Bottling straight from glass carboy?

[Austinhomebrew]

I don't need to convince anyone because I am not trying to sell anyone anything. I am simply stating my opinion. There are other schools of thought. I am not old school to be old school. This is what works for me.

If you ask 10 brewers you will get 15 answers.

Forrest

 

[northernlad]

Until you have done a dozen or so batches figuring out the best system for you, Read books, talk to your LHBS, comb this forum and a couple others for whatever question you have. If you run into an anomaly, such as your LHBS giving you a line of BS like they did, then you know you can discard it.

However, don't bottle from your carboy. Spend $10 on a bottling bucket like the one in Revvy's thread and save yourself a TON of aggravation.

My opinion about the clarity is thus: There is NO difference save for the time it is left undisturbed. If you primary for 6 weeks, it will not be the same as primary for 3 weeks, secondary for 3 weeks because in the middle of the settling you have disturbed it increasing the time it takes to become as clear as leaving it undisturbed for 6 weeks.
Me, I don't care about clarity especially since I know, in my system, enough time in the bottle and refrigerator yields me commercial clear beer for most batches.

 

[Austinhomebrew]

At least use a bottling bucket if you don't use a secondary. And like Revvy said go to Home Depot to buy it. At least that will remove some of the sediment.
Just don't bottle from the primary. It is a pain in the tuckus.

Forrest

 

[Vuarra]

Can we just agree that bottling is a pain in the tuckus?

My point was that I use bottling (as I keep it in a safe place for a month) as a type of secondary, where it re-carbonates, and the extra three weeks or so allows the sediment to settle and compress. That is my experience. I find that both Revvy and Forrest have their points of view, and I agree with parts of theirs.

The OP has asked, is there a difference... the answer is yes, but which is better is up to his taste, what he is doing with the beer, and how long he is leaving it. This is his personal choice, now that he has the pros and cons of it.

 

[Austinhomebrew]

So Revvy, I am about to open a brewery. So I can skip the bright tanks and filtering and bottle straight from the primary 30 barrels? This will save me a lot of time and money. Palmer and BYO say its ok?

Forrest

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

I am a rookie, but I secondary everything so far. I don't necessarily do it for clarity I do it because I think I get more beer to the bottling bucket PLUS I primary in 6.5 gallon carboys and they will not fit in my cooler to cold crash so I primary for 3 weeks +- depending on the beer then rack to a 5 gallon and stick em in the cooler for a couple days before bottling.

 

[beerman1957]

So Revvy, I am about to open a brewery. So I can skip the bright tanks and filtering and bottle straight from the primary 30 barrels? This will save me a lot of time and money. Palmer and BYO say its ok?

Forrest

I suggest that we all agree that everyone has opinion and should respect that opinion. Just saying. Nothing personal.

 

[Yooper]

I suggest that we all agree that everyone has opinion and should respect that opinion. Just saying. Nothing personal.

I agree. Everyone has a right to express their opinions. Many of us don't use a secondary- many others do. I think it's rude to suggest that "It's my way or the highway", the way the OP's homebrew shop seemed to.

This is NOT the place to revisit the primary/secondary debate. Please go to the proper thread for that.

The topic here is "Bottling straight from glass carboy?". Keep to the topic please! Thank you.

 

[bovineblitz]

So Revvy, I am about to open a brewery. So I can skip the bright tanks and filtering and bottle straight from the primary 30 barrels? This will save me a lot of time and money. Palmer and BYO say its ok?

Forrest

Are you trying to pick a fight here?

Obviously conditioning in a 6 gallon fermenter is different from a giant tank at a brewery, plus filtering isn't even a part of this debate.

Anyways. Bottling from primary is a ridiculous suggestion, I'm suprised ANYBODY would suggest that.

 

[Austinhomebrew]

I agree.

 

[Austinhomebrew]

Are you trying to pick a fight here?

Obviously conditioning in a 6 gallon fermenter is different from a giant tank at a brewery, plus filtering isn't even a part of this debate.

I was joking. I forgot the J/K.

Forrest

 

[beerman1957]

I think the topic kinda went from Primary vs. Secondary.. somehow. I never owned a carboy and either had a bucket or my HDPE Conical which has served me VERY well for many years now.

