Bottling from the Primary...

[danielofthedale]

I brewed my first beer two weeks back and I am going to bottle this weekend. After talking to several homebrewers I left it in the primary and not moved it to a secondary, so I want to know can I attach my bottling hose and filler to the spigot on my primary ferment and drain it that way or will the yeast cake be to think and come out through the spigot making it to where I have to siphon from the top of the primary or move the beer to a carboy, then clean my primary and move it back in there to then bottle?

 

[Ryush806]

Depends on how thick your yeast cake is...I know you asked that question but we can't tell you an answer without pics. My advice is to use that carboy as a primary if it's 6.5 gal or buy a bucket without a spigot to use as the fermentor for future brews.

Really for this brew I'd buy another bottling bucket if you can. There's a lot of risk of sanitation and oxidation issues in transfering your beer back and forth like that. If you bought a new bottling bucket you could just transfer it to the bucket and then bottle. If you can't get another bottling bucket just make sure everything is super clean and sanitized (Star-San or Iodophor) and be very careful not to splash your beer around during the transfers.

 

[opusx11]

Can you attach the bottling tip to your siphon, and bottle from the carboy instead of the primary?

 

[unionrdr]

Well,for instance,The cooper's FV's are designed for the bottling wand to fit the spigot on the FV directly. But you also have to use carbonation drops in the bottles to prime them. I got tired of the carb drops over-carbing at 7 weeks in the bottles. So I built a 7.9G bottling bucket with the narrow Italian spigot that perfectly fits the 3/8" tubing for the Fermentis bottling wand.

 

[NorthRiverS]

I do that all the time. The spigot is high enough above the yeastcake level that minimal yeast will be sucked up into the siphon. There is still plenty of yeast in suspension that will produce the carbonation anyway. It will all settle out on the bottom of the bottle eventually. Pour gently and enjoy a very clear glass of beer.

NRS