the bucket. Usually it will say 5 gallons at 3rd band from the top. (oh get the lid too....I totally regret not getting it when I did.)

Then get a spigot and make a dedicated bottling bucket. It really defeats the purpose of both a long primary/no secondary or a secondary if you have to stir up all the nice sediment you patiently waited to settle just so you can have consistent carbonation.

Mine is the translucent Leaktite brand 5 gallon container with the gallon and liter markings from Homedepot.

Here's a pic of mine from my bottling thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

And then ONLY use your bottling bucket AS A BOTTLING BUCKET, and you won't have to have this issue again.

If you can't find a spigot today, then rack to the bucket and fill the bottles with the autosiphon, if that's what you wanna do, but you really should move it to a vessel where you can evenly integrate the priming solution and the beer.

 

[VTBrewer]

You could rack your lemon wheat to secondary and have your bottling bucket free. I seldom use a secondary, but depending on how long its been in primary you could be safe to move it.

 

[DizzyPants]

Thanks everyone for the help.

I will transfer the hoegaarden from the secondary in to the empty carboy, add the priming sugar and rack away using the siphon. Should be fun. I just got the bottles out of the dishwasher after a heavy (no detergent) wash and will get to it, after trying a new BBQ joint near my house.

Thanks again....

 

[Revvy]

Thanks everyone for the help.

I will transfer the hoegaarden from the secondary in to the empty carboy, add the priming sugar and rack away using the siphon. Should be fun. I just got the bottles out of the dishwasher after a heavy (no detergent) wash and will get to it, after trying a new BBQ joint near my house.

Thanks again....

I hope your hoegaarden clone turns out as tasty as mine did...I just sampled the first one today, and it is awesome.

 

[DizzyPants]

Things went great and of course the complusory "extra" uncarbed beer tasted great.

Can't wait, and now Revvy you make the wait even that much harder.

BTW thanks for all the advice you give everyone here, it is more than appreciated.

Diz.