I do like the fact that I can go from Fermenter to Keg without any issues. I also had NO problems going from the plastic bucket to the keg.

I don't see why it would be "harmful" to bottle from a carboy other than disturbing the trub. I guess it would be just too much of a hassle. Maybe someone could tell me why it would actually "Ruin" the beer to bottle straight from the carboy. Just wondering what the issue is here? I mean carboys are popular and sold at every LBS I have ever been to.

Some of my best friends have carboys. Satire.

 

[Austinhomebrew]

secondary or not, a bottling bucket is very helpful if you are bottling.

 

[Yooper]

Are you trying to pick a fight here?

Obviously conditioning in a 6 gallon fermenter is different from a giant tank at a brewery, plus filtering isn't even a part of this debate.

Anyways. Bottling from primary is a ridiculous suggestion, I'm suprised ANYBODY would suggest that.

Remember how I gently suggested "Knock it off"? I meant everybody. I wasn't kidding.

But, like you said, bottling from primary is something we all think is not a great suggestion. Let's move on.

 

[Reelale]

So, what should we talk about now?

 

[bob1852]

When I'm making still wines, meads, or ciders (meaning, I'm not adding priming sugar) - I will bottle directly from the carboy using the autosiphon with the bottle wand on the end of the hose.

Granted, these have all been racked multiple times, so there is nothing to disturb....

 

[TXCrash]

I gotta ask, OP, does the LHBS condone the use of carb tabs, or are they a corn sugar in the bottling container type of shop. Just wondering how they recommend bottling from primary and having consistent carbonation...

 

[Brewer_Bob]

I gotta ask, OP, does the LHBS condone the use of carb tabs, or are they a corn sugar in the bottling container type of shop. Just wondering how they recommend bottling from primary and having consistent carbonation...

Good question. They would almost have to be for carb tabs, wouldn't they? Mixing the corn sugar into the fermenter would just stir up the sediment. Not to mention, how do you stir it well in a carboy with that narrow neck?

 

[HatchetJack]

I started with MB which is bottled straight from the primary. I have since
moved on to 5 gallon all grain and ferment in 6.5 gallon plastic buckets which
I installed the spiggots slightly higher than normal. I prime the bottles with
funnel and meas. spoon " 5 minutes max" . Once I purge the valve, the beer
is clear and I bottle straight from it with no problems. Usually I ferment
3 & 1/2 - 4 weeks so the beer is very clear and what little yeast ends up
in the bottles is very tight on the bottom of the bottles. Maybe one day I
will secondary, then again maybe not. It works just fine and the beer taste
great.

 

[cklages]

Although I do not bottle from primary, I do bottle from a glass carboy. When racking from secondary (if I used one) or primary, I dump the dissolved priming sugar into the carboy and rack on top of it. I then use an autosiphon and bottling wand to fill bottles. I started doing this to reduce my beer's contact with plastic wherever possible, but it works so well that I don't really consider it to be any extra work compared to using a bucket. As always, YMMV.

 

[remilard]

Although I do not bottle from primary, I do bottle from a glass carboy. When racking from secondary (if I used one) or primary, I dump the dissolved priming sugar into the carboy and rack on top of it. I then use an autosiphon and bottling wand to fill bottles. I started doing this to reduce my beer's contact with plastic wherever possible, but it works so well that I don't really consider it to be any extra work compared to using a bucket. As always, YMMV.

I used to do this too, but with a better bottle. I used carboy caps and racking canes to transfer, then just added the bottling wand and restart the siphon and voila, I preferred this to a bucket for a number of reasons.

I've sense come to think that bottling from a keg (like uncarbonated beer and priming sugar from a keg) is the best route for a number of reasons, which obviously doesn't help people without kegs and c02.

 

[GreenLion]

Wow, didn't expect this thread to blow up quite so much. To clarify, the LHBS recommends making your priming sugar mix, then pouring it through a funnel into beer that had been racked into a secondary glass carboy days prior. After waiting 30 minutes to an hour you bottle.

Anyways, after reading the responses, I used my (sanitized) plastic primary as a bottling bucket and used Revvy's setup. So much easier than with the autosiphon! Definitely going to do it that way from now on.