bottling from primary

[orj]

Hi all,

I'm new to brewing and to this site (though I've been lurking for a couple weeks) and I have a question. I recently started my first batch of pale ale, It's been in primary for two weeks and I'm planning on bottling soon.

I don't have a secondary or a bottling bucket and money is a little tight at the moment so buying any more gear isn't really an option right now. Are there any problems with bottling straight from the primary? It's a 6.5 gal bucket with a spigot and I do have a bottling wand. I was planning on gently stirring the corn sugar solution directly into the fermenter and bottling from the spigot.

Are there any problems that might arise from this?

Thanks.

 

[android]

it's certainly not the optimal situation, but if you must do it this way, use the spigot to get as much trub and hop debris out as possible first, then add your sugar and swirl. alternatively, you could just buy a home depot bucket, rack the beer in there, empty out the trub/yeast from your primary bucket, sanitize, add priming solution and rack the beer back from the home depot bucket. i know it's a lot of transferring, but it will be difficult to get a clean beer from the primary fermentation.

 

[dRaPP]

never done this before so I'd get someone else to double check this, but you could probably very gently stir in the sugar solution and wait a few hours before bottling. The hope is that it'll give enough time for at least some of the particulate to settle out and still not lose too much precious CO2.

Probably better to go with androids suggestion, those home depot buckets are pretty cheap.

 

[Stuntman]

I would go with the Home Depot bucket idea. The cost would be 5 bucks or so. Food Grade bucket is a must ( I don't know if they are food grade, but a whole lot better than trub mixed in the final product).

 

[MetallHed]

how about wait until you can get a bottling bucket? the extra time in the primary will only benifit your brew. Even if you have to wait a few weeks.. it will make the beer a heckuva lot better.

 

[Revvy]

The problem with bottling from a primary or secondary instead of using a bottling bucket, is that since you have patiently gone and let your beer settle and clear, in order to mix the priming solution and beer effectively, 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.

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.

Of course if you are using prime tabs it really doesn't matter. But most folks bulk prime with sugar solution, rather than bottle prime, it's easier and the results are better.. Especially if you carb by style. BUT if you are doing it from a spigoted bucket, that you've let stuff settle in, all that trub is going to be coming out into your bottles again defeating the purpose of any clearing time for you beer.


Got 5 bucks? Go to HD or Lowes and get a 5 gallon bucket, but make sure the five gallon mark is NOT the top of the bucket. And get a lid. Then go over to the area where they have camping spigot or replacements spigots for coolers, and spend the other 2.5 dollars on a spigot.

And you have a bottling bucket.

Mine is the translucent Leaktite brand 5 gallon container with the gallon and liter markings from Homedepot. Make sure to get the lid though.

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

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

You can also make a dip tube like I show in there.

Oh another tip, which I learned AFTER I already cut the hole for the spigot, put the spigot on the side where the graduated measuring lines are, NOT where I did mine.

Makes it easier to see how many gallons you have.

Nowadays even the orange Lowes buckets are about $2.50 these days, and a bottling bucket spigot at a homebrewshop or is about the same so 5 bucks for a bottling bucket is about right.

 

[orj]

I suppose I can swing 5 bucks.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[orj]

Update:

I put together a cheap bottling bucket as recommended. I bottled last week and I just cracked one just to check on it if you know what I mean. Give me a break it's my first batch!

Like every first time brewer, my mind has been swimming with every possible thing that might have gone wrong over the last several weeks. Did I sanitize everything properly? Was the temperature OK? Did it get exposed to oxygen? Did it ferment properly? Did it get infected? Will the bottles explode? etc. etc.

Well, the beer is freakin' awesome! A little under-carbonated (obviously) but oh so tasty! I think I found my hobby! I just made beer!

I'm gonna give it another week to carb up a little more. Then I can finally RDWHAHB while I fret about the next batch!

I've been crawling all over these forums lately, gathering information. Thanks to all of you!

 

[kirscp]

I know there's a guy on youtube that adds the priming sugar to each individual bottle. I don't recall his reasoning for it or why he was doing it. I think it was just to have each bottle being a little different.

 

[keon]

You found out the key to this hobby. You get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Welcome to the club and enjoy!