Bottling question

[Jbatten22]

Brewed my first beer yesterday. The bucket with the spigot was the one I was going to use as my primary because I didn't think a secondary was necessary for the style brew I was doing (american pale ale using un-hopped extract), but when sanitizing I realized it had a small leak. so I had to use the bucket that came in the kit that does not have a spigot.

So my question is, in 3 weeks when I go to bottle should I rack into a bucket with a spigot or can I bottle using a syphon out of my primary? sorry if this question is dumb, being a noob I am just trying to cover all my bases.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[ktblunden]

It seems to me that it would be possible to use a siphon out of the primary, but probably a pain. Plus, it's a lot easier to rack on top of the sugar solution for priming than to try to mix the priming sugar into the primary without oxygenating the beer. I just bottled my first batch and I used a bottling bucket with a spigot and a bottling wand. Made the process really simple.

 

[DJG42]

you CAN bottle out of the primary using a siphon, but the hard part will be not stirring up the yeast bed when you're siphoning.
you might have an easier time if you rack to the bottling bucket and priming sugar and then bottle. you'll leave all the yeast in the primary and there will be enough yeast sill in suspension to carb up your beer.

 

[J187]

I'd prefer not to rack off the trub into bottles personally. The method you mention, is way it's meant to be done with the equip you have - you should be using the unspigoted bucket as primary, then racking to the spigot bucket (bottling bucket) to bottle. BUT, if you have a leak in your bottling bucket, you'll want to solve that first. Is it leaking at the spigot? Tighten it perhaps? If it's cracked, get a new bottling bucket - you'll want to have a spigoted bottling bucket for the future brews anyway.

 

[ktblunden]

When I installed the spigot on my bottling bucket I made sure to tighten it real hard, but only with my fingers, I didn't use a wrench or anything. Because the threads and everything is plastic you don't want to over-tighten. Did you make sure there were two washers when you installed the spigot (if it didn't come pre-assembled)? There should be one on the outside of the bucket and another one on the inside.

 

[homebrewdad]

When I installed the spigot on my bottling bucket I made sure to tighten it real hard, but only with my fingers, I didn't use a wrench or anything. Because the threads and everything is plastic you don't want to over-tighten. Did you make sure there were two washers when you installed the spigot (if it didn't come pre-assembled)? There should be one on the outside of the bucket and another one on the inside.

This. When I asembled my bottling bucket, I didn't realize that there were two washers - they were stuck together, and I ended up with both inside the bucket (and a slow leak as a result). Disassembled, split the washers, reassembled, and it works like a charm.

 

[unionrdr]

It sounds like the spigot is too tight. To tight or too loose,& they leak. You want to snug it down,but not really tight. You'll squeeze the seals out of place & it'll leak. Loosen it up,Then snug it down just to the point where they compress a little,but not squeeze out of place. It'll seal fine then.

 

[Jbatten22]

So pretty much the way I have started is the way I should go? Primary with bucket without spigot, rack to secondary with spigot when ready to bottle.

It does seem like bottling would be a ton easier if I rack to the bucket (using a syphon) with the spigot. I will try and tighten the spigot by hand to see if I can stop the leak (it was very minor, but enough to give me pause).

 

[Jbatten22]

I will also check the placement of the washers.

Thanks for the tips. Every one on here is so helpful, its amazing.

It makes us new people not feel intimidated and actually makes us or at least me feel welcome, and that no question is a stupid questions.

Cheers everyone.

 

[unionrdr]

Like I said,don't gorrila the thing down really tight. That's why it's leaking. Too tight squeezes the seals out of place. Back it off & just snug it down good. With some practice,you'll se the correct shape the seals have to be in to do their job.

 

[Jbatten22]

Not too tight. Got it.

Do you guys and gals think it would be in my best interest to rack into spigot bucket in a couple weeks and then let it settle in that one for a week before bottling?

Or just rack onto the corn sugar mixture and bottle the same day?